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CounterPunch
January
28, 2003
Work That Kills
Canadian
Government Aids Corporate Cover Up
by GLORIA BERGEN
Canadian ship yard workers Sean Ironside, Dave
Rowley, Kenneth Priddle, and Krzysztof Rosicki will not be joining
the millions of workers in the February 15 War Resistence demonstrations.
Neither will loading dockworker William Colbert, or roughneck
Aaron Toms, nor truck operator Mike Enman. But, do not blame
them for not attending this global outpouring of humanity seeking
justice and peace--the fault is not theirs--they are dead. Killed
on the job--victims of a capitalist system that puts profit before
human life.
With the numbers of Canadians that die
in occupational accidents and occupational related illnesses
can be estimated at more than 11,000 per year, and with the International
Labour Organization's estimation in 1999 that annual global occupational
related deaths are 1.1 million, it would not take a huge leap
of faith to call these deaths for what they are: class-genocide.
Globally, work-related deaths outnumber
deaths from traffic accidents, war, violence, or HIV / AIDS.
And these numbers do not even begin to touch upon the issue of
the deaths of working class children and fetuses exposed to carcinogens,
teratogens, mutagens, explosives, corrosives, toxins and environmental
poisons.
If it weren't enough for the Ontario
ruling class to stop releasing reports on occupational injuries
and illnesses during our last Labour Government, the Conservatives
have now come up with a new way to impede investigations into
environmental health and safety accidents and deaths in the workplace.
A legal precedant was set in June 2001
that can severely restrict regulatory inspectors' statutory powers
to investigate contraventions of environmental and health and
safety legislation.
Up until this date, the regulatory powers
of inspectors has included the right to go to a workplace after
an accident, access the property, interview witnesses, take measurements,
and seize items and documents that could be used as evidence.
Then, there was an environmental accident
at Inco Limited, one of the world's largest mining and metals
companies and the world's second largest producer of nickel.
It appears that a quantity of wastes was discharged from the
company and the enforcement officers went in.
Against the objections of corporate lawyers,
inspectors conducted interviews, asked for documents relating
to the discharges, and requested copies of Inco's own sampling
analysis and shut-down operating procedures. With this data in
hand, Inco was subsequently charged with offenses under the Ontario
Water Resources Act (OWRA).
Yet what was really on trial was not
INCO's breach of the OWRA and potential harm to the environment,
but the powers of inspectors as outlined in the legislation that
is almost identical in scope and wording to the powers of inspection
found in Canadian provincial and federal oh&s legislation.
The case was appealed to the Ontario
Court of Appeal, which determined that inspectors cannot use
their statutory investigation powers to investigate the commission
of an offence. The court determined that If an officer has a
reasonable belief that there has been a contravention of a regulatory
statute, and aims to gather information that can be used in a
prosecution, then a search warrant must be obtained. To do otherwise
is to violate a corporation's right to be free from unreasonable
search and seizure, under s.8 of the Charter of Rights and Freedom.
But what of the rights of Sean Ironside,
Dave Rowley, Kenneth Priddle, and Krzysztof Rosicki? What of
the rights of the families of William Colbert, Aaron Toms, or
Mike Enman? Who will assure them that their deaths will be investigated
fully and without prejudice? What department of the state will
assure families of workers killed on the job that any evidence
that may be held by the companies on whose property they died
will not be destroyed, or tampered with prior to the receipt
of a search warrant and consequent investigation?
All workers across Canada must show solidarity
on February 15 to demonstrate for peace--for justice--and for
the end of working class genocide and cover-ups by corporations
and their friends in power.
Gloria Bergen
is an environmental health and safety writer and presenter living
in Toronto, Ontario. She can be reached at bergengloria@hotmail.com
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