Features
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Off the Rails
It was Canada’s worst rail disaster in more than a century. In the early morning hours of July 6, 2013, a 72-car freight train derailed and exploded in Lac-Mégantic, a small town in southern Quebec with a population of about 6,000….
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Inclusive Design
Employers in Ontario may need to start thinking more about making their workplaces accessible to employees with disabilities. As of January 1, 2014, organizations regulated by the province must comply with new rules under the Accessibility for…
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Going Underground
When Paul Villeneuve was 20, he was buried up to his waist in soil after heavy machinery nearby caused the trench in which he was working to collapse. Fortunately, he got out alive after his brothers, who were working on the job, dug him out…
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Fighting Microbes
The controversy over mandatory flu shots for healthcare workers has reared its head in British Columbia after an arbitrator upheld a policy that requires healthcare workers in the province either to get vaccinated or to mask up at all times…
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Stunning Divide
While Tasers have been at the heart of a heated debate for causing more than 20 deaths in Canada, studies have found that this type of conducted energy weapon (CEW) is safe to use and poses little threat to the officers wielding them. What…
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Benchmarking Safety
New Brunswick is taking a new approach to evaluating workplace safety across the province with WorkSafeNB’s adoption of the Organizational Performance Metric (OPM) questionnaire.
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In the air
It was a finale that was certainly not part of the choreography. Acrobat and aerialist Sarah Guillot-Guyard sustained fatal injuries after falling approximately 27 metres during the closing scene of Cirque du Soleil’s KÀ at the MGM…
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Foot in the door
Changes to Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) announced in June will give immigrations officials the authority to enter and inspect workplaces without first obtaining a warrant, unless the workplace is a private residence.
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Picking up the pieces
In the immediate aftermath of an explosion at a fertilizer plant involving ammonium nitrate in West, Texas, there was no shortage of blame over what could have been done to prevent a catastrophe that left a trail of destruction in the town of…
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For whom the decibel tolls
Employees in the professional sports industry face a myriad of dangers: from being caught in the crossfire as pucks and balls go whizzing by, to dodging hulking athletes and being on the receiving end of unruly players and frustrated fans. But…
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The Search is Over
Do the clothes on our backs leave blood on our hands? Hope has faded as the search for survivors came to an end some three weeks after a garment factory building in Savar, Bangladesh, collapsed on April 24, claiming more than 1,100 workers.
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Change from Inside Out
When it comes to health and safety at work, no one would have a better understanding of how to enhance a job site than the employees who work there. This cannot be more true for a textile plant in Ontario, which saved more than a…
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Taking Refuge
In September of 2012, wooden cable frames at a potash mine in Rocanville, Saskatchewan, caught fire, trapping 20 workers underground. From inside the mine, the workers were able to communicate with the outside world and stay safe, despite being…
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Redefining the Workplace
More than three years after a washroom privacy wall collapsed and killed a teenager, the Ontario Court of Justice has found the City of Guelph not guilty of a workplace safety infraction.
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Up in Arms
On December 14, 2012, the massacre of 20 students and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut made headlines around the world.
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A Healing Space
Good spatial design can boost the efficiency and well-being of nurses by reducing the challenges posed by physical configurations that can lead to fatigue and errors, says a study published in January by Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
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Deadly Mimicry
The women working in the heart of the automotive district in southern Ontario are unlike any other autoworkers in the world.
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Going Underground
With any change, there is always someone who believes that the old ways are still the best.
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Silence on the Floor
The recent meat recall at XL Foods Inc. in Brooks, Alberta is not wanting in superlatives.
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Above and Beyond
The massive $1.46 million in compensation awarded last October to a former WalMart employee in Windsor, Ontario has cast a spotlight on bullying and harassment in the workplace.
