Opinions
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Safety without Borders
I was researching industrial safety news when a recent workplace fatality in Singapore caught my eye. A viaduct that was under construction near an expressway collapsed on July 14, leaving one dead and 10 injured. This incident calls to mind…
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Freedom 65?
If you are thinking of spending your twilight years tending the garden upon reaching the age of 65, think again. The retirement age in Canada is a moving goalpost, as increasing longevity means that more people are staying in the…
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Minding Mindfulness
It was one of those frantic mornings when I was trying to do a dozen things, prepping the kids for school and getting myself ready for work. As I was coring an apple for my kids’ lunchboxes, I accidentally sliced…
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The Dark Side
War kills, and fatalities continue after soldiers leave the battlefields and return to what should have been the comfort and sanctuary of their homes. Peace was shattered in rural Nova Scotia on January 3 when war veteran Lionel Desmond shot…
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It Begins with Words
On November 18, I received a message from the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) denouncing the recent spate of racist incidents taking place in the city. In the message, the TDSB reported that it had given direction to all school…
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Power and Prejudice
“Why couldn’t you just keep your knees together?” This remark by Canadian judge Robin Camp to a sexual-assault victim during a trial he presided over in Calgary in 2014 has not only spurred an inquiry by the Canadian Judicial Council.…
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Beyond the Comfort Zone
I recently attended a conference in Atlanta, and one of the sessions talked about how cyber risks have become an issue that concerns not only the IT department, but also safety professionals. The speakers pointed out that cyber attacks no…
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What’s Your Reason?
A recent article published in Toronto Star has raised alarm over the suspension of the physical-education program at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. The article cited this development as part of a larger trend of universities moving away from such…
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The New “Mess” Media
Two recent court decisions involving online harassment reveal a cybersphere that remains largely unpoliced and one that the judicial system is ill-equipped to adjudicate. In February, the British Columbia Crown decided not to charge a man who had created a…
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Policing the Police
It is never easy being the good guy, but the recent verdict that found Toronto Police officer James Forcillo guilty of attempted murder over the 2013 shooting of Sammy Yatim on a streetcar shows just how fuzzy the line between…
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New Face of Violence
The Paris massacre has received global attention and unleashed a worldwide outpouring of grief. The high death toll from six coordinated attacks directed at soft targets like restaurants, a stadium and a concert hall have stoked fears of similar attacks…
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Pushing the Limits
Since the advent of the Internet, online technology has tested workplace safety in various ways. The ease and efficiency of communication brought about by the invention of electronic mail in the early 1970s transformed workplace communication and information dissemination. But…
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The Next Frontier
I was at a walk-in clinic near Toronto when I vaguely overheard a patient asking about a doctor. The receptionist replied that the doctor in question had become a woman. The conversation did not develop far enough for me to…
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Spring Fling with Danger
It felt like a near-miss incident when I read about the closure of several popular trails in Banff in mid-May due to a hiker’s close encounter with a bear. I had recently returned from Canmore and Banff, where I was…
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Trouble Overhead
The tragic incident in which a flight crashed in the French Alps with 150 people on board on March 23 highlights critical safety oversights in the airline industry. It is believed that the co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525, Andreas Lubitz,…
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Watch Your Step
Ontario is getting serious about falls. Come April 1, the new Working at Heights Training Program will become mandatory for those who work at heights in construction projects that fall under the province’s Regulations for Construction Projects. The standard will…
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See No Evil
The Jian Ghomeshi scandal is an old tale told with new characters. The disgraced public broadcaster, who was fired by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) amid allegations of aggressive sexual behaviour from 11 women, has lawyered up. It was not…
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A Fractured View
A report out of the United States, which found a connection between fracking fluids and worker fatalities, should serve as a wake-up call for Canada’s burgeoning oil and gas sector. On May 19, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and…
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Caught in the Middle
The Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) has been making news of late, but not in a way that puts the program or the authorities running it in a flattering light. The imposition of an immediate moratorium on the food-services sector’s…
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The “Lucky” Ones
Seventeen days — that was how long it took the families of the passengers on board flight MH370 to find out that the plane, which vanished from radar on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, had crashed…