EDMONTON, Alta. — An Edmonton Police Service (EPS) officer was charged on Feb. 12 in relation to a collision that took place last October. Const. Ashlee Shepansky, a six-year member of the EPS, was charged with dangerous driving and is currently assigned to administrative duties, the police force said in a press release. On Oct. 8, Const. Shepansky was on duty and responding to a high priority call when the collision occurred. Charges were laid after an in-depth investigation by the EPS’ Professional Standards Branch.
Category Archives: Health & Safety
Sun-Brite Foods fined $70,000
RUTHVEN, Ont. — Sun-Brite Foods Inc. was fined $70,000 on Feb. 9, after a seasonal farm worker was critically injured in an industrial accident. On Sept. 5, 2013, the Mexican seasonal worker was cleaning the “peeler room” of the company’s food processing facility near Ruthven, the Ministry of Labour (MOL) said in a media statement. The room contained tomato peeling machines, each with a waste chute connected to a trough, with a power screw auger pushing waste material through the trough. On the day of the accident, the worker was cleaning the area around one of the machines, but one foot slipped into the trough and became caught in the auger. The worker required partial amputation on the foot, the MOL said. A ministry investigation found that the peeler machine in question had been installed just two weeks prior to the accident. While steel mesh guards were affixed over the waste troughs of the three other machines, no guard had yet been installed on the newest machine, leaving the auger fully exposed.
Injury spurs $50,000 penalty
MISSISSAUGA, Ont. — Anixter Canada Inc., a wire, cable, communications and security product company, was fined $50,000 on Feb. 10 after a worker was injured in 2013. On July 24 of that year, an employee of Anixter was using an order picker forklift to move empty pallets at the company’s warehouse, the Ministry of Labour (MOL) said in a release. The employee was operating the forklift in reverse down an aisle, with the pallets stacked loosely on the forks, when a pallet contacted a nearby rack. The rack was pushed into the operator’s compartment, pinning him and injuring his leg. Anixter pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that materials were carried or moved in a way that did not endanger the safety of a worker.
Halifax company charged after workplace fatality
HALIFAX, N.S. — Occupational health and safety officers with Nova Scotia’s Department of Labour and Advanced Education charged a Halifax company on Feb. 18, in connection with the death of a 21-year-old worker. On Nov. 7, 2013, Alan Fraser was cleaning up on the sixth floor of a Clayton Park building under construction, when he fell from the edge, the department said in a press release. Parkland Construction was charged in relation to the lack of: fall protection for an employee who was working at an elevation of three metres or more; a safe work plan; fall protection training; and a chute or other safe method used to lower rubbish or debris. The press release said that a company supervisor had also been charged with failing to take every precaution to protect an employee’s health and the lack of fall protection at a height of three metres or more.
Bill to help protect transit operators comes into force
Unions across Canada are applauding the adoption of a bill that may lead to harsher sentences for assaults on public transit operators.
Bill S-221, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (assaults against public transit operators), passed third reading and was awaiting royal assent as of Feb. 16. The bill amended Section 269 of the Criminal Code to require judges to consider a transit driver’s occupation as an “aggravating circumstance” in sentencing. It applies to drivers of buses, paratransit vehicles, taxis, subways, streetcars and ferries.
The bill was introduced by Conservative Senator Bob Runciman, who was spurred to take action regarding violence against transit operators following an incident in 2013. A man assaulted an OC Transpo bus driver in Ottawa, then dragged him out onto the street and continued beating him (COHSN, Sept. 29, 2014). Although the driver did not return to work for months because of his injuries, the perpetrator escaped jail time and received a suspended sentence, despite having 17 previous assault convictions.
Unifor applauded the adoption of the bill, noting in a statement that the union had been working with all parties in the Senate and House of Commons to gain amendments to the Criminal Code to include options for stiffer penalties to those convicted of assaulting drivers. “Everybody should be safe at work,” said Jerry Dais, national president of Unifor, in the statement. “Bus and taxi drivers provide a very valuable public service, and they shouldn’t have to face violence in their workplace.”
Nathan Woods, a transit operator in Vancouver and president of Local 111 of Unifor, said that workplace safety is a non-partisan issue and that he was thrilled that every party could get behind Bill S-221. “Many operators have suffered horrible assaults,” he said. “We can do more to improve their safety, but this is an important step.” Woods testified to a Senate committee in 2014 that approximately 2,000 bus driver assaults are reported each year in Canada.
Unifor said in the statement that changes to the Criminal Code alone would not eliminate workplace assaults. Local 111 is working with the employer in Metro Vancouver to implement a trial period with a safety shield between drivers and passengers, combined with a violent incident prevention program to identify potentially volatile situations and strategies to defuse them.
Bob Kinnear, president of Local 113 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents over 10,000 transit workers in Toronto and York Region, was also pleased that Parliament had passed the bill unanimously. Kinnear, who said that there are hundreds of assaults every year against Toronto Transit Commission workers, noted that it took the union more than 10 years of efforts to get the bill passed.
Operators have been spat on, threatened and have had coffee and other liquids thrown at them. “Our members have been punched, slapped, kicked, strangled, stabbed and shot at, usually over a fare dispute,” Kinnear said. “We have had cases where bus drivers have been dragged out of their seats and viciously beaten, just for doing their jobs. Several of our members have been hurt so badly that they cannot return to work and are forced to live the rest of their lives on inadequate workers’ compensation payments. If there’s such a thing as injustice, this is it.”
Kinnear added that while the union welcomed the legislation, he did not understand why employees who do not operate vehicles, such as station collectors, were not covered. “Collectors have been threatened with guns and even shot and wounded,” he said. “We put ourselves out there to perform a public service, and we deserve to be better protected on the job.”
B.C. introduces oh&s regulatory amendments
The government of British Columbia has amended the Workers Compensation Act to strengthen WorkSafeBC’s ability to promote and enforce occupational health and safety compliance in provincial workplaces.
Introduced on Feb. 11, the amendments change policy in four areas: providing a range of new safety enforcement tools; shortening the process for finalizing financial penalties, to improve their effectiveness as an enforcement tool; ensuring timely employer investigations of workplace incidents and reports; and enhancing workplace safety expertise on the WorkSafeBC board of directors, by adding two new members who have backgrounds in oh&s, law or law enforcement.
“These changes complement other operational improvements taking place at WorkSafeBC to implement a world-class inspection and investigation regime, in the wake of the tragic sawmill incidents that occurred in 2012 in Burns Lake and Prince George,” B.C.’s Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training said in a press release.
In particular, the new safety enforcement tools include a new compliance agreement for employers who voluntarily agree to improve the safety of their workplaces in response to inspections by WorkSafeBC, as well as “on-the-spot” fines (citations) for less serious contraventions, said a backgrounder from the ministry. The tools also include WorkSafeBC’s ability to stop work at sites where unsafe conditions present a high risk to workers, as well as expanding courts’ authority to bar the worst offenders from operating in an industry.
The backgrounder said that the changes would also require employers to “conduct a preliminary investigation within 48 hours of a significant incident and to take necessary actions to prevent a similar incident from occurring while a full investigation is being conducted.” The employer’s full investigation must also be completed within 30 days, unless WorkSafeBC grants an extension for exceptional or complex cases.
Irene Lanzinger, president of the B.C. Federation of Labour (BCFL), said that she believed that increased enforcement and prosecution of negligent employers was key. She also said that while the reforms were a step in the right direction, more could be done to make the amendments stronger. For example, Lanzinger noted that the BCFL has been calling for a dedicated Crown prosecutor and a Crown charge assessment policy specific to workplace fatalities. In addition, the federation wants education for prosecutors, police services and workers’ compensation board investigative officers around criminal negligence from an oh&s perspective.
More information is available at http://www.newsroom.gov.bc.ca/2015/02/new-legislation-improves-worker-safety.html.
Two colleges receive funding for trade equipment
CRANBROOK, B.C. — British Columbia’s Ministry of Advanced Education has announced $640,702 in funding for two colleges, to buy new trades training equipment that supports students entering in-demand occupations that are critical to the economy. The College of the Rockies will receive $325,274 to buy equipment such as an air dryer and heat exchangers for industrial mechanic and millwright students, a wheel aligner for heavy mechanical trades and an oxyfuel cutter for welding students. Selkirk College will receive $315,428 to buy equipment such as an industry-standard drill press for millwright students, a renewable energy trainer for electrical students and an air conditioning trainer for heavy mechanic trades students.
Drywall company fined for fall protection violations
SWIFT CURRENT, Sask. — A drywall company in Medicine Hat, Alta. was fined $16,800 on Feb. 2 after pleading guilty to two oh&s counts. Gyp-Tec Drywall Inc. was fined for failing to notify the Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety’s oh&s division, as soon as reasonably possible, of an accident at a workplace and failing to ensure workers used a fall protection system at a work area where they could fall three metres or more, the ministry said in a press release. Charges were laid after an incident in May 2013, in which a worker was texturing the ceiling of a two-story house in Swift Current and fell from the second floor to the first floor, sustaining serious injuries.
Man arrested after assault on bus driver
OSHAWA, Ont. — A 21-year-old man has been arrested after he spit on a bus driver during a fare dispute. At about 11:15 p.m. on Feb. 6, a Durham Regional Transit bus picked up two men from an intercity commuter bus station in Ajax, Ont., the Durham Regional Police Service said in a statement. One man claimed to be transferring from another bus, and the driver allowed him to ride on the bus without proof of payment, the DRPS said in a press release. But when the bus arrived in Oshawa, the man asked for a transfer for another bus and was denied. The man paid for the fare and received a transfer, but then spat on the driver, the release said. Police were called and located the man; the second man managed to escape before police arrived. As the suspect was being arrested, he broke free of the officer and ran. “After a brief foot chase, officers struggled with the suspect as he continued to resist and a [conducted energy weapon] was deployed,” the DRPS said. Felix Ajayi of Toronto has been charged with assault, assault with intent to resist arrest and escaping lawful custody.
Death to worker spurs $100,000 fine
WATFORD, Ont. — A numbered company (1483322 Ontario Inc.) carrying on business as Signature Events Rental Shoppe was fined $100,000 on Feb. 3, in connection with the death of a worker. On Aug. 1, 2013, a crew of six workers — all seasonal workers under 25 years old — was sent to a property near Watford to set up a tent in advance of a wedding, Ontario’s Ministry of Labour (MOL) said in a press release. As one of the ten poles was being placed, it contacted an overhead electrical service line, which sent an electric current down to the ground, the release said, adding that the ground had been saturated by rainfall. Five of the six workers were injured by the initial shock; a second shock was delivered to some of the workers who were lying on the ground. One worker was electrocuted, and the others suffered burns and dislocations (COHSN, Aug. 12, 2013). An MOL investigation found that none of the workers had received any safety training, including training with respect to recognizing and mitigating site hazards such as overhead power lines. Furthermore, the company failed to ensure that materials were lifted or moved in such a way that they did not endanger the safety of a worker. Signature Events pleaded guilty to failing, as a constructor, to ensure that the health and safety of workers was protected. The company also pleaded guilty to failing, as an employer, to provide adequate information, instruction and supervision to workers about the hazards of overhead electrical wires, as required under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.