A moment of silence was observed at 10:12 a.m. June 20 to commemorate the 40 years since a seismic event — a rockburst — occurred at the Falconbridge Mine, claiming the lives of four Sudbury men.
The event also saw the unveiling of a new memorial garden and monument at the Mine Mill Local 598 Unifor campground at Richard Lake in Sudbury.
Wednesday's memorial event, held at Richard Lake, was a formal recognition of the 40th anniversary of the incident that seems forever engraved in the hearts of the family members and co-workers of Sulo Korpela, Richard Chenier, Daniel Lavallee and Wayne St. Michel.
They were the miners whose lives were taken after the rockburst happened near the 4,000-foot level of the No. 5 shaft at the mine. The event measured 3.5 on the Richter scale.
Immediately after the moment of silence, two bagpipers from the Greater Sudbury Police pipe band played a lament.
Sudbury Mayor Paul Lefebvre was one of 10 speakers that addressed the crowd.
Lefebvre said the incident that happened on June 20, 1984, forever changed the people of Sudbury.
"Families are forever changed. Friends and colleagues are deeply affected, and the entire community feels the weight of these losses," said Lefebvre.
He said the deaths happened to people who were known in the community.
"This is why our commitment to workplace safety is not just professional, but deeply personal," he said.
Lefebvre called on the community to honour the legacy of the workers who died.
"So today, as we commemorate Workers' Memorial Day, let us renew our pledge to uphold the highest standards of workplace safety. Let us honor those we have lost by working tirelessly to prevent future tragedies," said Lefebvre.
Also speaking at the event was Peter Xavier, vice president of Glencore’s Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations. Xavier said he was pleased to be included as a speaker for the remembrance event. He said it was indeed good to remember the legacy of workers who have died, but added we can't always afford to have things happen just so we can learn.
"I think it's about shifting to be proactive," he said. Xavier said by learning to do the job better over the years, has inspired improvements.
"And a lot of our safety success has come from just doing the work better," he said.
He added he was pleased to hear from other speakers commenting on the fact that safety is a 24/7 state of mind. Xavier said nothing pleases him more than hearing how an employee put safety into practice while they were at home or away from the job.
He gave the example of a Glencore employee driving home who saw another person changing a tire close to the highway, as traffic drove by. The Glencore employee parked his car behind the tire change vehicle in such a way as to protect the other driver from passing cars.
"When we sort of think like that, man, there's nothing that we can't do, no problem we can't solve," said Xavier.
Another key speaker was Joanne Hey, health and safety director for Unifor National, Canada's largest private sector union with more than 320,000 members. She said as much as great improvements have been made in health and safety over the years, the sad reality is that on average, three workers die on the job every day in Canada.
"That's 1,000 Canadians every year that don't return from their workplace," said Hey.
"Since June 20 of 1984, that equates to 40,000 lives. Forty thousand lives — families destroyed because accidents happened at work that could have been prevented," said Hey.
She said this year is also the 20th anniversary of the Westray Law, an Act of Parliament that came into force in March of 2004. Hey said the law followed the deaths of 26 miners who died following the explosion at the Westray Mine in Nova Scotia in 1992. The crux of the law was that employers could be found criminally responsible for workplace deaths and injuries.
"In 20 years, we have seen 10 convictions. That's not good enough," said Hey.
People are still dying in the workplace, she said. She said workers have a right to work safely and a right to go home after their shift.
Hey urged all workers, especially young workers, to speak up and identify workplace hazards and bring issues to the boss before another person gets hurt.
"We need to do better," she said.
To mark the 40th anniversary of the Falconbridge Mine disaster, the union has created a new memorial garden at the Richard Lake venue along with the creation of a new memorial monument. Participants at the memorial event Thursday were invited to lay flowers at the monument and to commemorate the event in their own way.
Len Gillis covers mining and health care for Sudbury.com.