PAOLA LORIGGIO, THE CANADIAN PRESSPublished: December 24, 2010 8:07 p.m.Last modified: December 24, 2010 8:11 p.m.
TORONTO - Dozens of people gathered at a Toronto highrise apartment Friday to remember four immigrant workers killed last Christmas Eve when scaffolding broke and urged governments to do more to protect vulnerable workers.
“I heard the screams, I heard the bangs,” Linda Morrissey, one of the building’s superintendents, recalled during the candlelight vigil in the city’s northwest end.
“It upsets me to this day,” she said, her eyes brimming with tears.
“I can bawl and cry about it” because no one seems to care about these workers or their rights,” she added.
Chris Ramsaroop, one of the vigil’s organizers, said many migrant or immigrant workers are reluctant to raise health and safety concerns because they fear losing their jobs or getting deported.
“There are many migrant workers, many undocumented workers who are dying on the job,” said Ramsaroop, an organizer with the group Justice for Migrant Workers.
“While the provincial government has taken some initial steps, the federal government also has an important role to play in providing status for these workers.”
The four construction workers died after plunging 13 floors when their scaffolding broke. A fifth man was seriously injured.
None of them was safely attached to the structure.
Three company officials are facing criminal charges.
The vigil was held at the site of the accident on Kipling Avenue, south of Steeles Avenue West.
The man who survived the fall, Dilshod Marupov, is now destitute, depressed, in agonizing pain and can barely walk.
“Every day is pain in my leg,” he said in a recent interview with The Canadian Press.
The 22-year-old, who is originally from Uzbekistan, was on the job a scant three days when he and his friends heard a dreadful snap in the scaffolding supporting them while pouring concrete 13 storeys above the ground.
Marupov landed feet-first, destroying his back, spine, legs and damaging his head. He has been told he will never regain more than 25 per cent of his former mobility.
Marupov came to Canada on a visitor’s visa and just started working, making a refugee claim along the way. He’s still waiting in a grey zone of status.
Ontario Federation of Labour president Sid Ryan also remembered the men on Friday, issuing a statement reminding employers they can be held personally liable if a worker is killed on the job.
“We are absolutely determined to put an end to the carnage,” Ryan said.
“If a worker is killed, we will be there and do everything possible to ensure… charges are laid if any negligence has taken place.”
The accident was among a series of deaths that spurred the province to launch a review of workplace safety last January.
A report issued last week urged sweeping changes to Ontario’s workplace safety system, from more inspections and better enforcement to tougher penalties for those who put workers at risk.
The report prepared by Tony Dean, a veteran civil servant who headed up the year long review, also recommended the province appoint a chief prevention officer within the Ministry of Labour.
Charles Sousa, who stepped in as labour minister after Peter Fonseca’s resignation, issued a statement Friday expressing his sympathies for the families of the four who died as well as Marupov.
He vowed to make occupational safety and prevention a “top priority” in 2011.
Ramsaroop said the province and Ottawa need to work together and come up with a joint plan to protect vulnerable workers.
Ottawa’s decision to cut national settlement funding allocations by $53 million a year will put immigrant workers at risk by denying them key support that would help them exercise their rights, he said.
Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Thursday the cuts are necessary to ensure taxpayer money is used efficiently.
The federal Liberal Greater Toronto Area caucus has written an open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper demanding he rescind the cuts, which represent an 11 per cent cut nationally. The vast majority of the cuts are in Ontario, where the reduction represents 85 per cent of the national number.
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