Governments lack the political will to enforce laws that protect workers, federal NDP leader says
CBC
Canada has laws to protect workers from harm at work but political will is lacking to enforce those laws, the leader of federal NDP said in downtown Toronto on Friday.
Jagmeet Singh, speaking on the National Day of Mourning for workers killed or injured on the job, said workers have a fundamental right to go to work and come home safely and should never be worried about losing their lives at work.
"There are laws in place but there is no enforcement," Singh said at an event in Larry Sefton Park held to mark the day.
"Never again should a worker be afraid to go to work and not be sure if they are going to come back home to their loved ones. We need to make that happen," he said.
Singh said workers need to use their power to force employers to follow existing labour laws with the "teeth" to protect workers. He did not specify which laws.
Federal and provincial governments have the power to make work safety a priority and to ensure there are "severe repercussions" if laws are not followed, he added.
At the federal level, Singh said the NDP is working to strengthen existing laws.
For example, the NDP is pushing for the Criminal Code to be amended to strengthen penalties for assault of all transit workers, not only transit operators, given a string of violence on transit systems across the country in recent months.
As well, the NDP is pushing the Liberal government to bring in anti-scab legislation that would prevent employers from hiring replacement workers during a strike or lockout and that would become law by the end of this year.
Enforcement of labour laws happens at both the federal and provincial levels, depending on whether a workplace is provincially or federally regulated. In Ontario, the Ministry of Labour investigates workplace incident or illness, including those that result in death, injury or occupational illness.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, for his part, said in a statement on Friday that the federal government is making worker safety a top priority.
"Established more than 30 years ago, this day invites us to reaffirm our commitment to creating safer and healthier workplaces for everyone," Trudeau said.
"The Government of Canada has stepped up to improve workplace safety standards and practices, including by modernizing our compliance and enforcement regime under the Canada Labour Code, which protects federally regulated workers," he said.
"These changes are helping to ensure there are strong consequences for employers who violate workplace safety standards and put hardworking Canadians in harm's way."
Windsor-Essex, Chatham-Kent and Sarnia can all expect between 20 and 40 millimetres of rainfall this weekend.
More Alberta seniors are now eligible for a provincially funded RSV vaccine.
More than 100 workers at a steel plant in eastern Ontario are being laid off either temporarily or permanently, as a company with facilities in Quebec and Ontario cuts its workforce due to challenging market conditions — including U.S. tariffs.
A small town northwest of Thunder Bay, Ont., has become the unlikely home for hundreds of foreign workers, but many may have to leave the community they've embraced after the end of a federal program put in place to fill gaps in Canada's labour market.
There's mixed reaction in Waterloo to an injuction allowing police to detain, arrest and charge anyone who is participating in unsanctioned street parties in that city this weekend.
Diabetes Canada is excited about Prince Edward Island's new pharmacare deal with the federal government, but hopes the province will reevaluate copays on diabetes supplies, says a senior manager with the organization.
After 26 years of accommodating guests from across the world, Faith Embleton says she and her husband Ken are ready to sell their bed and breakfast.
A group of big-name companies including Google, Meta and Dow have signed a pledge to support tripling the world's nuclear energy capacity by 2050, a signal of the technology's growing resurgence in popularity.
Five years on, Toronto-area doctors and public health officials are looking back at what they've learned since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — and most agree the early experience will prove useful if the city faces another infectious disease crisis.
City staff would like Londoners to take a good look around their home and ask themselves a direct and possibly difficult question: Could everyone in your family survive at home, without leaving and with no other help, for a full 72 hours?
Liberal Leader Mark Carney will officially become Canada's next prime minister within a few hours, taking the reins as the country barrels toward a general election and continues to fend off verbal and economic attacks from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Recent cyberattacks in Newfoundland and Labrador should have been a wake up call for the federal government about the reality of an increasingly hostile world, says one cybersecurity expert.
A recent CBC News analysis found that Nova Scotia is rapidly losing some of its most affordable apartments, but housing experts say there are ways to prevent that.