The Westray Mine Memorial honouring 26 miners who died in the disaster.
Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the Westray Mine disaster in Nova Scotia, one of the worst industrial workplace accidents in Canadian history. Twenty years ago, a methane explosion occurred at the coal mine, killing 26 miners working underground. The official report from a public inquiry into what caused the disaster was published more than five years after the 1992 disaster, and it found that mine safety was ignored at Westray, but that poor oversight by government regulators was also to blame.
In addition to the inquiry, there memorials, a trial (with criminal charges eventually dropped), legislation that was supposed to lead change… But many recognizing the anniversary of this disaster have also questioned whether anything has changed for the better when it comes to workplace safety in Canada.
