There were fiery speeches and tears as hundreds gathered to mark National Day of Mourning at Laurentian University in an event organized by the Sudbury and District Labour Council, April 28.
Janice Martell, founder of the McIntyre Powder Project, vowed in front of the elected officials in attendance to carry on her fight to seek justice for retired miners afflicted with health problems from inhaling the aluminum powder.
“I need you to go back and to tell your leaders not to mistake my emotion for weakness,” Martell said, fighting back tears.
“I'm stronger than you know and I will see this through.”
The now-debunked practice of exposing workers in primarily gold and uranium mines to McIntyre Powder, an aluminum dust product, was used ostensibly to protect them against silicosis, a respiratory disease common to miners working underground.
Mine workers from the early 1940s to 1980 were required to inhale McIntyre Powder at the beginning of their shifts. It was believed it would protect their lungs from the ill effects of silica dust prevalent in the underground mining environment.
“The knowledge at that time was so blatant, and the oppression was so great on workers that, in many cases, it's murder,” said United Steelworkers of American international president Leo Gerard to the crowd.
Martell’s McIntyre Powder Project aims to document workers affected by the aluminum dust treatment — which is possibly linked to higher instances of ALS and Parkinson's disease in those exposed to it — and to lobby for legislative changes to improve workplace safety and compensation for the victims.
Her father, Jim Hobbs of Elliot Lake, was one of many hardrock miners in Northern Ontario required to inhale the powder.
In 2001, Hobbs was diagnosed with Parkinson's and is currently in very poor health.
“This is not a United Steelworkers issue, this is not a Mine Mill issue, this is not a labour rights movement issue,” said an emotional Martell during her address to a nearly-full Fraser Auditorium.
“This is a human rights issue. All human beings have a stake in this.”
National Day of Mourning is marked each year on April 28 to remember workers who have been killed, injured or suffered illness as a result of work-related injuries.
In Greater Sudbury, two workers have been killed on the job in 2017.
Rhéal Dionne, 39, died at Rainbow Concrete on Feb. 15 when an archway collapsed and crushed the cab of the dump truck he was driving.
On April 6, 59-year-old contractor Ron Lepage was killed at Vale's Copper Cliff complex after he was pinned under the tires of a dump truck while disposing waste materials into a tailings pond.
