Mr. Speaker, every day two Canadians go to work never to return. They are the statistics of workplace fatalities in Canada.
Reducing worker fatalities to a statistic is to forget the human face of people who drive trucks, work on construction sites and in the factories of this country. These are often the people who know the physical and human toll of labour and the dignity of work.
For 20 years now labour groups such as the Teamsters have observed a day of mourning on April 28 for those who have died on the job. Members of the House will soon be able to support the legislative initiative of the member for Sackville--Eastern Shore when we in this chamber are asked to enact a bill requiring the lowering of flags on all federal buildings annually on April 28 in commemoration of workers killed on the job.
Ulysses Grant once quipped, “Labour disgraces no man; unfortunately you occasionally find men disgrace labour.”
The bill would allow us, the members of the House, not to disgrace but to honour those who labour and who sadly are reduced to statistical anonymity.