Why are so many loggers dying?
As loggers’ deaths in the province mount at near double the rate of recent years, the BC Coroners Service is facing criticism over its refusal to conduct inquests into the lethal mishaps. The pressure comes from two sources. The United Steelworkers, through its locals within the logging, sawmilling and pulp-and-paper industries, is demanding mandatory coroners’ inquests into every logger-related fatality, more timely investigations of workplace facilities and serious accidents and the creation of committees with full authority to “order immediate workplace changes in response to fatality investigations and inquests.” Meanwhile, a group of anonymous current and former coroners have written to the BC government charging that the service is failing in its mission.
