Tag Archives: Stuart MacLean
A family’s heartache and the frustrating push to talk more about workplace deaths in Nova Scotia
Ryan Durling was 21 when he was crushed in a garbage truck while working in Port Williams, N.S. Durling’s death was one of 44 acute workplace fatalities in Nova Scotia in five years. Among those who died while working were RCMP Const. Heidi Stevenson and Kristen Beaton, a Victorian Order of Nurses community health worker. But there are other fatalities that the media never covered,,, The largest workplace event in 2020 in Atlantic Canada was the loss of the six men who were on board the scallop vessel the Chief William Saulis.,,, Durling’s parents hope that their son’s death will 
prompt some change, and his mother hopes other families who suffer a workplace loss are supported as they press for answers. “The more we talk about things and be aware of things and issues and things that arise and that, you know, will bring in awareness and maybe preventative measures,” Pam Durling said. >click to read< 10:39
Fishing Industry sees workers compensation rates hit 20-year low thanks to safety campaigns
Stuart MacLean says it was a particularly dark event that helped spark a culture change when it comes to safety in the fishing industry: the sinking of the Miss Ally. Five young men from southwest Nova Scotia were lost at sea when their fishing boat was hammered by a raging storm in 2013. The incident gripped fishing villages everywhere, and MacLean, CEO of the Workers’ Compensation Board of Nova Scotia, believes it had a dramatic effect on the way fishermen approach safety today. “What’s happened in that sector is people have moved from knowing about it to caring about it,” he said. “And I think what people said is, ‘It’s not OK to keep losing people at sea.'” click here to read the story 18:12
