By Sean Delaney
On April 28th, after a multi-year pause due to COVID, workers, labour members, politicians, and residents gathered to honour the Italian fallen workers at the Italian Fallen Workers Memorial Wall.
On the International Day of Mourning for Injured and Fallen Workers, the group remembered the more than 1,600 Italian fallen workers who have lost their lives to workplace tragedies in Canada. This year’s ceremony follows the unveiling of an Italian Fallen Workers’ Memorial Wall seven years ago in 2016. That wall commemorated nearly 1,000 Italian workers who lost their lives on the job over a century. Another 600 workers were added to the wall in 2017.
Marino Toppan, a labour rights activist and author, addressed the crowd before Toppan said all Italians in Canada owe their success to those who died.
“The most significant part of this ceremony is remembering these men who lost their lives in this country doing humble work using simple tools as miners,” Toppan said. Marino is a driving force in fundraising, design and implementation of the memorial.