Ontario apologizes to miners, families for health harm caused by McIntyre Powder | 24CA News
Ontario Labour Minister Monte McNaughton gave a long-awaited apology Wednesday afternoon to mine employees who had been uncovered to McIntyre Powder for over three a long time and their households.
From 1943 to 1979, miners in northern Ontario had been compelled to breathe within the black floor aluminum mud earlier than they began their shifts.
Their employers advised them the powder would defend them from the lung illness silicosis, however a lot of them developed neurological issues and lung points years later.
In 2020, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario (WSIB) confirmed miners compelled to inhale McIntyre Powder had been at the next danger of growing Parkinson’s illness.
‘Tragedy shouldn’t have occurred’
“While we know an apology will not bring your loved ones back, it will not ease the pain and sadness so many of you have faced. This tragedy should not have happened to you,” McNaughton stated within the Legislature, with a gaggle of about 30 folks, together with former miners uncovered to McIntyre Powder and their households, in attendance.
“It should not have happened to your loved ones. And to each and every one of you, on behalf of the people of Ontario, we are truly sorry.”
Sudbury MP Jamie West, who has advocated for people affected by McIntyre Powder and their households, stated, “We are here to tell you we are sorry.”
“The use of McIntyre Powder was sanctioned by the government of Ontario. It was not fair for the 25,000 Ontario miners. It was not fair for their friends, for their families.”
West stated this might be an necessary day in Ontario mining historical past.
Family advocacy
Janice Martell began the McIntyre Powder Project to show there was a possible hyperlink between inhaling the powder and neurological illness. Her father, Jim Hobbs, inhaled the powder whereas working as a miner and died in 2017 of Parkinson’s.
Martell has collected the well being data of greater than 27,000 former miners for the McIntyre Powder Project registry.
Before the apology, former miners who inhaled the powder whereas on the job, together with their households and supporters, gathered on the United Steelworkers Hall in Sudbury to board a bus headed to Toronto so they may attend in particular person.
Peter Gary Zarichney was one among them.
He remembered his time working underground in Elliot Lake within the early Nineteen Seventies for Rio Algom, and the way the air can be blackened with McIntyre Powder.
“We would come in at the beginning of the shift, and we would go take our street clothes off and then we would come back into the dry [room] where our clothes would be hanging,” he advised 24CA News.
“And as soon as we got in there, they would set the McIntyre dust canisters off and you couldn’t see in the room other than about a couple feet.”
Zarichney stated he and his pals would attempt to sneak off earlier than they dusted the room with McIntyre Powder, however they had been all the time caught.
He stated he now has early dementia and lung issues. His father additionally labored within the mines for greater than 30 years.
“He had a black lung, and he had dementia, and plus he had cancer,” Zarichney stated.
His daughter, Rosemarie Zarichney, stated she remembered someday, when she was a baby, her father advised her mother she could not wash his work garments at residence anymore.
“So I knew there was something not OK about that,” she stated.
“Why would my dad all of a sudden not want his clothes, his mining clothes, in the house with us or in the laundry with ours?”
Rosemarie stated she solely understood a lot later why her father took that stance.
“They were told to do things that weren’t OK and it was so that they could support us,” she stated.
“They should have known these things. There should have been studies, there should have been an understanding before they made them do this, this kind of thing, just to earn a living, to go home and support their families. And a lot of them are living with the after-effects.”
Ken Brezenski was uncovered to McIntyre Powder for 2 years whereas working underground as an apprentice within the early Nineteen Seventies.
“You couldn’t take your clothes home to wash them,” he stated. “Like you wore your clothes until they literally fell off your body.”
Brezenski stated he now has a number of well being points, together with some injury to his lungs and mind. His father labored as a miner for 27 years, and Brezenski stated his life was lower quick due to publicity to McIntyre Powder on the job.
Chantal Bryce was on the Legislature for her father, David St. Georges, who died of power obstructive pulmonary illness (COPD) six months in the past.
In addition to his lung issues, Bryce stated her father additionally had most cancers of the bladder and kidney.
She known as him a “gentle giant” who would have made his option to Queen’s Park on Wednesday had he lived lengthy sufficient.
Bryce stated her father was in palliative care in April, when Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas pushed the province for an official apology for McIntyre Powder survivors and their households.
At the time, House chief Paul Calandra stated the federal government would want extra time to make a correct apology.
“The families do deserve an apology, absolutely,” he stated. “But we can’t do it in less than 24 hours.”
Bryce stated her father felt some reduction that issues had been shifting ahead, however was additionally dissatisfied an apology did not occur in April.
