Report by Frank Ruffolo
The Canadian Ethnic Media Association and the the Workplace Safety Insurance Board (WSIB) held a highly informative and successful seminar-workshop on October 23 at the Columbus Centre on “Eliminating injuries and fatalities in Ontario’s Workplaces.”
Keynote speaker, the Honourable Steven Mahoney, former MP, MPP and Ontario government minister and Chair of the WSIB, told CEMA members and other ethnic media participants that the aptly named Road to Zero campaign with a capacity to deliver its message in sixty languages, plans “to change the culture and make people understand the impact of work related illness and injuries with a hard hitting television ad campaign.”
Mahoney said, “101 people were killed in Ontario workplace incidents in 2006 making it two deaths every week; 10 of the dead were young people under the age of 25, from high schools andHe added that there were also 231 occupational disease deaths last year. In all, “there were a total of 357,000 claims in Ontario alone.” As of August 2007 Mahoney says, “there were over 80 work related deaths.” The annual impact from work related illness and injuries is $15 billiona year in Ontario.
Mahoney told the audience that “You have a right to refuse unsafe work and identify and report unsafe it at your place ofemployment.”
Madeline Ziniak, chair of CEMA and vice president, OMNI-TVsaid, “In 2006 immigration statistics showed that 50 per cent of immigrants to Canadacame to Ontario. Rogers OMNI 1 and OMNI 2 broadcast in 40 languages with five nightly newscasts that are able to reach potential audiences that want to access your information.”
Other presenters included Joe Mulvihill, vice president of CHIN Radio, who spoke about the role of radio in the educational process of multilingual communications.
Dat Nguyen, President of Web News Printing Company and CEMA member, spoke of the role and the achievements of the printed media in multilingual communities.
Cema member Eric Nettel, Board Secretary Ace Alvarez, Member Gina Valle.
The evening featuring a delicious buffet dinner was a tremendous success in large part due to the efforts and organization the last few months of the WSIB’s Angelo Vinci and CEMA’s Bill Yancoff .
For more information on this call the WSIB Prevention Hotline at (416) 344-1016 or 1-800-663-6639 at http://www.wsib.on.ca/.