Manitoba mourns workers killed or injured on job

Workers gather for a National Day of Mourning service at Memorial Park in Winnipeg on April 28, 2025. (Scott Andersson/CTV News Winnipeg)

Manitobans honoured people who have died or have been injured at the workplace on Monday morning.

The National Day of Mourning, marked yearly on April 28, saw workers from multiple industries and unions gather to remember their fallen colleagues.

“It’s also a day that we recommit ourselves to fighting for the living and to fight to make sure that we have laws that prevent accident injuries in the future,” said Kevin Rebeck, president of the Manitoba Federation of Labour.

According to Rebeck, 18 people were killed while on the job last year in Manitoba.

“We believe all these workplace incidents are preventable,” he said. “We need to make sure that workplaces are safe, that employers live up toward the responsibility of keeping safe workplaces, and that we take steps to make sure that everyone who goes to work gets to go home safe and whole at the end of every shift.”

A recent concern for the MFL has been rising instances of violence in the workplace, noting it has been impacting health-care and retail industries particularly.

“That needs to be taken very seriously with steps to improve and make workplaces safer, like our Liquor Commission took serious steps on security measures that have reduced incidents of workplace violence significantly,” Rebeck said, adding work also needs to be done to alleviate poverty, which is contributing to violence.