DAY OF MOURNING MEMORIAL

At the corner of Bay and Main Streets, Hamilton

The monument, erected by the Hamilton and District Labour Council, shows a dramatic headless figure clutching a falling wall by its fingertips. When one Hamilton City Councillor objected that the statue was ugly without a head, the President of the Labour Council replied: “Whoever said that death was beautiful?” The headless figure allows viewers to visualize the head of someone they knew who was killed or injured on the job.

The Canadian Labour Congress has proclaimed 28 April an annual “day of mourning” to remember those killed, injured or exposed to fatal diseases while on the job. While urging citizens to “mourn for the dead” it calls on them to “fight for the living” by demanding tougher occupational health and safety standards and more effective compensation. Unions and communities across the country have erected memorial plaques to mark the day. Ed Thomas has described many of these markers in his 2001 book Dead But Not Forgotten.