Ontario celebrates first official Injured Workers Day

QUEEN’S PARK – Injured worker advocates from across Ontario will come to Queen’s Park this weekend to celebrate the first official Injured Workers Day in 41 years.

This day of significance in Ontario became law in December 2024 after Bill 118: Injured Workers Day Act, tabled by Sudbury MPP Jamie West, received unanimous support from all MPPs.

After 40 years of unofficial Injured Workers Days, June 1st will now be observed as Injured Workers Day by the province every year. It serves as an opportunity for the province of Ontario to recognize individuals who have been injured at work or who have suffered injuries because of their workplace conditions.

On June 1st, 1983, a provincial government committee was working on major changes to Ontario’s worker compensation system.  At that time, more than 3,000 injured workers came to Queen’s Park to be heard. They came in numbers too large for the Committee rooms, so the committee responded by holding deputations on the front steps of the Legislature.  Inspired by them, injured workers and their families returned to Queen’s Park the following year, and every year since, to make sure that injured workers were never forgotten. Their advocacy spread. Year after year, Injured Workers Day has been unofficially recognized in communities around the province for 40 years.

Quotes:

Jamie West, MPP for Sudbury & Critic for Labour, Mining, and Energy:

"I am thankful to Injured Workers Groups for making me aware that Injured Workers Day had never been officially recognized by the province of Ontario, and I am thankful to my colleagues at Queen’s Park for their unanimous support of Bill 118: Injured Workers Day Act so that we could rectify this.

Our working lives provide us with much more than income – it's often a sense of belonging, a place to learn and make a difference. Workplace injuries can take away much more than the ability to feed our families. Injured workers can lose friendships, pride, engagement, and meaning in their lives. Recognizing an official day dedicated to injured workers and addressing the impacts of workplace injuries in Ontario is taking a meaningful step towards healing,"

Lise Vaugeois, MPP for Thunder Bay-Superior North & Critic for WSIB:

“This recognition is important because it makes the crises facing workers injured or made ill on the job visible. But let’s be clear, the Ontario government, through its management of the WSIB, continues to perpetuate injustices towards injured workers putting all workers on notice that they can be abandoned at any time. The $4.5 Billion dollars in “rebates” to employers has come at a direct cost to workers, denied benefits from the WSIB,”

Wayne Gates, MPP for Niagara Falls & Critic for Long-Term Care:

“This recognition happened because injured workers stood their ground and forced the government’s hand — people like Willy Noiles from Niagara, who we lost this year. You could always look up in the gallery and see Willy, year after year, fighting with everything he had. He spent his adult life making sure injured workers were seen, heard, and never forgotten. His fight lives on in every injured worker who keeps showing up and refuses to be ignored.”