June 2016 update: Ottawa Police launch criminal probe into workplace death of Olivier Bruneau The police investigation, separate from the Ministry of Labour's workplace fatality investigation, is probing for evidence of possible criminal negligence involved in Bruneau's death. This will be the first time ever that the Ottawa Police investigate a workplace fatality as a potential crime.

March 2016 update: Olivier Bruneau killed by ice chunk weeks after fellow construction worker hit Less than two months before 25-year-old Olivier Bruneau was killed by a chunk of ice at Claridge Homes' condominium construction pit on Preston Street, the Ministry of Labour investigated another incident involving a different worker who was hit by ice at the same site. Ice concerns raised before Ottawa construction worker killed, labour leader says "Our understanding is that it had been pointed out to several people ... on several occasions that the ice looked like it could fall, but there were no precautions, at least as we understand it, taken to ensure that the ice was removed." -- Sean McKenny, president of the Ottawa & District Labour Council which represents nearly 100 unions in the Ottawa area

Posted December 18, 2015:




Please stop endangering our community with your blatant disregard for public safety.

...

This is how Claridge Homes has been 'securing' what vice president Shawn Malhotra described to the Ottawa Citizen as "pretty much the deepest hole you'll find in Ottawa."

December 15th, 2015:
  

December 17th, 2015:
 

To put the severity of this into perspective (with workers for scale)...

December 18th, 2015:
     

(More photos available upon request.)

This has been going on for much longer than a few days (here's a photo of the same rickety fence back in April, before it was a hole.)  With swarms of workers onsite for 16+ hours a day, 7 days a week, surely someone should be in charge of safety. There's a callous disregard for worker safety as well; you can often see them at the bottom of the pit walking around and operating excavators, door wide open, without any head protection. Combined with the incessant noise by-law violations, it's probably in everybody's best interest if Claridge is required to pay the cost of having an inspector on the premises 24/7 until the project is complete to ensure the safety and sanity of local residents and workers alike. Even if Claridge insists on putting profits over people, they should consider that someone falling to their death will cost a lot more than a little common sense.

Safety doesn't happen by accident.


info@claridgehomes.ca

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(Disclaimer: this site is not affiliated with the property developer Claridge Homes in any way; their website can be found @ claridgehomes.com)