Victims of occupational disease receive update on discovery of asbestos, lead in Sarnia's Centennial Park
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Standing just feet away from where asbestos and lead were discovered in Centennial Park, Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley promised victims of occupational disease Saturday that the popular waterfront park would be reclaimed by the community.
“We're going to show that you don't run away from these issues,” he told the crowd gathered Saturday. “You don't say we don't want to talk about the bad things. What we're going to do is use this an example...that we are a community, we're family and we're going to talk about the things we don't like in the family sometimes, the things that have hurt us, but in this case, we've made it a healing experience.”
A large portion of the park's north end has been fenced off for months since contaminated soil was discovered there in the spring.
Since then, the city has been in contact with the Ministry of the Environment, the county's health unit and the local occupational health clinic, Bradley noted. He expects a proposed remediation plan will be ready for the public in a few weeks.
“When we reclaim the park, we're going to make that (Victims of Chemical Valley) memorial stand up because we have shown we're not afraid of asbestos, we're not afraid of governments, we're going to take them on and challenge them, and we're going to give our next generation a better life,” Bradley said.
The mayor was asked to specifically address the issue of Centennial Park at the third annual Walk to Remember Victims of Asbestos and Occupational Disease Saturday.
This year, participants hung photos of their loved ones around the temporary fence surrounding the Victims of Chemical Valley Memorial. They also marched with a new banner compliments of an anonymous donor after their previous banner had been stolen from the park.
“This entire community has been really affected (by occupational disease) – not by one member in each family but often multiple members,” said Sandy Kinart, chair of Victims of Chemical Valley.
Cheryl Orrange knows this firsthand.
She has lost several members of her family to asbestos-related disease, including her father who worked at Holmes Insulation.
In 2011, her husband Charlie, who worked at Dow Chemical, was diagnosed with four primary cancers and later died at the age of 70.
Orrange herself has been diagnosed with pleural plaques linked to asbestos exposure.
“Was it from hugging my dad so many years?” she said, fighting back tears Saturday. “Who knows?”
Family members of occupational disease victims also spoke Saturday of the struggle to have WSIB claims processed.
Hamilton activist Kim Hoover brought her WSIB Chain of Shame to Centennial Park Saturday, wrapping the paper link chain around fencing along the waterfront.
Hoover said the chain contains the names of 280 injured workers and the 324 names of WSIB employees on the sunshine list.
“I've been challenged to wrap (the chain) around Queen's Park before June 1 (Injured Workers' Day) next year,” she said.
Participants wrapped up Saturday's walk with a glow stick-lit vigil near the site of the Victims of Chemical Valley Memorial.