The Day of Mourning is an important day to many – especially our own staff, some of whom began a career in health and safety because they were affected by a workplace incident or death.

Wade Marling is an occupational safety officer in our Nelson office. In more than 20 years of working as a faller and a faller supervisor, Wade has led by example, insisting that everyone on his crew follow safe work practices. "If you're not working safely," he would tell them, "you're not working for me." And he meant it. "They'd swear and call me names, it didn't bother me. I'd pull the guys off a crew for not following the safety rules."

Wade's father, Don, a logging-truck driver, lost his older brother Clint Marling in a tree-falling incident. As a result, Don adopted the attitude that there was always time to do the job safely, and retired after 56 years with an accident-free record. Wade absorbed his father's perspective while he was young, and does his best to uphold that example today.

But tragedy struck the family again in 2009 when Wade's stepbrother, Steve Venuti, was killed in a tree-falling incident. Steve was only 46, with a young teenaged daughter. For Wade, the news was gut-wrenching — after all, incidents like this are something that you hear about happening to others, not to someone you grew up with.

Steve's death was a turning point for Wade, and he vowed to do even more to make sure his fellow fallers would go home to their families every night. Supervising one small crew at a time wasn't enough — he sold his falling contract and took a full-time job as a falling supervisor for a large forest-products licensee, where he supervised up to 25 fallers at a time.

He also started taking courses at BCIT to develop his qualifications as a safety practitioner, and watched and waited for an opening at WorkSafeBC. "I must have checked that website almost every day for three years," says Wade. Finally, in April 2013, Wade was hired on as an occupational safety officer.

Leading by example

Now, leveraging his experience as a faller, and talking openly about the impact of his stepbrother's death, Wade meets with hundreds of workers, supervisors, and employers every year. He takes time to listen and get to know them, and earns their trust as they examine, together, "how to do everything in their power to come home safely when the shift is done."

"No one calls to say, 'Thank you, I didn't have an accident, I didn't cut myself or get hit by a tree,'" Wade points out. "But at the end of the day, I drive away from the worksite knowing I've done everything I can to prevent injuries and fatalities from happening."

The Marling family

Take a moment on April 28 to remember

Join us in a moment of silence on April 28 at 10:30 a.m. to remember the 151 B.C. workers who died last year from a workplace injury or disease.

Watch our social media channels and dayofmourning.bc.ca for a video message from our partners to recognize the day, and those we have lost.