David Frank teaches Canadian history at the University of New Brunswick. He is the author of the classic history of the Cape Breton coal miners, “We remember our war dead. We should also remember those who died in the workplace.”
by David Frank
There are many war memorials in my province, but one of them, in a small town in central New Brunswick, stands out. After you have read the names in front of the Royal Canadian Legion Hall in Minto, you can cross the street to a small park and read almost twice as many names on another monument.
These are the names of seventy men who lost their lives in the Grand Lake mining district over the course of the past century. When this monument to the coal miners was dedicated in 1984, one of the local mayors seemed to comment directly on the proximity of the two memorials: “We remember our war dead. We should also remember those who died in the workplace.”