Sounding the Alarm: Reckoning with Fatal Mining Accidents in Ontario, 1974-1990 Lecture by John Sandlos

Thursday, Sept. 24, 12-1 p.m.

A-4004

Historians have often assumed the mid to late-1970s was a period of dramatic transformation for the regulatory regime governing occupational health and safety in Ontario. Tracing a line from the wildcat strike of uranium miners in 1974, to the Royal Commission on the Health and Safety of Workers in Mines (the “Ham” Commission report of 1976), historians have assumed that the Ontario government’s response – the Occupational Health and Safety Act passed in 1979 – marked the clear rejection of a top-down, employer-driven approach to OH&S. They most commonly cite as evidence the groundbreaking provision in the legislation they entrenched the right of individual workers to refuse unsafe work. Such narratives ignore the fact that industry only adopted the new legislation in a reluctant and haphazard way, contesting the right to refuse unsafe work in some cases, and relying on longstanding tropes about the carelessness and irresponsibility of individual workers as an explanation for mining accidents. In 1980, twenty-three workers died in Ontario’s mines, a heavy toll that prompted a second, often-ignored inquiry: the Joint Federal-Provincial Inquiry Commission into Safety in Mines and Mining Plants in Ontario. Using commission briefs, transcripts, and the final report as key sources, this paper argues that the “Ham” revolution in OH&S has been overstated, and that well into the 1980s the mining industry had not solved the intractable safety and survival challenges that are inherent to working in underground environments. The paper also suggests that the eventual dramatic decline in mining accidents in Ontario was partly a consequence of the rapid decline in mineral prices in the late-1980s, which led to the closure of older, more dangerous underground mines.

Presented by Department of History

Event Listing 2026-09-24 12:00:00 2026-09-24 13:00:00 America/St_Johns Sounding the Alarm: Reckoning with Fatal Mining Accidents in Ontario, 1974-1990 Lecture by John Sandlos Historians have often assumed the mid to late-1970s was a period of dramatic transformation for the regulatory regime governing occupational health and safety in Ontario. Tracing a line from the wildcat strike of uranium miners in 1974, to the Royal Commission on the Health and Safety of Workers in Mines (the “Ham” Commission report of 1976), historians have assumed that the Ontario government’s response – the Occupational Health and Safety Act passed in 1979 – marked the clear rejection of a top-down, employer-driven approach to OH&S. They most commonly cite as evidence the groundbreaking provision in the legislation they entrenched the right of individual workers to refuse unsafe work. Such narratives ignore the fact that industry only adopted the new legislation in a reluctant and haphazard way, contesting the right to refuse unsafe work in some cases, and relying on longstanding tropes about the carelessness and irresponsibility of individual workers as an explanation for mining accidents. In 1980, twenty-three workers died in Ontario’s mines, a heavy toll that prompted a second, often-ignored inquiry: the Joint Federal-Provincial Inquiry Commission into Safety in Mines and Mining Plants in Ontario. Using commission briefs, transcripts, and the final report as key sources, this paper argues that the “Ham” revolution in OH&S has been overstated, and that well into the 1980s the mining industry had not solved the intractable safety and survival challenges that are inherent to working in underground environments. The paper also suggests that the eventual dramatic decline in mining accidents in Ontario was partly a consequence of the rapid decline in mineral prices in the late-1980s, which led to the closure of older, more dangerous underground mines. A-4004 Department of History