After 40 Years, Ontario Finally Recognizes Injured Workers’ Day

/EIN News/ -- TORONTO and LONDON, Ontario and OSHAWA, Ontario and PETERBOROUGH, Ontario and THUNDER BAY, Ontario, June 01, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Injured & ill workers will gather at Queen’s Park and across the province as they have done every June 1^st for 43 summers. This year, however, they come together for the first ever provincially proclaimed Injured Workers’ Day, thanks to the passage of Bill 118 – The Injured Workers’ Day Act.

“Making Injured Workers’ Day official helps make our long-term struggle visible in Ontario,” says Janet Paterson, president of the Ontario Network of Injured Workers’ Groups, “but until it is accompanied by meaningful action to help address the poverty we face, it isn’t enough.”

In the last year alone, the Ontario Government and Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) have handed over $4.5 billion dollars in “rebates” to employers – bringing the total handouts to over $20 billion since 2017 – while overall benefits paid to workers are near historic lows amidst a culture of claims denial, claims suppression, and benefit cuts by the WSIB and rich employers. For too many workers in Ontario, an injury means poverty and pain.

“This is the Premier and the WSIB reaching into injured workers’ pockets and taking our money in order to hand it over to their rich friends – the bosses who did this to us in the first place,” said Wayne Harris, executive vice-president for ONIWG. “These are not taxpayer dollars, they comes from a fund that employers pay into that is meant to look after the workers that they injure.”

Injured, ill, and migrant workers demand that this reckless practice of corporate handouts ends until their basic needs are met. The government and WSIB must immediately:

• Stop “deeming” injured workers by pretending we have jobs that we can’t get.
• Provide real healthcare to injured & ill workers.
• Stop practices that systematically discriminate against migrant workers.
  

This year’s Injured Workers’ Day events took place in six cities. Details below.

Event Details & Media Contacts

Toronto: June 1^st • Queen’s Park • 11am to 1pm
Provincial Media Coordinator – Matthew Pi: 416-461-2423

London: June 1^st • Victoria Park • 11am to 1pm • Northwest Corner
Rally organizer Kevin Jones – Home phone: 519- 936-6715
Kevin will also be available at event for media inquiries

Oshawa: *THURSDAY MAY 29^th • Justice for Injured Workers Event hosted by Durham Regional Labour Council • 6:30pm – 8:30pm • IBEW East Hall • 1001 Ritson Rd. S.
ONIWG VP Wayne Harris: 289-830-2103

Peterborough: June 1^st • Millennium Park • Noon • North end of the pathway
Peterborough Occupational Disease Action Committee Rep Sue James: 705-876-1150

Thunder Bay: *FRIDAY MAY 30^th • City Hall • 10am.
ONIWG VP Eugene Lafrancois: 807-767-7827

Windsor: June 1^st • Corner of Ouellette & Tecumseh • 11am • At the flagpole
ONIWG VP Liz Garant: 226-961-3906