A union mounting a campaign to get prosecutors and police to hold corporations responsible for workers’ deaths on the job got a boost from a motion unanimously adopted by city council.

The motion presented Tuesday by Coun. Joe Cimino came from United Steelworkers, which is running a national drive called Stop the Killing, Enforce the Law.

The drive urges Canadians to sign petitions urging attorney generals and labour ministers to ensure Crown attorneys are educated, trained and directed to apply the Westray amendments to the Criminal Code of Canada.

It is more than two decades since 26 men were killed in a the Westray mining disaster and a decade since the criminal code was amended to hold corporations, their directors and executives criminally responsible for the health and safety of workers.

USW Local 6500 tried to get the Ontario attorney general to enforce the Westray provision of the Criminal Code two years ago after its year-long investigation into the June 8, 2011, deaths of two men at Vale’s Stobie Mine.

Family members of at least one of those two men killed, Jordan Fram, attended the council meeting at which USW made a presentation to council.

The motion also calls for dedicated prosecutors to be given the responsibility for health and safety fatalities; that police be educated, trained and directed to apply the Westray amendments; and that there be greater co-ordination among regulators, police and Crown attorneys so health and safety regulators are trained to reach out to police when there is a possibility that Westray charges are warranted.

USW area co-ordinator Myles Sullivan said the fact the motion was passed first in Sudbury was fitting, and will act as the pebble to cause a ripple effect of support across Canada.

The union is looking for hundreds of councils across the country to endorse the motion and join the Stop the Killing, Enforce the Law campaign.

The fact council approved the motion on the same day that the first meeting of the advisory panel for a provincial review of mining health and safety was held in Sudbury was meaningful, as well.

In the same investigation report in which it asked for criminal charges against Vale in the Stobie deaths, USW called for a public inquiry into mining. Ontario Labour Minister Yasir Naqvi ordered a review instead and it got under way Tuesday.

Sullivan said United Steelworkers were instrumental in getting the Westray bill to become law initially and are now going to be "the driving force behind having the law enforced now.

"We will not stop until they start to enforce that bill to protect all workers, unionized or not, because workers die on the job in this country every day," said Sullivan.

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For more

For more on the campaign, go to http://enforcethelaw.ca/.