Withrow farm deaths: Time to protect Alberta children, says union

Alberta's Farmworkers Union is stepping up its efforts to protect children in the wake of this week's death of three young girls on a farm near Rocky Mountain House.

• Canola seed incident that killed 2 girls claims life of 3rd sister

Catie Bott, 13, and her 11-year-old twin sisters Dara, and Jana Bott, were buried under canola seed while playing in the back of a truck at their family's farm near Withrow, Alta., on Tuesday evening.

Alberta is the only province with no safety standards for farm workers and no child labour standards.

"Here in Alberta, we're still very much the wild west," saysFarmworkers Union of Alberta president Eric Musekamp.

Musekamp is meeting today with provincial agriculture and labour officials to pressure Alberta to regulate the safety of children.

Accounts of Tuesday night accident suggest the three sisters were killed while playing on a truck being filled with canola.

Experts say the tragedy serves as another reminder of how dangerous farm life can be for children.

A neighbourstressedthis week's tragedy wasnot easy to prevent.

According tothe Canadian Agricultural Safety Association,272 children were killed in agricultural fatalities between 1990 and 2012. Almost three quarters of those deaths were the children of farmers.

Calls for change

Musekamp told CBC Radio's The Current that he hopes this week's tragedy sparks change.

"This is such an overwhelming, utterly unbelievable tragedy. If this cannot spur action, I don't know what would," says Musekamp.

Edmonton emergency room physician Louis Francescuttisays the same safety rules that apply to workplaces should also apply to farms.

"If we were to follow those rules, the chances are very good that less farmers would be injured and less family members would be injured as well," he says.

American Marilyn Adams started Farm Safety For Just Kidsin 1987 after her 11-year-old son died in a farming accident.

She says "way, way too many" children are still dying on farms, stressing the need for more education.

"I just can't imagine losing three children.... My heart just really goes out to them," said Adams about this week's farm deaths in Alberta.

Musekamp cautions his decade-long efforts to regulate safety on the farm have met with stiff opposition from the agricultural lobby.

"The farm and ranch lobby have very vigorously opposed any changes to legislation," saidMusekamp.

Alberta minister weighs in

The Farmworkers Union president says there's alsoan underlying "don't tell me what to do on my farm" feeling amongstagriculture producers inAlberta.

He adds many children are working right now in Alberta, picking rocks and mud out from the conveyor belt at potato farms and shovelling out cattle liners at feed lots.

Musekamp wants Alberta to copy British Columbia's training for farms and ranches. Hesays B.C. has cut its death and injury rate dramatically with its tougher legislation and farmer-led training.

The agriculture workers' advocate wants the province's NDP government to remove Alberta's exemptions for farms from the Occupational Health and Safety Act and the Labour Standards Code.

He also wants the province to make Workers' Compensation coverage mandatory for all farms.

"Persons who work on farms are equal to persons who work on any other activity," he said.

Alberta's minister of agriculture and forestry seems open to change.

"We are still learning the details of this heartbreaking accident," Oneil Carlier said in statement to CBC.

"If we learn that there are things that can be done to prevent a tragedy like this from happening in the future, we will make whatever changes are needed to protect children."