Make Canada safer, speaker urges

Canadians were called to action Thursday morning as Paul Kells, founder of the national Safe Communities Foundation, committed to having 500 nationally-designated “safe communities” in Canada by 2007.
Kells was speaking before delegates from 33 countries here at the 11th International and Fifth National Conference on Safe Communities—an initiative of the World Health Organization’s Collaborating Centre on Community Safe Promotion.
He said safety groups across the country must campaign to change the attitudes of Canadians who give little thought to safety.
“People do not have safety as the number-one item on their agenda,” Kells charged. “[A recent poll stated] 50 percent of Canadians believe that accidents just happen . . . that workplace injuries are inevitable.
“There is no such thing as an accident,” he stressed. “All accidents are preventable.”
As a result, Kells said he wants to see 500 Canadian communities receive national “Safe Community” designation in the next five years.
This designation means a community has achieved a designated number of programs aimed at addressing safety issues for all age and ethnic groups in the community.
He took a step towards that by announcing Wolfville, N.S. received its designation Thursday.
In addition to targeting communities, Kells particularly wants to focus on young people and make them more aware of safety hazards and their rights on the job.
“If we are to change the world, we must engage young people,” he said.
Kells committed to having one million kids across the country participating in the “passport-to-safety” program by 2007.
This initiative gives students a document explaining the safety training they have received and encourages employers to use this document as a tool in the hiring process.
“If employers fail to do what they’re supposed to and governments fail to do what they’re supposed to, then kids are the last line of defence,” Kells said.
Some 10,000 young people in Peterborough currently are involved in this program.
Kells said he founded the national Safe Communities Foundation after his son, Sean, was killed in an explosion on the job in 1994. As a parent, he searched for two years to find a way to prevent this tragedy from happening to anyone else.
“Parents often come up to me but I don’t know where to steer them and I’m tired of that,” he remarked.
In the next few years, Kells said he will form a support and referral group for parents and families who have lost a loved one in an accident. This group also will refer parents to local safety organizations so they can get involved and help drive the grassroots safety movement.
As he addressed delegates, Kells stressed that making communities safer doesn’t require huge national programs. He noted Allen Wells, president of the Lambton Safe Community Council from Sarnia, can make his town safer by simply scouring garage sales.
Wells looks for old car seats and other equipment that might no longer be safe and then explains to the seller that it could potentially hurt or kill someone.
If the seller doesn’t throw out the item, Wells simply purchases it so that it won’t be used again.
Stealing a line from his colleague, Kells said keeping communities safe is up to everyone—and something everyone should be involved in.
“Can we really count on the government to do it. No. Can we really count on any other institution to do it for us. No,” he said.
“If not you and me, then who?”