Bridget Driscoll is hardly a household name in Canada. I doubt that few besides me have ever heard of her. She has the dubious distinction of being the first person in the world to be killed by an automobile. It happened in London on August 17, 1896, when the 44-year-old woman and her teen-aged daughter … Continue reading Deadly car-truck collisions could be sharply reduced if truck drivers’ working conditions were improved

Back in the 1960s, 1970s, and into the ‘80s, almost all of the large newspapers in Canada had a reporter who specialized in labour-management relations. Wilf List covered labour for the Globe and Mail for an amazing 35 years. I wrote a labour relations column for the Toronto Star for 15 years (1968-1982), and the … Continue reading Trade union issues get scant coverage in the modern mainstream media

The reason there were fewer wrecks in the old horse-and-buggy days is because the driver didn’t have to depend entirely on his own intelligence. – Anonymous For the past several years, on a part-time basis, I’ve been assisting the non-profit Canadian Owner-Operators’ Cooperative (COOC) in its efforts to lower its trucking members’ operating costs. These … Continue reading Fatal crashes that involve heavy trucks could be sharply reduced if road safety were made a higher government priority