Ripple Effect
The Ripple Effect:
Continuing Lessons from the Westray Mine Explosion
May 9, 1992: Imagine the Westray Mine explosion, its rings of pressure radiating outward far beyond the portal, transforming everything in its path. The 26 miners in the centre who were killed. Those in the surrounding rings: families, fellow miners, volunteers, and residents local and beyond.
The Ripple Effect gives a voice to the stories of those whose lives were twisted and forever changed by the mine’s development, brief operation and deadly end. Westray underground, before and after, has been described as hell. The men who risked their lives, and those who lost them by the choice to do their jobs, sold their souls to the devil that is corporate greed. That demon walks among us still, wooing governments with promises of wealth and votes, blackmailing the wealthy with their own greed, and blinding workers to danger with their own desperation. This book is designed to help each of us look that demon in the eye and say, loud and clear, ‘Never Again.’
The Ripple Effect Project
was funded by the Nova Scotia Occupational Health and Safety Trust Fund to bring the lessons of Westray into post-secondary and secondary classrooms, reaching the next generations of workers. The project provides classroom sets of books free of charge, with the option to bring the authors into the classroom for first-hand accounts of their Westray stories and hopes for the project moving forward.
The Ripple Effect in classrooms
Vernon Theriault with the ACHIEVE class, NSCC Pictou
The Authors:
Vernon Theriault was a Westray miner and part of the rescue operation following the explosion. After years struggling with his experiences at the mine, he learned to read and write at age 34, became involved in the lobby to pass the Westray Bill and with his cousin Marjorie Coady authored his first book, Westray: My Journey From Darkness to Light (Nimbus, published in 2018. He lives in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia
Jennifer Hatt was a local newspaper reporter at the time of the Westray explosion. She is a writer in Pictou, Nova Scotia
Want your own copy of The Ripple Effect?
Individual copies are available for a donation of $25 per book, plus $10 for shipping/handling to have the book mailed to you anywhere in Canada.
It is the intention of the authors to support mental health initiatives for those coping with workplace trauma. Donations are being held in a high-interest savings account while details are finalized.