$35.00
The Ripple Effect
Jennifer Hatt and Vernon Theriault
We all have a Westray story: where we were, who we knew, and what we knew about the mine that for years was promoted as a lifesaver for local jobs, and in a matter of months killed 26 men in an explosion heard around the world. The Ripple Effect captures a few of those stories, ensuring those too young or not yet born at the time of Westray know the history, while inviting those of us on the very edges of the ripples to feel the impacts of an event that 34 years later, continues to influence lives and communities, every day. Reminding us all we have the right to safe working conditions, that the devastation of workplace deaths reach far beyond borders and the march of time. Reminding us we have a choice and can take action to ensure No More Westrays.
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, Â 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.’
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.
Please note:
Book is not for sale, but is available by donation of $35, which includes mailing to anywhere in Canada. Proceeds will go to mental health initiatives supporting workers coping with workplace trauma.
