Farmworkers in their "living quarters." Nineteen-year-old Jarnail Singh Deol ( back row, centre) died of pesticide poisoning that the coroner's jury determined was preventable homocide and ruled that the Workers' Compensation Board should regulate pesticide use. The provincial government blocked the idea.
"Jarnail's death is no mere accident of fate. His death is a monument to government inaction. It is a statute to 'further study' an icon to 'the proper time.' To those who demand patience, to those who are tired of our voices shouting for equality, we say: No More Deaths! No more watching our young people die, our children being poisoned. Our children are as precious as yours - our young people are our future." - CFU press release, 1982
Labour Minister Bob McClelland says the assertion that the lack of government regulation contributed to Deol's death is "a ridiculous" conclusion. "The WCB cannot be even remotely blamed. Even if my decision was different about the way regulations would be handled in the farm workplace, it wouldn't have made any difference in this case," he told reporters. McClelland said "someone has been murdered by someone else. I think our society should be busy finding out who committed the crime." The angry minister did not even respond when asked whether "that someone might be the government in its failure to impose regulations." - Vancouver Sun, March 17, 1983
"We have lost a great deal by losing Jarnail. He was our support. Why should the government give a damn? Sons of Cabinet ministers don't spray pesticides." - Jarnail's father Sadhu Singh Deol, 1983