Widow wants action following husband’s suicide while working
The widow of a man who took his life while working for the Rural Municipality of Parkdale says she would like to see disciplinary action and a review conducted after a Workers Compensation Board (WCB) investigation found her husband’s suicide was related to his job as a grader operator in the RM.
Robert Duhaime of the hamlet of Vawn died on Aug. 31, 2017. Letters from the WCB to his widow, Brenda Duhaime, indicated there was “sufficient information to attribute Robert’s mental health issues and his subsequent passing ... to his employment.”
In a recent interview, Brenda said her husband was “belittled” and received daily phone calls about the quality of his work in the RM. She said her husband was trying to do his job of grading roads, but rain and weather were constant obstacles.
“You cannot do miracles when it’s wet and muddy,” she said. Although her husband suffered from anxiety — which she says “was no secret” — events at work leading up to his suicide “absolutely escalated” what her husband was feeling, she said.
Correspondence between the RM and the WCB provided to Brenda indicated her husband “experienced interpersonal incidents that were excessive and unusual in comparison to pressures and tensions experienced in normal employment.”
The WCB also noted that while Robert had a health issues that “pre-existed his work injury,” the most recent mental health issues “will be considered first as an aggravation of his pre-existing condition and then an acceleration that led to his taking his life.”
Brenda said she’d like to see the people implicated by the WCB’s findings “either fired or asked to step down,” noting her husband was always considered good at his job.
She said she would also like the RM to introduce a grader foreman who could correspond with the RM’s council and staff directly and then relay the information to operators, rather than having councillors contact them directly.
Daniel Hicks, reeve of the RM of Parkdale, said the council plans to appeal the WCB’s findings. He said he feels Robert Duhaime was not bullied, but was told his work was not satisfactory.
“Everybody has been soulsearching in regards to what could have been done different, but at the end of the soul-searching, it’s us that’s been asked to work with somebody that was unable to work — not knowing the reason why he couldn’t work,” he said.
Hicks said he wasn’t aware Duhaime was struggling with mental health issues and that councillors have already discussed the incident at length. While he feels the RM is not at fault, “Nobody ever meant any harm to come to Bob,” Hicks added.
Brenda Duhaime said she’s hired a lawyer and is examining her legal options.