Summary

Police have ruled out foul play in the death of Gursimran Kaur, a 19-year-old Walmart employee found dead in a walk-in bakery oven at a Halifax, Canada, store on October 19.

After interviews, video reviews, and collaboration with labor and medical officials, investigators concluded no one else was involved.

Kaur’s mother, also a Walmart employee, discovered her daughter after a frantic search.

The store remains closed, and the oven is being removed. Workplace safety officials are now leading the investigation.

  • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month ago

    Just before people misunderstand… a lack of foul play means the investigators don’t believe it was an intentional act of murder… but Walmart may still be found guilty of gross-negligance in creating an unsafe work environment.

    • plz1@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      It just means the punishment is money, not jail. That’s what it really means. Companies can kill people with negligence and pay money. People that kill people with negligence go to jail. And also pay money.

      • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works
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        1 month ago

        Canada’s labour laws work different than America’s. All workplace deaths are investigated by a provincial worker’s comp and charges are laid under their statutes. Monetary compensation is set by those statutes as well.

        Afaik families rarely sue for workplace deaths/injuries, although I’m unsure if it is forbidden under the Workplace Health and Safety Act.

      • NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml
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        1 month ago

        People that kill others out of Gross negligence often go to Jail but regular negligence I’m pretty sure isn’t criminal, though I’m not Canadian. I’m the other kind of American.

        Gross Negligence per Wikipedia is a “lack of slight diligence or care” or “a conscious, voluntary act or omission in reckless disregard of a legal duty and of the consequences to another party.”

    • can@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      In a statement Monday, the department said: “Now that Halifax Regional Police have concluded their investigation, effective November 18, the Department of Labour, Skills and Immigration has assumed the lead in the ongoing workplace investigation.”

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 month ago

      Maybe. Per the article the oven was fine, though, and if nobody else was involved that means you’d expect the door was clear when she went in.

    • Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 month ago

      This sort of thing:

      1000007102

      There is still no valid reason to EVER step inside the thing itself, though, so it’s still kinda sketchy.

      • NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml
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        1 month ago

        yeah, but think of how stupid the average person is and remember that 50% of the population is more stupid than that.

    • Mugmoor@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 month ago

      How do you think grocery stores bake all that food every day?

      Wal Mart is a major grocery outlet here in Canada. In Halifax the options are limited since Sobey’s has a chokehold on the market there.

    • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Supposedly this oven had a (broken) internal release. It also can’t swing closed on its own and needs to be pushed fairly hard to latch closed. And lastly, there is no way to turn it on from the inside; You need to activate it from outside after latching the door.

      It was the combination of all three of these things that had people immediately suspecting foul play. Because there’s no way she could have turned it on while alone; Someone else had to have closed her in there and turned it on, and the broken internal release meant she couldn’t escape.

      • can@sh.itjust.works
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        1 month ago

        Supposedly this oven had a (broken) internal release

        Has this been credibly mentioned anywhere?

    • errer@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      More like lock-in/bake-in in this case…

      (Hope this family sues Walmart for big money)

  • Bob@feddit.nl
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    1 month ago

    I can’t imagine discovering my own daughter dead in an oven. I don’t think I’d ever recover.

  • ManixT@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    The article is written in such a vague and non committal kind of way that it comes across like it was a suicide or something. Way too passive language

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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      I don’t know about suicide, but there’s this curious bit:

      The Nova Scotia Department of Labour, Skills and Immigration also said it issued a stop-work order on Oct. 22 for the Walmart’s bakery and a piece of equipment at the store. The order was lifted on Oct. 28 “after the oven was assessed and determined to have been operating as per the manufacturer’s requirements.”

      From previous threads it sounds like these things all have escape mechanisms on the inside, and that would seem to include it. Maybe she had an unrelated medical problem at the worst possible time?

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 month ago

        Yeah, that’s about as hardcore as you get. Usually they’re protesting something when they go for a really painful way, though, and it sounds like she was alone.

        • tal@lemmy.today
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          1 month ago

          Maybe if you intentionally ODed on enough drugs to keep yourself completely out, regardless of pain, and were just using the oven to ensure that the job gets done. Even so.

    • tal@lemmy.today
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      1 month ago

      This statement from police also kinda sounds like suicide:

      https://globalnews.ca/news/10871561/halifax-walmart-death-no-foul-play/

      In a Monday update, Halifax Regional Police (HRP) said investigators had met with the family to share the findings, and that the family has asked for privacy.

      A police spokesperson declined an on-camera interview on Monday but in a video statement, Const. Martin Cromwell said while the department understands the public’s interest in the case, “there are questions that may never have answers.”

      Cromwell also reminded people to be “mindful of the damage public speculation can cause.”

      “This woman’s loved ones are grieving,” he said.

    • ms.lane@lemmy.world
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      The Nova Scotia Department of Labour, Skills and Immigration also said it issued a stop-work order on Oct. 22 for the Walmart’s bakery and a piece of equipment at the store. The order was lifted on Oct. 28 “after the oven was assessed and determined to have been operating as per the manufacturer’s requirements.”

      Doesn’t appear so.