A report claims that Weyerhaeuser Company Limited, an employer in Alberta, is facing 13 charges related to a worker’s death that occurred almost two years ago.
According to a CBC article, the male employee was removing a blockage from a wood chipping machine at the company’s lumber plant on November 18, 2023.
The pike pole the worker was using to clear an obstruction from a canter machine collided with the revolving side heads of the machine. The worker was fatally injured as the energized equipment violently ejected the pole.
Weyerhaeuser faces 13 counts under Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety Act, including permitting a worker to clear a blockage from energized equipment, failing to give proper training, and failing to safeguard a worker’s health and safety. According to CBC, the charges were submitted on March 31, 2025.
About 450 kilometers northwest of Edmonton, at the company’s Grande Prairie site, the incident took place. One of Weyerhaeuser’s main businesses in the area is the lumber mill.
The Vancouver-based Weyerhaeuser Company was previously fined $182,000 for causing serious harm to a worker who was struck by a forklift.