this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2024
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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.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 12 hours ago

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

[–] [email protected] 40 points 18 hours ago (3 children)

Lock-out/Tag-out is the same around the world, right?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 hours ago

Supposedly this oven had a (broken) internal release

Has this been credibly mentioned anywhere?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 hours ago

It is the law in this area of the world and is effective.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

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

(Hope this family sues Walmart for big money)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 105 points 22 hours ago (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 12 hours 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.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 21 hours 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.”

[–] [email protected] 3 points 17 hours 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.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 19 hours ago (3 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 21 points 17 hours ago

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?

[–] [email protected] 20 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

That seems like a horrendous way to commit suicide.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

I don't know what Canadian police are like but in the US they often call things suicide just to close cases. I never trust it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Well, Halifax caps have their issues but they aren't cartoonishly corrupt.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago

That's good to hear

[–] [email protected] 49 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

Walmart walk-in oven

What in the actual fuck?

[–] [email protected] 28 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours 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.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (1 children)

By using multi-shelved ovens that aren’t walk-ins? It’s not like everything in the bakery is cooked at the same temperature.

Or how about at automated bakery warehouses where they ship finished goods to various stores like a lot of other places do?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 18 hours ago

And when you want to bake batches bigger than a few shelf units, what then?

And what do you think factory bakeries use to bake their goods en masse?

[–] [email protected] 21 points 19 hours ago

Well that's fucking horrific.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Complete negligence on the store manager's part was always the obvious reason anyways.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 15 hours ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

This is in my neighbourhood.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

I'm not sure why this was downvoted. That must be especially rough, if you can remember being steps away from where the oven would be a bunch of times, just doing your thing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Because it adds nothing to the discussion

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago

Sure it does. OP was there, sort of.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

They are currently in a massive reno. Pretty sure the ovens were new.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago

That's an extra point for it not being a physically trapped-type issue, then.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 18 hours ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 hours ago

It was normal.