Reply to Caldwell on dangerous scaffolding: “I find it laughable how precious everyone has become.”

Last week, Alec Caldwell posted an article called “Russian Roulette on badly-constructed scaffolding.” It included a couple of photos of a work crew repointing some masonry up near the roofline on rickety scaffolding that looked like it had been slapped up in 3 minutes. Alec said the Ontario Ministry of Labour (MOL) did show up eventually, but the crew had taken off.

Chris Langman didn’t like Alec’s approach. Or that of the MOL. He wrote…

“I find it laughable how precious everyone has become. Whatever happened to being responsible for one’s own actions? The last time I checked, the prevailing theory was “survival of the fittest,” not survival of the most well-padded or the most obedient.

If someone builds an unsafe scaffold and gets hurt it’s their own fault, not their employer and not the homeowner.

The fact that the MOL and the province profit from the fines they hand out to people like this is just as nauseating as their half-assed attempt at constructing scaffolding.”