Stop-work order lifted at Halifax Walmart bakery after employee death

Warning: This story contains distressing details

Nova Scotia’s Department of Labour, Skills and Immigration has lifted a stop-work order for the bakery of a Halifax Walmart following the death of a 19-year-old employee.

The order was issued after the body of Gursimran Kaur was found in a large commercial oven in the store bakery on Oct. 19 during her shift. Her mother, who also worked at the store, discovered the body. 

“The stop-work order was lifted when compliance was confirmed, allowing bakery operations to safely resume should Walmart decide to do so,” the department said in an email to CBC News on Oct. 29.

The Mumford Road location remains closed. In an Oct. 27 letter to employees obtained by CBC News, Walmart says the store is closed for at least another week and the company is not certain when it will reopen. 

Labour investigators conducted nine inspections at the Walmart on Mumford Road over the last five years, The Canadian Press reported last week. 

No enforcement action was taken after those inspections and no orders or administrative penalties were issued.

Halifax Regional Police have not released any new updates this week on their ongoing investigation into the cause of Kaur’s death.

Family’s suffering ‘unimaginable’

Kaur came to Canada about two years ago from India, said Balbir Singh, secretary of the Maritime Sikh Society. 

She was “a young beautiful girl who came to Canada with big dreams,” says an online fundraising page organized by the society.

Kaur’s mother is still suffering from shock but she authorized the release of information about her daughter for the GoFundMe page, the society said. 

The fundraising drive says the mother became frantic after her daughter didn’t answer her phone during the Saturday night shift. The mother, whose name was not released, eventually opened the walk-in bakery oven at the store and found her daughter’s burned body, it says.

The fundraiser, which had amassed nearly $200,000, requests donations to bring Kaur’s father and brother from the Punjab region of India to Nova Scotia for the funeral.

“This family’s sufferings are unimaginable and indescribable. They need your support to get through this horrific time,” it says.