A Halifax Walmart remains closed as a vigil grows outside the store on Oct. 23, after the death of a 19-year-old employee last weekend.Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press
The Sikh community of Halifax is calling for justice in the death of a hardworking young woman who died inside a Walmart bakery oven as police continue to investigate what they say is a complex and complicated case.
The victim was 19-year-old Gursimran Kaur, a Sikh woman originally from India who immigrated to Canada with her mother from Britain about two years ago, according to the Maritime Sikh Society.
Her mother, a co-worker at Walmart, was the one who discovered her body last Saturday night after an increasingly desperate hours-long search for the daughter around the store, said Simardeep Hundal, a former president of the society who spoke with the mother.
“It’s horrifying. I really, really cannot describe in words what she [the mother] endured at the time,” said Dr. Hundal.
Dr. Hundal said the mother is in shock but receiving psychological help and is supported by friends who are sitting with her. The Maritime Sikh Society started an online fundraising page, to help pay for the costs of bringing her husband and 10-year-old son from India to Halifax for the funeral.
As Ms. Kaur’s death has reverberated with headlines across the world, the GoFundMe has more than tripled its $50,000 goal in less than 24 hours.
Gursimran Kaur was a Sikh woman originally from India who immigrated to Canada with her mother from Britain about two years ago, according to the Maritime Sikh Society.HO/The Canadian Press
During the night shift on Oct. 19, her mother became frantic after her daughter stopped answering her phone. After several hours of searching, Ms. Kaur’s remains were found inside the bakery’s walk-in oven.
Balbir Singh, secretary of the Maritime Sikh Society, said such an incident demands accountability.
“She should get justice,” he said, adding that police should be updating the public regularly to stop the speculation on social media.
In a radio broadcast between an emergency 9-1-1 dispatcher and firefighters on the night of the incident, the dispatcher said: “A female is locked in an oven in the bakery,” and that the “oven was on and it’s unsure if staff are able to turn it off.”
Another voice came over the transmission to say that the young woman had been removed from the oven by the time first responders reached the scene.
Dhairya Trivedi, a colleague who was not working on the evening Ms. Kaur died, described her as “a very positive and hardworking associate.”
“I still can’t believe that she is not with us anymore,” he said in a message to The Globe and Mail.
At the Walmart where Ms. Kaur died, the flags flew at half-mast and the store remained closed on Thursday. Throughout the day, people dropped off flowers, attaching them to a lamppost that was surrounded by candles outside the entrance in a makeshift memorial.
The police appeared to be long gone – two hired security guards stood watch from a picnic table while people carrying bags of cleaning supplies and wearing blue medical gloves came and went from the closed store.
Halifax Regional Police Constable Martin Cromwell said the investigation is continuing as they await results on an official cause of death.
“It is very complicated. It is very complex,” he said.
“Our investigators are working very diligently alongside the Nova Scotia Medical Examiner Service and Occupational Health and Safety.”
Meanwhile questions remain about workplace safety at the Walmart store, which was not unionized, said Craig Walsh, president of the eastern provinces council of the United Food and Commercial Workers union.
He said that if homicide is ruled out then a thorough investigation is needed into the safety practices of the store and whether adequate inspections were carried out by the Labour Department.
Labour Department spokeswoman Sarah MacNeil said an investigation is continuing. Over the last five years, labour investigators have conducted nine inspections at this Walmart location. No enforcement action was taken.
Walmart declined to answer questions from The Globe about what it’s doing to ensure such an incident doesn’t happen at any of its other 400-plus locations in Canada.
“This matter is currently under investigation,” said Walmart spokesperson Amanda Moss. “And we cannot provide further comment.”
With a report from The Canadian Press