Many of you may be aware that of the tragic workplace accident on Christmas Eve which left 4 men dead after the scaffold they were on collapsed. Â One of the men who died that day was Aleksanders Bondarevs. Â He was only 25. Â Aleksanders was the brother of a student at York, Konstantins Bondarevs, who was in my Employment Law course last term.
This is especially sad, because the Bondarevs family are relatively new to Canada and working very hard to establish themselves. Â The income they received from Aleksanders’ construction work was crucial to the family. Â Therefore, in addition to dealing with the emotional trauma of losing a young family member in a tragic accident, the family also now faces some unexpected economic hardships.
A while back, the newspapers noted that a trust fund had been established at the TD Bank for the families of all  4 of the killed workers.  Donations can be made at any TD Canada Trust, account No. 1076-6432077.
Since this tragedy directly effects a member of the York community, a trust fund has also been created for the Bondarevs family here on campus to make it easy for anyone at York to give what they can to help one of our families through this very difficult time. If you can give anything–any amount will help–please drop into the Alterna Savings Branch in York Lanes and tell them you want to make a donation to the Trust Fund for Aleksanders Bondarevs. The account number is: 4930215 (But I’m sure they can look that up for you). Â You can also speak with the Manager, Kevin Sham, who has been very helpful in this process.
Let’s show the family that York cares about its own. Â David
