A couple years back I had a case where a former East-German construction
worker told me some of the walls he was working near weren't safe, and one
of my West-German supervisors said "he's just a lazy Easterner." I'd seen
how these guys worked jackhammers all day, how they stood in front of the
heaters before they went out to the changing rooms so their clothes would
dry a bit and not turn to ice outside, and knew they weren't being paid much
on their "make work" welfare project. So I was really shocked a few years
later when a housewife, about 58 years old, got killed in an accident in the
former East. There were a lot of issues there: east vs. west, academics vs.
long-term unemployed, but basically mixing housewives and alcoholics with
heavy machinery, deep holes and medieval walls was an accident waiting to
happen. We should only have trained professionals on site, and remind them
over & over again about the safety regulations. We can never be perfect, but
we can try to do better.

-----Original Message-----

Now is not the time to question Mr. Bergeron's situation, since nobody  
has the information to make such judgements.  It should force everyone  
to reflect on our personal practices and those of the people we  
supervise: students or staff or volunteers.