Hundreds of people from throughout Windsor-Essex came together at St. Augustine's Church for the National Day of Mourning.
The service honours workers who lost their lives on the job every year - 905 people lost their lives in 2016 alone, according to the Association of Workers Compensation Boards of Canada.
Linda Raniwski attended the service - she lost her brother Johnny in 1980 when a wall came down on a construction site in Etobicoke.
She tells CTV News she's attended the service ever since.
"Johnny was everything to us and I love my brother very much and I still miss him" says an emotional Raniwski. "My brother was the best; I come here every year to support him."
Tammy Lewis lost her sister to a workplace accident in 2007 and still remembers getting the call telling her sister was dead at 45 after getting pinned by steel coils at work.
"I was just getting ready to go work, we get a call at home saying my sister had an accident at work," says Lewis. "She was wonderful; she was such a good friend. She and I were very close together in age and I miss her so much, it's unbelievable. A day doesn't go by where I don't think about her or miss her."
Many in attendance called for more commitment to workers health and safety and for companies to hold human life in higher regard.
Raniwski says no one should question if they're going to make it home from work alive.
"I hope that the employers listen to what's going on and they make a better workplace for everybody," she says. "The workers also have to try and work safely as well."
The Ontario government set aside $1-million to support training in 2018 and 2019 to better cement workplace rights and responsibilities.
A march to the Injured Workers Monument on Riverside Dr. followed the service.
— with files from CTV Windsor