Canadian Occupational Safety (COS) magazine is the premier workplace health and safety publication in Canada. We cover a wide range of topics ranging from office to heavy industry, and from general safety management to specific workplace hazards.
Issue link: https://digital.thesafetymag.com/i/1277369
Sunny day at the beach with her husband and son Lyon-Bartley at the CSE Awards in 2019 with her colleagues 50 www.thesafetymag.com/ca CANADA'S SAFETY DIVA Trailblazer and 'safety diva Canada' Lee-Anne Lyon-Bartley is the executive vice president of health, safety, environment and quality for Horizon North Logistics and director-at-large of Women in Occupational Health & Safety Society (WOHSS). Q Could you tell me about your background and how you got into health and safety? A I studied public health at the school of occupational and public health at Ryerson. Over the years, I have been going between food safety, infection prevention and occupational health and safety roles and sometimes those responsibilities are combined. Q Could you tell me about your new role and its importance in the broader health & safety community? A I was appointed executive vice president in April [with Horizon North] and I could very well be the first Black safety professional working for a large employer in Canada to hold such [a] title. To me, it shouldn't really make a difference, but I recognize that it does matter to people who look like me and that they want to see themselves in these senior leader roles and just see the possibility that if one can do it, so can they. Q What do you like most about being a health and safety professional? A I'm a bit of a science geek, so I like the fact that health, safety, food safety, infection prevention and control, environment all include science! I always say as a health and safety professional you must understand the science behind what we support. Q How do you promote health and safety outside of work? A I try to lead by example and live health and safety at home. I also volunteer with My Safe Work and sit on a WSPS advisory committee and now volunteer with the Toronto Threads of Life planning committee. I also taught OHS courses at Keyano College, Humber college from 2011 to 2019 and, currently, Seneca College. I was also a regular guest on Season 2 of CBC's nationally televised Steven and Chris show talking about safety at home. Q What motivates you to do your best at work every day? A First and foremost, it's the people in our organization. We're a people business. I want to make sure that our employees continue providing excellent quality service in a safe and healthy workplace and that their time working for us does not cause them harm. Our management and leadership also motivate what my team does: That's why I sit on the executive leadership for the organization and I report directly to one of the CEOs. If an organization wants an easy way to show commitment, start by looking at the reporting lines and put health and safety reporting into who is ultimately responsible for the organization. M Y S A F E T Y M O M E N T P E O P L E