By Armina Ligaya
The Globe and Mail
VANCOUVER, B.C. — More than 1,000 firefighters from across the continent came to Vancouver yesterday to pay tribute to their colleague Robert Hall, even though many had never met him.
Dressed in prim dark-blue uniforms, they marched through the downtown streets, then filed into St. Andrew’s-Wesley United Church to say goodbye to the veteran firefighter, whom they knew by the legacy he left behind.
Mr. Hall, 51, was instrumental in the fight for cancer to be recognized as a work-related hazard for firefighters. His efforts as secretary-treasurer of his union helped lead to provincial legislation in 2005, which compensates firefighters diagnosed with the disease in the same manner as a firefighter burned on the front lines.
It was a victory that eventually helped Mr. Hall himself when he battled colorectal cancer over the past year, finally succumbing to the disease on Aug. 27.
Full Story: Firefighter honoured as one ‘to face danger with’