Nova Scotia Labour Department Finds No Safety Breaches in Tragic Walmart Incident
Nova Scotia's Department of Labour, Skills and Immigration has officially concluded that no workplace safety violations occurred in connection with the October 2024 death of a 19-year-old Walmart employee. The young worker, Gursimran Kaur, was discovered inside a walk-in bakery oven at the Halifax superstore located on Mumford Road.
Extensive Investigation Yields No Safety Concerns
The department's safety branch conducted what it described as an extensive and thorough investigation into the workplace conditions and the specific oven involved in this tragic incident. Investigators determined the oven was in proper working order at the time and identified no safety violations that could have contributed to the worker's death.
'The Province has concluded its workplace safety investigation into the October 2024 death of an employee at the Walmart on Mumford Road in Halifax and found no violations,' the department stated in its formal release. The report specifically noted that investigators found 'no broader safety concerns associated with the type of oven' involved in the incident.
Police Previously Ruled Out Suspicious Circumstances
These findings follow an earlier police investigation that concluded in November 2024, when Halifax Regional Police announced they did not believe the death was suspicious. Constable Martin Cromwell stated at the time, 'We do not believe anyone else was involved in the circumstances surrounding the woman's death.'
The labour department's report made no mention of whether the death may have been suicide and was unable to offer any insights into how Kaur might have ended up inside the commercial oven. Police acknowledged that 'there are questions that may never have answers' regarding this tragic case.
Family and Community Continue to Grieve
Labour Minister Nolan Young expressed condolences, stating, 'Our thoughts remain with the worker's family, friends and co-workers as they continue to cope with this tragic loss.' The Maritime Sikh Society shared that Kaur and her mother had moved to Halifax from India approximately three years earlier, with both women employed at the same Walmart store.
Community members revealed that Kaur's mother became concerned on the night of October 19 after not seeing her daughter for over an hour during their shared shift. According to statements shared by the Society and on a GoFundMe page created to support the family, repeated phone calls went unanswered before Kaur's mother began searching the store.
The fundraising page described the horrific moment when Kaur's mother eventually discovered her daughter inside the walk-in oven in the bakery area. 'Imagine the horror that her mother experienced when she opened the oven, when someone pointed it out to her!' a family spokesperson wrote. The same page remembered Kaur as 'a young beautiful girl who came to Canada with big dreams.'
Walmart's Response and Store Renovations
A spokesperson for Walmart Canada confirmed that the oven was removed from the store as part of standard remodeling procedures being implemented across the country. The company emphasized that 'removing the oven had always been part of the standard remodel program' and was not specifically related to the incident.
Following the tragedy, the Mumford Road Walmart location was closed for several months to undergo extensive renovation work. The store eventually reopened to the public in February 2025, nearly four months after the incident occurred.
Under Nova Scotia's Occupational Health and Safety Act, the province investigates serious workplace incidents to determine whether safety laws were followed and to identify opportunities for future prevention efforts. The department stated, 'Our responsibility is to understand what happened, determine whether safety requirements were met and use those findings to support future prevention efforts.'
