'Your job is not worth your life': Stepmother of workplace fatality victim speaks out after arrest

N.S. woman talks about stepson's workplace death A stepmother is responding to the criminal charge laid against her stepson's workplace supervisor. Emily Baron Cadloff reports.

DARTMOUTH — Janice Way remembers her stepson Brandon Alcorn fondly. She says he was charming -- a jokester with a big smile and a big heart.

"He made an impact," Way said of Alcorn. "If you met him, you remembered him."

Alcorn was only 22 when he fell off the roof at a construction site in Dartmouth in March 2018.

He suffered major brain trauma.

Way and Alcorn's father rushed to the hospital to see their son one last time.

"I remember this one doctor that sat over to the side, and he said, 'He's not going to make it,' and my first reaction of course was, 'You're joking right? It's not possible,'" Way said.

The family decided to donate Alcorn's organs.

For them, knowing others were helped from the tragedy is comforting.

This week, Halifax Regional Police charged the foreman on that construction site, Jeff Gooch, with criminal negligence causing death.

There could be other charges pending.

"We have laid what we believe to be the appropriate charges in this case, but there are other agencies, like the Department of Labour, that are conducting their own investigation," said Halifax Regional Police spokesman Const. John MacLeod.

Way says she made her stepson a promise before he died.

"I promised Brandon in the hospital that I would make sure, I would do everything in my power to make sure that somebody is held responsible for what happened," she said.

Way says she will attend any trial and hopes anyone on a worksite can learn from this loss.

"Your job is not worth your life and not going home every day," Way said.