One of the most rewarding parts of my professional practice is helping safety practitioners become Canadian Registered Safety Professionals (CRSP). As one of the providers of courses, study materials and practice questions, I meet a great number of safety people struggling to take in and retain huge volumes of information and knowledge required to meet the testing of the 147 defined competencies in the Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals’ (BCRSP’s) Blueprint for Examination.

I'm a liar. There, I said it. I lie.

I lie sometimes when I'm in a social situation and my line of work is questioned. If I know I’ll never see these folks again, I might just tell them that I'm a painter. “I paint houses,” I might say.

Vancouver will be buzzing again as safety professionals across the West Coast gather for the 17th annual Western Conference on Safety on April 23 and 24. Organizers hail the show as Western Canada’s largest occupational health and safety event.

When I was 7 years old, we came home one day from the grocery store and unloaded everything into the house while the car sat in the driveway. I stayed in the house with Mom and my sister, while Dad put the car away. It was a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Sport Sedan. Back then it was just a nice car; a couple more decades would pass until it became a classic.

So, Dad then backed the car into the garage and in the process tore off the back door of the car that I had left open in my rush to get in the house. Clearly my fault — at least, according to Dad.