THE safety, dignity and livelihoods of BC farmworkers will be front and centre as families, community organizations, labour and political leaders gather to remember three women — Amarjit Kaur Bal, 52, Sukhvinder Kaur Punia, 46, and Sarbjit Kaur Sidhu, 31 —  farmworkers killed in the 2007 crash of an overloaded van, the BC Federation of Labour announced on Monday.

This year’s memorial will begin at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 8 at the Matsqui Centennial Auditorium, 32315 South Fraser Way, in Abbotsford with light refreshments. The program will begin at 1 p.m. with an Indigenous welcome ceremony followed by a series of speakers. Participants will then walk to the nearby Golden Tree monument, where they will hold a candlelight vigil.

The memorial program, including a list of speakers, is available in English, Panjabi and Spanish.

The annual memorial service honours Bal, Punia and Sidhu who died when an overloaded van carrying them to work skidded out of control on the Trans-Canada Highway near Abbotsford.

Multiple investigations revealed that the van was illegally overloaded and had only two seat belts, was riding on mismatched and bald tires, had a wooden bench in the back, and was driven with a fraudulent safety permit by someone who did not have the proper license.

Located in Abbotsford’s Friendship Garden behind the Clearbrook Library, the Golden Tree Farmworkers’ Monument was seven years in the making. It honours the memory of the three women who were killed as well as the work done by all farmworkers. It was designed and built by local artists Dean and Christina Lauzé.