More than a year after a 19-year-old Walmart employee was found dead inside a walk-in bakery oven, a newly released government report is raising eyebrows — not because of what it found, but because of what it didn’t.
Nova Scotia’s Department of Labour, Skills and Immigration has concluded its investigation into the October 2024 death of Gursimran Kaur at a Walmart Supercentre in Halifax. The stunning determination: no workplace safety violations occurred.
Kaur’s body was discovered inside a walk-in oven in the bakery section of the Mumford Road store. Despite what officials described as an extensive investigation into the workplace conditions and the oven itself, the department says everything was in proper working order at the time of the tragedy.
Investigators found no mechanical failures. No broader safety concerns. No violations that could have contributed to her death.
Even more troubling, the report offers no explanation for how the teen ended up inside the industrial oven — and makes no mention of whether her death may have been self-inflicted.
“The Province has concluded its workplace safety investigation… and found no violations,” the department said in a formal statement, adding that the oven was functioning properly.
Labour Minister Nolan Young said the province’s responsibility was to determine whether safety requirements were met and to identify opportunities to prevent similar tragedies in the future. He extended condolences to Kaur’s family, friends, and coworkers.
An earlier police investigation by Halifax Regional Police reached a similarly perplexing conclusion. In November 2024, authorities announced they did not believe the death was suspicious.
“We do not believe anyone else was involved in the circumstances surrounding the woman’s death,” Constable Martin Cromwell said at the time. He acknowledged, however, that there are questions “that may never have answers.”
Those unanswered questions have haunted the community ever since.
Kaur and her mother had moved to Halifax from India roughly three years earlier in search of new opportunities. Both worked at the Walmart store.
On the night of October 19, her mother reportedly became worried after not seeing her daughter for more than an hour during their shift. Repeated phone calls went unanswered. According to statements shared by the Maritime Sikh Society and a GoFundMe page created to support the family, Kaur’s mother began searching the store — only to eventually discover her daughter inside the bakery oven.
“Imagine the horror that her mother experienced when she opened the oven,” a family spokesperson wrote on the fundraising page.
The page described Kaur as “a young beautiful girl who came to Canada with big dreams.”
In the months following the tragedy, Walmart Canada confirmed the oven was removed from the store. The company said its removal was part of a standard remodeling program already underway nationwide. The Mumford Road location remained closed for renovations for several months and reopened in February 2025.
Under Nova Scotia’s Occupational Health and Safety Act, the province investigates serious workplace incidents to determine whether laws were followed. In this case, officials say they were.
But for many, the central mystery remains: if there were no violations, no mechanical issues, and no foul play — how did a 19-year-old employee end up dead inside a commercial oven?
Authorities say some answers may never come. For her family and community, that uncertainty may be the hardest part of all.
The liberal Canadian government might get ideas to introduce self-euthanasia crematoriums.
This is old news
This is lousy reporting. Did Kaur work in the bakery? If not, which department did she work in? Who DID work in the bakery, and where were they when she walked into the burning oven? Did the doors lock her inside? How could they, when no safety violations were found? What department did the mother work in?
Were there no editors to hand this terrible piece back to the writer(s) and demand more questions and more answers? If not, how can better work be expected, if there is no one to read and critique the reporting?
Nobody failed at this Halifax Walmart, but What’s Up Today? FAILED BIG TIME.