The Hogg’s Hollow Tragedy: The Tunnel That Changed Toronto is a 1-hour, English-language documentary from TLN Studios that uncovers the human and political fallout of Canada’s deadliest underground construction disaster.
On March 17, 1960, five young Italian immigrants working 35 feet below the Don River were trapped when a welding spark ignited flammable materials, flooding the pressurized, oxygen-dependent tunnel with smoke, fire, and water. Lacking gas detectors, breathing gear, and communication systems, they succumbed within minutes to carbon-monoxide poisoning and drowning. Their deaths triggered a historic inquest, mass union mobilization, and the first major overhaul of Ontario labour-safety laws in 40 years.
Part investigative history and part intergenerational tribute, the film connects the sacrifice of the five “sandhogs” to the legislative DNA of modern Canadian workplace protections—proving that from a terrible void, systemic change finally broke ground.
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