Dartmouth firefighter remembered for fight to expand cancer compensation coverage

A Dartmouth, N.S., firefighter who was one of the public faces of the effort to expand the list of cancers considered a workplace injury for firefighters has died.

Capt. Billy Marr was 46 and died late Thursday. He had two young sons.

When Marr's cancer was discovered after a routine colonoscopy in 2020, he spoke out about the need for expanding the list of cancers that were presumed related to firefighting work. At the time, only six types of cancer were recognized, which included colorectal cancer.

"How can you expect people to lay their lives on the line on a regular basis if you're not going to look out for them?" he said in 2021.

In 2022, the province announced the list was being expanded to 19 cancers. Firefighters whose cancers are not on the list must try to prove their disease is related to their work in order to qualify for compensation.

"It changed things for firefighters, all firefighters in Nova Scotia, expanding that list and bringing us in line with other presumptive cancers that were covered in the other provinces ... I'm very proud of him for what he did," said Capt. Cory Dominix, a fellow firefighter who knew Marr for 34 years, beginning in childhood on the Eastern Shore.

When the province made the change, Marr applauded the decision.

"This is as important to me as the invention of the breathing apparatus because it's going to keep our people safe," he said. "It's going to protect them."

Dominix said Marr became a firefighter in 1999 and was a sounding board for many firefighters who looked up to him and sought his advice.

"If you were having a [bad] day, this guy could just turn you around and just brighten up the room," said Dominix. "As caring as he was, right to the bitter end, he would ask, 'Hey, man. How's your day?' He was a great friend."

Besides firefighting and his sons, Marr's other big passion was hockey.

Capt. Joe Triff, the vice-president of the Halifax Professional Firefighters Association, said Marr played in a noon hour league with firefighters, police officers and municipal employees. Triff said Marr had the same disposition on and off the ice.

"Always laughing, positive, [it] didn't matter if he made a mistake or you made a mistake, you just laugh it off," said Triff.

Marr was also active in the hockey community as a trainer and equipment manager, and even travelled internationally doing this for teams representing Canada.

He was also a huge Toronto Maple Leafs fan.

The team was in Halifax for some preseason work one year and Marr worked with the team, but had to sign a non-disclosure agreement, said Triff.

"Towards the end of his time in the hospital, he'd like to tell some stories and say, 'What are they going to do to me?'" said Triff.