Friday, April 29, 2011

Canada's PM pushes asbestos for votes

On 26 April 2011 articles in many Canadian and foreign papers reported that Canadian PM Stephen Harper had a campaign stop in Asbestos, Quebec in which he supported allowing Quebec's asbestos industry to export its product abroad:
The World Health Organization estimates that more than 107,000 people die of exposure to asbestos annually. Quebec's asbestos industry employs 500-800 people. And we wonder why Canada's reputation around the globe is in shreds. Harper supports Canada as an immoral exporter of death to poor countries.

Is there anything our PM won't do for a vote? Do Canadian jobs trump killing others? Anyone who votes Conservative needs to know what Harper stands for. And why was there no mention of Harper's Quebec campaign stop to support asbestos exports in the Edmonton Journal? Aren't newspapers supposed to keep citizens informed about the activities of the government?

2 comments:

  1. Right on! Canada was the world's biggest exporter of asbestos in the last century, leaving behind a trail of suffering and death. Which is why the countries that imported it from us in the past have all banned it. The industry is bankrupt and about to close down. The last operating asbestos mine in Canada (at Thetford Mines, Quebec) has 300 or so workers, average age 56 years, paid around $15 an hour and will shortly close down as its asbestos supply is depleted. A consortium of anonymous, foreign investors wants to open a new mine (Jeffrey)at Asbestos, that would hire 400 workers at $15 an hour, hoping for big profits for itself. Harper thinks this is a wonderful idea, saying he supports "the rights" of asbestos traders. He does not apparently support the human right not to be killed by asbestos. All the asbestos would be exported to Asia. They don't have a vote. So apparently their lives don't count.

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  2. Kate, Thanks for fleshing out the asbestos mining issue.

    Guess Harper supports our few tobacco growers too and is all for companies exporting cheap 'cancer and emphysema sticks' to Africa and Asia.

    Bound to happen when political parties and their leaders lack integrity and put people, especially the most vulnerable, last.

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