Environmental groups, labor union leaders and other activist groups marched on the Canadian capital of Ottawa to urge the country’s Parliament to place a ban on the mining and manufacture of asbestos. Pat Martin, a Member of Parliament from Winnipeg and member of the country’s New Democratic Party, said that asbestos is the “greatest industrial killer” in the history of the planet and that Canada’s asbestos industry was “exporting human misery”.
The groups calling for the ban on the mineral stand in direct opposition to many government policies, especially those of the provincial government in Quebec. Earlier this month, Quebec Premier Jean Charest visited India, one of the leading importers of Canadian asbestos, to further cement the province’s long-standing relationship with the country’s construction firms and shipbuilders. Canada’s two remaining asbestos mines are also in Quebec and provide the area with hundreds of jobs.
The Canadian asbestos industry carries a heavy influence from Quebec natives. The director of the Chrysotile Institute is Clément Godbout, a personal friend of both Premier Charest and Canadian Natural Resources Minister Christian Paradis. The Chrysotile Institute, formerly known as the Asbestos Institute, is a powerful lobbying organization that promotes the idea that asbestos is safe to handle if workers follow proper precautions. The Institute has often employed political pressure on Parliament to prevent further bans and restrictions on asbestos products within Canada.
Minister Paradis has rejected the notion of a comprehensive asbestos ban. He has said that both Canada and its asbestos industry have “promoted the safe and controlled use” of asbestos for both domestic and exported projects. He mentioned that chrysotile, the only type of asbestos produced in and exported from Canada, “can be used safely under controlled circumstances”. He also said that the creation of such a ban “would not protect workers or the public” from exposure to asbestos-containing materials that occurred years ago.
MP Martin, as well as the other protestors, vehemently disagreed with the Minister’s assessment. MP Martin told reporters at a press conference that the country’s asbestos exports are “Canada’s greatest shame”. Over the last thirty years, researchers have established a positive link between asbestos exposure and lung disease. The nations that import Canadian asbestos, such as India, Bangladesh and Indonesia, often do not require that workers use protective equipment to protect them from being exposed to toxic levels of the mineral.
Sandra Kinart, a spokesperson for one of the activist groups in the procession, said that the Canadian government “should stop mining and stop selling” raw asbestos and asbestos-laced products. Mrs. Kinart’s husband passed away last year from a lung disorder. Doctors later determined that his lung disease stemmed from asbestos exposure. She also criticized the asbestos industry, saying “no man (goes) to work expecting to die”.
Other political leaders have also spoken out against the asbestos lobby. Mike Bradley, mayor of Sarnia, Ontario, said that workers in countries that handle Canadian asbestos “will curse the name of Canada” if Parliament does not enact a ban on the substance. Sarnia is a small industrial city near the US border that has experienced a high rate of lung disease and cancers related to asbestos exposure.
Source: AFP
