Hold Iggy to his call for banning asbstos
April 6, 2009
Michael Ignatieff has been caught in the political controversy surrounding the export of the most deadly workplace substance in history: asbestos. As you know it is still mined in Quebec and exported (95% to 3rd world countries). In a public meeting in Victoria Ignatieff answered a question about whether or not we should ban its export. This is what he said (in part):
“Our export of this dangerous product overseas has got to stop.”
There is no ambiguity - a CP journalist and one from theTyee.ca both taped the remarks.
But asbestos is a very hot issue in Quebec. Ignatieff, under pressure from the Chrysotile Institute (CI) ( the asbestos lobby) issued a statement denying he made the above remarks:
“What I said in response to a question in Victoria, is that we have an obligation, it's an international Convention, to warn countries to which we export this product, so that they know that there are risks for public health. That is all I said. That's my position."
Quite simply, he just chose to lie, hoping that no one could be bothered to call him on it.
There is a global fight against asbestos heating up - to the point where activists in France, Brazil and India are all being sued for slander by the CI and a Canadian activist has also been threatened with legal action by a prominent defender of the industry.
It is critical that Ignatieff’s position on asbestos and his quick retreat, be spread as far and as wide as possible.
Write a short letter - the main goal is just to get Ignatieff’s original quote into the newspapers.
FRAMING: Frame your argument by portraying Iggy’s first - apparently gut - response as the right one and the same response the vast majority of Canadians would have. We need to frame the CI’s heavy hand here (they issued a statement criticizing the Liberals) as an instance in which a corporation and its p.r. hacks determine public policy, in this case policy that kills..
Some facts and arguments to use:
- Given the following (pick two or three) why on earth would Michael Ignatieff NOT want to keep his word and demand that the export of asbestos be stopped?
- Ignatieff’s recanting of his opposition means that he and Harper are both complicit in allowing for the certain death of literally hundreds of workers in the many third world countries which import this poisonous substance.
- Over 60% of the workplace deaths every year in Canada are the result of exposure to asbestos. In BC 300 workers will die every year for the next 5 years from asbestos-caused illnesses.
- The World Health Organization (WHO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety &Health (NIOSH), the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the Canadian Cancer Society have called for chrysotile asbestos to be banned.
- Yet Liberal and Conservative governments have repeatedly blocked the addition of chrysotile asbestos to the Rotterdam Convention on dangerous substances - which would require only that importing countries be informed of its dangers.
- The Canadian Medical Association Journal editorial of Oct. 21, 2008 accuses the Canadian government of "contributing to asbestos-related illnesses and deaths in the developing world." ...and that “Canada is more than just a major asbestos exporter. To keep the export industry alive, it has become an avid asbestos cheerleader.” *
- Asbestos use is regulated so strictly in Canada that it is no longer used because it would be uneconomic. 95% of our asbestos is exported to 3rd world countries which have virtually no capacity to protect their workers from the dangers of this substance.
- This is a dying industry that should be wrapped up and its workers retrained for other work. (Over 90% of the workers have been laid off; the remaining approximately 550 workers have had their wages slashed and work part-time; and in 2007, the asbestos mining company, LAB Chrysotile Inc, filed for bankruptcy protection.) **
- The CI is one of the most ruthless and dishonest lobby groups anywhere in the world - a throwback to the tobacco lobby days. It continues to ridicule global warming, the dangers of lead in gasoline as well as the threat of asbestos. ***
- The federal government continues to fund the CI by $250,000 a year.
* http://tinyurl.com/cger57
** From a letter from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Laval, Quebec City, to PM Stephen Harper - go to http://www.bacanada.org/main.html
***See CI’s web page: http://chrysotile.com and the article: “Scared to Death”
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