Dr. Kellie Leitch, Minister of Labour

A look at what we can expect from our new Minister of Labour.

So how many of you made it all the way through to Leitch at the Harper/Hudak/Ford TeaCon Trifecta BBQ?
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Steve & Dimitri - Ethical Asbestos

Sooey Says :

"The good widow taking our government to task for exporting asbestos to the third world – without warning labels on the bags of death dust – should just tell the bastards threatening to sue her (over using the Conservative Party of Canada logo on her petition) that she saw it on those cheques the Harper Government was handing out on behalf of taxpayers and assumed it belonged to all Canadians."

Petition !

Dear Prime Minister Harper:
 
I support Michaela Keyserlingk, whose husband died from asbestos cancer and who is asking you to stop supporting the deadly asbestos trade and creating more asbestos victims.

I call on you to heed the message of Michaela Keyserlingk and Canada's medical authorities. Stop the export of asbestos. Provide transition assistance to the remaining 300 asbestos miners.

Sincerely,
Your name here. Plus whatever editing you may care to add.

And a poster from Pale :



in solidarity with Michaela Keyserlingk.

Her story in her own words.







We're leaning on Steve here for his appalling outsized support of "ethical asbestos", but truly, Canada's record on asbestos has always been abysmal.
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Update : Pale has now also made a blog badge for your sidebar. Grab it and pass it on!
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Steve & Dimitri spin asbestos

Updated from comments : Tabatha Southey : To Canada, some ways to keep your reputation at its asBESTos

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Canada single-handedly blocks asbestos from Rotterdam hazards list

"Yes, I can confirm they intervened in the chemicals contact group meeting this afternoon and opposed listing,'' Michael Stanley-Jones of the UN Environment Program said.

Vietnam, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan also initially opposed the listing. However, Stanley-Jones said one-by-one they switched positions after India announced it would support the listing.

That left Canada as the lone voice against the listing.

"All had consented when Canada announced its position opposing listing,'' Stanley-Jones said.

Dangers in the Dust : Canada's Controversial Role

"No country has defended chrysotile as vigorously, and for as long, as Canada. When the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a rule banning asbestos in 1989, the government of Canada participated in an industry lawsuit that overturned the rule. When France banned asbestos a decade later, Canada teamed up with Brazil in an unsuccessful World Trade Organization challenge. And when a United Nations chemical review committee recommended in 2008 that chrysotile be listed under Annex III of the Rotterdam Convention — a treaty that requires exporters of hazardous substances to use clear labeling and warn importers of any restrictions or bans — Canada, India, and a few other nations kept the recommendation from winning the unanimous support it needed to pass."

Not even an outright ban on chrysotile asbestos, just a treaty requiring safety labelling.

Toronto Star : Canada's booming asbestos market (2009)

"Last June, CBC-TV filmed the interior of an Eagle plant [in India] in which asbestos was exposed to the open air, everything the officially condoned “wet” process is meant to avoid. Pandya isn’t particularly fussed by the revelations that the operation does not comply with safety norms. That facility, run by his son, still uses the dry method, he says, and still purchases asbestos from LAB Chrysotile. The conduit? “I know Mr. Matta very well."

Mr. Matta is the exclusive agent in India for LAB Chrysotile Inc., which operates one of Canada’s two remaining asbestos operations, in Thetford Mines, Que.

Here on Jon Stewart, Bernard Colombe, president of Mine Jeffrey, explains that Indians have a natural immunity to forms of 'pollution' like asbestos.

And I still want to know - why did Sebastien Togneri, aide to Minister of Asbestos Christian Paradis, block access-to-information requests "involving the backgrounds of members of a government panel examining asbestos"?
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Con aide to Minister of Asbestos resigns. A question.

An aide to Christian Paradis, Minister of Asbestos, resigned last night over his own meddling in at least four access-to-information requests, one of which involved :

"the backgrounds of members of a government panel examining asbestos."

Would that be the backgrounds of the members of this government panel, by any chance? March 2010 :

The one remaining asbestos mine in Canada, second largest exporter of asbestos in the world, is in the riding of Natural Resources Minister Christian Paradis.

At the last meeting of the Committee on Natural Resources, NDP Pat Martin moved to cut the $250,000 funding the department allocates to the [asbestos lobby group] Chrysotile Institute. No one supported the motion, and the other committee members - I'm looking at you, Libs - slunk away so there was no longer the quorum necessary for the vote.

At the time I wondered why, as per the Sierra Club's allegations, the Natural Resources Ministry was paying the Chrysotile asbestos lobby group to lobby its own minister.

On March 23, 2010, the motion to remove the government subsidy to Chrysotile Asbestos Institute was defeated in committee nine to one :
Geoff Regan, Liberal - NO ............ Nathan Cullen, NDP - YES
Navdeep Bains, Liberal - NO ........ Cheryl Gallant, Con - NO
Alan Tonks, Liberal - NO ............. Richard Harris, Con - NO
Paule Brunelle, Bloc - NO ............ David Anderson, Con - NO
Mauril Bélanger, Liberal - NO ...... Bernard Genereux, Con - NO

and that made me wonder why they all caved on what appears to be such an obvious conflict of interest at the very least.

In May, the minister's aide Sebastien Togneri was questioned by the Ethics Committee over his blocking of information. Shortly thereafter the Cons decided not to allow political staffers or their work/incriminating emails to appear before the committee any more and Paradis showed up in his aide's place.

As Pogge would say - things that make you go hmmm...
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h/t Antonia Z.
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Asbestos vote today at Natural Resources Committee

{updated below}
Dear Prime Minister Harper,

While cutting funds from women's groups and aboriginal healing programs, you want to give $ 250,000.00 of taxpayers' money to the Chrysotile Institute (a registered lobby group for the asbestos industry).

I strongly object to my taxes being given to an asbestos lobby group. The Canadian Cancer Society, health experts and asbestos victims' groups overseas have all appealed to you to stop funding the Chrysotile Institute.

I call on you to stop this callous misuse of public funds immediately. I look forward to receiving your positive reply.

[Your name here.] and it cc's Iggy, Jack, etc at the link.

An estimated 90,000 individuals die annually due to asbestos-related diseases, according to data from the World Health Organization. Canada reportedly mined approximately 150,000 to 200,000 tons of the stuff in 2008 and exported most of it to countries like India and Indonesia where the responsibility for warning workers of its dangers is up to the local government.
The one remaining asbestos mine in Canada, second largest exporter of asbestos in the world, is in the riding of Natural Resources Minister Christian Paradis.

At the last meeting of the Committee on Natural Resources, NDP Pat Martin moved to cut the $250,000 funding the department allocates to the Chrysotile Institute. No one supported the motion, and the other committee members - I'm looking at you, Libs - slunk away so there was no longer the quorum necessary for the vote.

That vote will come up again when the committee reconvenes today. Send them a wee nudge via Kathleen Ruff's letter above.

And while you're at it, you might want to add a little note to Christian Paradis, Minister of Asbestos, asking him why the fuck his Natural Resouces Ministry is paying Chrysotile $250,000 in order to lobby him.
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Noon Update : Today's recorded vote on Natural Resources Committee motion to remove government subsidy to Chrysotile Asbestos Institute : Defeated 9-1
Geoff Regan, Liberal - NO ............ Nathan Cullen, NDP - YES
Navdeep Bains, Liberal - NO ........ Cheryl Gallant, Con - NO
Alan Tonks, Liberal - NO ............. Richard Harris, Con - NO
Paule Brunelle, Bloc - NO ............ David Anderson, Con - NO
Mauril Bélanger, Liberal - NO ...... Bernard Genereux, Con - NO
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