Posted Sep 6, 2012
By John Curry
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EMC news ? For five months now, every Wednesday, Rev. Michel Dubord of Richmond and a small group of supporters have been holding one-hour Wednesday afternoon vigils at prominent locations in Richmond, Stittsville and Kanata, protesting the export of cancer-causing asbestos from Canada to developing countries.
And while Rev. Dubord, with his four by eight foot sign ?End Export of Canadian Cancer ? Asbestos,? has attracted the attention of passing motorists, sometimes receiving honks or waves of support, it has been a campaign that has not only tested his endurance, ranging from the cold of an April afternoon when he and his supporters bundled up wearing toques to the heat of a July vigil, but also has challenged his pride of country, given that the export of cancer-causing asbestos seems so contrary to the kind of principled actions that Canada usually takes on the international stage.
So, you can see how statements in the Quebec provincial election gave Rev. Dubord a douse of hope and faith that the export of asbestos may cease, along with the mining of asbestos in Canada.
Just before Canada Day, the Quebec Liberal government announced a $58 million loan to cover much of the cost of renovating and re-opening the Jeffrey Mine in Asbestos, Quebec, allowing asbestos production to continue for another couple of decades.
But in the Quebec provincial election, first the new Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) party and then the Parti Quebecois (PQ) both came out against the mining of asbestos and its export. The CAQ stated that the export of such cancer causing material goes against the values of Quebec society and vowed to stop its export and use the $58 million loan funds to help promote other industrial activity.
And then PQ party leader Pauline Marois got aboard the anti-asbestos bandwagon.
?Marois vows to shut down Quebec?s asbestos industry,? blared the headline in the Thursday, Aug. 30 Ottawa Citizen, as she pledged, if elected, to cancel the $58 million loan to the asbestos industry and to take Quebec out of the asbestos mining and exporting business while consulting with workers in Asbestos about how to diversify that regional economy to replace the asbestos industry.
Rev. Dubord wishes that the Anglican Church would have made a public statement protesting the export of asbestos from Canada but no such statement has yet been forthcoming. Indeed, Rev. Dubord?s involvement in the issue began at the Anglican Church Synod in 2011 when an overwhelming majority voted in favour of his motion to ?advocate the end of Canadian exports of asbestos by directing Diocesan Council to have letters written to this effect to the Government of Canada and the Government of Quebec and to consult with the Episcopal Government Relations Panel and the dioceses of Montreal and Quebec to explore other possible avenues of advocacy.? However, despite this motion, nothing formal in the way of protest of the export policy has yet come forward from Anglican Church officials.
But, nonetheless, Rev. Dubord will be out continuing his protest, holding his weekly Wednesday vigil at Memorial Park in Richmond throughout the month of September. He will be there from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. every Wednesday in the month with everyone welcome to join him if they wish.
He is just coming off holding the vigils in Stittsville where the protest was noticed by numerous motorists, hopefully raising awareness of the issue in their minds.
There are documented links between asbestos and cancer. This has prompted numerous countries, including Canada itself, to stop using asbestos.
In the early 1900?s, Canadian asbestos accounted for 85 percent of the world?s production. After peaking in 1973, production has slowly declined as exposure to asbestos was linked to serious health problems such as lung disease and cancer.
By 2010, Canada was producing only five percent of the world?s asbestos, some 100,000 tonnes.
For Rev. Dubord, who has undertaken this protest action on his own accord and not in his role as rector at St. John the Baptist Anglican Church in Richmond, he sees the matter quite simply. Asbestos is not used in Canada because of its documented health issues, namely that is causes cancer. And yet Canada permits the export of this material to developing countries where it will adversely impact the health of all those who work with it.
Asbestos has been removed at a large cost from the Parliament Buildings due to health concerns and yet the current federal government still allows its export to development countries for use there.
Rev. Dubord does not blame the people of the Asbestos area in Quebec for working in the asbestos industry. After all, it means jobs and a livelihood for them. But he believes that the governments could come up with some alternative employment strategies for that area to offset the shutdown of the asbestos industry. This appears to be what both the CAQ and the PQ parties advocated in the election campaign.
The World Health organization estimates that asbestos-related diseases including certain forms of lung cancer kill more than 105,000 people around the world each year. These deaths are the result of asbestos-related lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis, all caused by inhaling asbestos fibres. In Canada, asbestos use is not banned but because of its known health risks, Canadians simply do not use it. But despite these known health hazards, Canada exports thousands of tones of asbestos each year to countries like India, Thailand and Indonesia. Most of this Canadian asbestos is shopped overseas as loose fibre in bags. Workers in these receiving countries then dump these bags of asbestos by hand, creating clouds of carcinogenic dust swirling around them.
Rev. Dubord notes that exposure to asbestos in the countries to which Canada is exporting the substance will cause health problems, perhaps not today but certainly down the road as the asbestos fibres penetrate the lungs of its handlers and start causing respiratory and cancer problems and eventually a prolonged death.
Chrysotile asbestos is mined in Quebec and exported to developing countries with the support of the current Canadian federal government. Asbestos ends up killing since it sheds tiny dust fibres continuously. Once inhaled, these fibres become tangled with lung tissues where they cause cancer, typically lung cancer, asbestosis and mesothelioma. For more information about the export of asbestos from Canada, go to the website www.canadianasbestosexports.ca
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Article source: http://www.emcstittsvillerichmond.ca/20120906/news/Asbestos+in+Quebec+election
Source: http://www.alpharm.co.uk/2012/09/asbestos-in-quebec-election/
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