YOU CAN STILL GET CANCER FROM ASBESTOS PRODUCTS BEING IMPORTED INTO CANADA!

Chuck Strahl

PRIME Minister Stephen Harper needs to wake up and take action on the asbestos front.
His lack of principles for political expediency has been exposed by this newspaper and other media for the past few years and just recently he was put to shame by the new Quebec Premier Pauline Marois of Parti Quebcois – wow, a separatist teaching Harper how to be ethical! – who cancelled a loan to revive the asbestos industry in her province after having boldly declared during the election campaign that she would do that.
On Sunday, the Toronto Star newspaper reported that $2.6 million worth of brake pads that contained asbestos were imported into Canada last year. Isn’t that pretty ironical? We are spending millions of dollars all across the country to remove asbestos from buildings and yet we are importing these asbestos-containing brake pads and cement pipes!
The Star reported that Ontario’s Liberal MPP Liz Sandals introduced a private member’s bill earlier this year to ban such brake pads in that province. She pointed out: “Because we don’t mine, because we don’t use it in manufacturing, we are under the false impression that it’s gone.”
It’s pertinent to note here that Harper’s own former cabinet minister Chuck Strahl got incurable lung cancer from grinding brake shoes. Last year he pleaded to Harper to agree to the inclusion of asbestos on the Rotterdam Convention, a UN treaty. The listing would have forced Canada and other countries that export this deadly product to warn the recipient countries of any health hazards. Now, after the PQ’s victory in Quebec, Harper has had to agree to it! What a bozo!
The Star noted: “Ironically, brake pads made overseas with Canadian asbestos can make their way back here to be installed in cars. It’s a loophole in our laws that prevent manufacturers from using asbestos, but allow products containing it to come in from abroad.”
The newspaper quoted Rick Jamieson, CEO of ABS Friction, an asbestos-free brake pad manufacturer, as saying: “There’s no need and no reason to sell asbestos brake pads in Ontario. The price differential is not that great.”
In any case, this is shouldn’t be about money! It’s about lives.
According to Paul Demers, director of the Occupational Cancer Research Centre, hundreds of new cases of cancer caused by asbestos exposure are being diagnosed in Ontario each year.

- RATTAN MALL
EditorAsianJournal@gmail.com