Too disunited to govern?

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, November 21, 2011 at 10:00 AM - 0 Comments

The Canadian Press finds increasing unease among Conservative MPs about the government’s support for asbestos.

The first public cracks in the Conservative party line came on Nov. 1, when five Tory MPs broke ranks and abstained from an NDP vote that would have banned asbestos exports. That was followed last Monday with a private Parliament Hill meeting that saw about a dozen Conservative parliamentarians ask some pointed questions of the Chrysotile Institute and industry scientists over several hours … Other Conservative MPs who were not at the meeting have told The Canadian Press they too are uneasy with the current position on asbestos. One Tory, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said some of his colleagues might have voted for the recent NDP motion if had been worded more narrowly and had actually been binding on government.

The idea that more Conservative MPs would’ve voted in favour of the NDP motion if it had somehow been binding is a novel one. If the government whipped the entirely symbolic vote earlier this month, one assumes they would whip a more consequential vote, meaning any Conservatives who voted with the opposition would almost certainly be punished.

Our Julia Belluz previously handled the question of whether asbestos could be handled safely.

The House stands with asbestos

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, November 1, 2011 at 9:03 PM - 0 Comments

By a vote of 152-123 this evening the House defeated the NDP’s motion on asbestos. The New Democrats, Liberals and Elizabeth May voted in favour, the Conservatives and Bloc Quebecois voted against.

To my eye, three Conservatives abstained, including Patricia Davidson. I’m told the Conservative vote was otherwise whipped.

The House will pass judgment on asbestos

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, November 1, 2011 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

This evening the House of Commons will vote on the following NDP motion.

That, in the opinion of the House, the government should: (a) ban the use and export of asbestos; (b) support international efforts to add chrysotile asbestos to the list of hazardous chemical products under the Rotterdam Convention; (c) assist affected workers by developing a Just Transition Plan with measures to accommodate their re-entry into the workforce; (d) introduce measures dedicated to affected older workers, through the employment insurance program, to assure them of a decent standard of living until retirement; and (e) support communities and municipalities in asbestos producing regions through an investment fund for regional economic diversification.

The government whip’s office won’t say whether this will be considered a free vote for Conservatives.

Conservative MP Patricia Davidson has lobbied the government to reconsider its position on asbestos in the past and restated her opposition to exports two months ago. Former cabinet minister Chuck Strahl, father of current Conservative MP Mark Strahl, has recommended that Canada support the addition of asbestos to the Rotterdam Convention.

Full archive of asbestos coverage here.

‘That’s their choice’

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 4:43 PM - 17 Comments

A few weeks after a group of doctors and medical professionals called on Conservative MP Kellie Leitch to renounce her government’s position on asbestos, a group of individuals who’ve lost loved ones to asbestos-related illness are calling on Ms. Leitch to choose between politics and her medical license. When she spoke to the Barrie Advance earlier this month, she seemed unpersuaded by the controversy.

“The Canadian government has stated that it supports the safe controlled use of Chrysotile,” said Leitch. “It will continue to do so, anything to do with the decision that [buyers] make – that’s their choice.” … When asked about how her medical expertise affects her decision to support or not support the mining and export of asbestos, Leitch, an orthopedic surgeon, said her expertise is in bones. 

The asbestos shame

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 11:09 AM - 4 Comments

Last week, doctors wrote to Conservative MP Kellie Leitch, imploring her to uphold her obligation as a doctor. Yesterday, the Canadian Medical Association passed a motion condemning the government’s refusal to acknowledge asbestos as a hazardous substance.

“This is an important health care issue and a product that causes significant illness and even death,” outgoing CMA president Dr. Jeff Turnbull told reporters in St. John’s on Wednesday. “Canada should not be in the business of exporting such a dangerous product.”

The motion came from doctors in Quebec, where the province is currently weighing whether to provide a government loan guarantee to revive the mine in Asbestos, Que., which is one of only two remaining asbestos operation in Canada.

Tories stifle widow through IP laws, twirl moustaches, cackle

By Jesse Brown - Tuesday, August 16, 2011 at 5:19 PM - 29 Comments

Robert Keyserlingk was a lifelong Tory who died horribly in 2009 from mesothelioma, a cancer typically caused by asbestos exposure. Keyserlingk had regular contact with asbestos in his youth while working summer jobs on Canadian naval ships.

Before his death, he crusaded against Canada’s government-supported asbestos industry, and his wife Michaela has carried on the cause since. Every month, she pays $300 to run this banner ad on websites, which links to her own anti-asbestos website:

The Conservative Party is now threatening to sue her for trademark infringement. Continue…

Conservatives threaten to sue asbestos widow

By macleans.ca - Monday, August 15, 2011 at 10:53 AM - 12 Comments

The Conservative Party is threatening legal action against Michaela Keyserlingk, a Quebecois widow and anti-asbestos activist, whose husband died in 2009 after contracting lung cancer from asbestos-laden pipes. Keyserlingk received a cease and desist letter from Conservative Party Executive Director Dan Hilton, requesting that she remove an ad banner used to promote her website, canadianasbestosexports.ca. “Canada is the only Western Country that still exports deadly asbestos,” reads the banner’s text, which is placed between a “Danger” symbol, and the Conservative Party logo. Keyserlingk says her husband was a “true blue” Conservative, serving as the president of the Ottawa Centre Progressive Conservative riding association before being diagnosed with cancer. “What killed him”, she told the National Post, “is what they are now advertising.”

The National Post

‘Breathe different’

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, July 5, 2011 at 3:08 PM - 2 Comments

Tabatha Southey tries to help rebrand Asbestos.

“Asbestos: A different kind of silver lining.”

“Asbestos: It’s like cotton candy for your walls. (But ideally not for mine.)”

“It’s CARE-cinogenic.”

“Look, world, it’s practically the same colour as a baby seal, and we’re saving it. Get off our backs.”

“Asbestos, now with zero trans fats.”

White gold

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, July 4, 2011 at 9:40 AM - 2 Comments

The town of Asbestos stands by its namesake.

Gilles Morin, a popular community physician who worked for the company for 20 years before going into family medicine, agreed. “The rate of exposure to chrysotile fibres today is infinitesimally small,” he said. “I’m fed up with being treated like an imbecile or a contract killer because I support asbestos.”

Mr. Nicholls, one of his patients, walks slowly around his home, catching his breath as his lungs slowly harden from a disease that will eventually suffocate him. But he too feels the industry is “not as dangerous as it once was” – though he is genuinely worried about the health of less-protected workers abroad.

This is the week that was

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, June 26, 2011 at 4:18 PM - 0 Comments

The Conservatives were bashful. And mysterious. And succinct.

The House talked and talked and talked and talked and talked about sending Canada Post employees back to work. And then it stopped.

The government tabled the Afghan detainee documents. Which you can read more about here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. Continue…

Conceding the point, sticking with the policy

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, June 24, 2011 at 2:54 PM - 0 Comments

The government’s delegation in Geneva offers an interesting admission.

The Canadian delegation at an international summit admitted Thursday it agrees with the work of a United Nations scientific panel that wants limits placed on the export of chrysotile asbestos, but Canada still won’t back the move … The Canadian delegation on Thursday said the expert panel’s guidance document, which included its recommendation to list the carcinogen on Annex III, was “appropriate and the criteria for listing was met. Canada is not in a position to support the listing.”

Meanwhile, Sarah Schmidt tries to get the government to unequivocally state its position on the Rotterdam Convention and is duly stymied.

Standing up for asbestos

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, June 23, 2011 at 9:54 AM - 0 Comments

The Canadian delegation interjected yesterday to object to the inclusion of asbestos in the Rotterdam Convention.

At a summit in Switzerland, Canada’s delegation ended days of silence and speculation by opposing the inclusion of asbestos on a UN treaty called the Rotterdam Convention. “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 in an email.

Vietnam, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan also opposed the listing.

Canada refuses UN recommendation to list asbestos as dangerous

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 2:58 PM - 0 Comments

Canada announced its objection on Wednesday to a recent UN recommendation that chrysotile asbestos—one of Quebec’s main exports—be listed on Annex III of the United Nations’ Rotterdam Convention. Such a move would force Canada to inform other countries of the mineral’s danger prior to exportation. Chrysotile asbestos is a carcinogen, mined heavily in Quebec. It has been deemed cancer-causing by both the Canadian Cancer Society and the Canadian Medical Association, who have urged the federal government to heed the UN’s recommendation and consent to the listing. Ukraine and India are two countries among a growing consensus of UN members who would like the mineral to be fall under the cautionary listing.

Postmedia

‘The miracle is in the original asbestos fibre’

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, June 22, 2011 at 9:32 AM - 7 Comments

Randy Boswell digs into the history of asbestos mining in Quebec and finds Jack Layton’s father.

The late Robert Layton, a Quebec MP in the 1980s who served as federal mines minister in Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservative government, played a high-profile role in championing Canada’s asbestos industry at a time when the world had just come to recognize the serious health risks posed by handling the fibrous, fire-resistant mineral. Robert Layton, in fact, was probably best known during his two-year term as Mulroney’s mines minister for promoting asbestos as a “good product” in the face of growing international opposition to the mining and export of the cancer-causing material.

'Problematic if misused'

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 11:28 AM - 3 Comments

Former cabinet minister Chuck Strahl says the government should support the addition of asbestos to the Rotterdam Convention.

Canada has to decide if asbestos should be listed in the Rotterdam Convention as a product that is ‘flagged’ as potentially harmful. We should do that, not because chrysotile, or white, asbestos is the most dangerous (it’s not) or because it cannot be used safely in some circumstances (it can), but because importers and exporters have the right to know it can be problematic if misused.

While the government still refuses to say whether it will support the listing of asbestos, Julia Belluz takes to our new blog Science-ish to take apart the claim that chrysotile asbestos can be used safely.

Can asbestos be used "safely"?

By Julia Belluz - Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 9:44 AM - 48 Comments

Photograph by Flickr user shaymus22

The Statement: “All scientific reviews clearly confirm that chrysotile [white asbestos] fibres can be used safely under controlled conditions.” (Dimitri Soudas, PMO communications director, 06/15/2011)

Chrysotile, or white asbestos, is back in the news again, and doctors around the world are questioning the Canadian government’s championing of a substance that has been banned in most developed countries. “My jaw dropped when I heard [Soudas’ statement],” says Dr. Matthew Stanbrook, a specialist in respirology at Toronto’s University Health Network and assistant professor in the department of medicine at the University of Toronto. “It’s so completely misrepresentative of the science.” Continue…

Government won’t reveal its position on asbestos

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, June 15, 2011 at 1:34 PM - 3 Comments

The federal government won’t reveal what its stance will be on chrysotile asbestos at an upcoming international conference in Geneva. Twice in the past, Canada has blocked the known carcinogen from being placed on a global list of hazardous chemicals under the Rotterdam Convention, which operates by consensus. Even though Canada has spent tens of millions of dollars removing the chemical from public buildings, including Parliament, it remains one of the world’s main exporters of asbestos. Minister of Industry Christian Paradis told the CBC that the Canada’s position on asbestos hasn’t changed in 30 years and that “we won’t necessarily recommend” the chemical to be listed at the meeting in Geneva. PMO spokesman Dmitri Soudas said the Canadian government maintains that chrysotile asbestos “can be used safely under controlled conditions.” More than 200 health experts have signed an open letter to the prime minister saying the government’s position is “harming Canada’s international reputation.”

Canadian Press

Patricia Davidson Maverick Watch

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, June 3, 2011 at 10:49 AM - 3 Comments

The Conservative backbencher pushed her government to reconsider its support of the asbestos industry.

“The myopic policy of supporting the asbestos industry without fail must be viewed rationally and scientifically, and from both viewpoints the current policy our government supports falls well short,” she told Natural Resources Minister Christian Paradis on March 25, 2010…

“In my view, this is not a partisan political issue, nor is it an issue where electoral politics should trump human health concerns that are truly at issue with the policy,” she stated.

Well, this is awkward

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, January 28, 2011 at 1:17 PM - 68 Comments

The host of a fundraiser for Michael Ignatieff owns a company that exports asbestos from Quebec.

Their differences on asbestos aside, Ignatieff said he’s happy to attend Chadha’s fundraiser. ”Baljit Chadha is a great guy, personal friend, great businessman,” he said. ”(Asbestos) is a discussion I have with Mr. Chadha, but I’m happy to be there tonight.”

The mining and export of asbestos is as fascinating a test of political leadership as there is in this country. Mr. Ignatieff’s stated objections have already cost him a candidate in Thetford Mines. Stephen Harper supports the industry, but at least two government backbenchers feel otherwise.

Marijuana v. Asbestos

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, April 16, 2010 at 9:52 AM - 20 Comments

As part of a Mark series on what we should ban and what we should legalize, Liberal Keith Martin says decriminalize marijuana, while NDP MP Nathan Cullen says ban asbestos.

Separately, Progressive Conservative Senator Elaine McCoy recently wrote that Canada should consider legalizing marijuana with an eye to the potential revenue generated.

Take a position, lose a candidate

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, August 31, 2009 at 7:37 PM - 42 Comments

The Liberals have apparently lost a candidate in Quebec.

Liberal election readiness suffered one setback Monday – the resignation of a Quebec candidate over Ignatieff’s stance that Canada should stop exporting asbestos, the lifeblood of Quebec’s Thetford Mines district.

Ignatieff did not back down, saying a Liberal government would help the region develop other job creation possibilities.

More here (en francais).

Three days

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, August 28, 2009 at 12:26 PM - 5 Comments

Three days ago, Blair Robertson posted a video to YouTube with his predictions for the next few months of political events in Canada. Among his prognostications: that a fall election would be disastrous for the Liberals and that the number two would somehow factor into the fortunes of Michael Ignatieff and Stephen Harper, possibly in the form of floor-crossing MPs.

What’s happened since then? Well, the Liberals dispatched Senator David Smith to cast doubt on the conventional wisdom that his party would force a fall election. And two Conservative MPs broke with the government’s position on asbestos mining, putting themselves in line with Mr. Ignatieff’s stated position.

My bold prediction: by end of business today, Blair Robertson will be the newest member of the Globe and Mail’s Ottawa bureau or Evan Soloman’s first hire for CBC’s new evening politics show.

'I could get myself in a lot of trouble for this'

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, August 27, 2009 at 6:44 PM - 33 Comments

Two Conservative MPs call for an end to asbestos mining.

Conservative MP Dona Cadman of British Columbia told Canwest News Service Thursday she would love to see asbestos mining operations in Quebec shut down, adding “I could get myself in a lot of trouble for this.”

Ontario Conservative MP Pat Davidson told the Sarnia Observer last week — after the Canadian Medical Association called for a ban on asbestos use and exports — that “I’m definitely not supporting the mining or exporting of asbestos.”

Asbestos: still possibly the most fascinating political issue of our time

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, August 24, 2009 at 3:43 PM - 17 Comments

As previously discussed here and here, asbestos, and Canada’s exporting thereof, is possibly the single greatest test of political leadership this country currently has to offer. And despite having struggled mightily with it at first, Michael Ignatieff is still attempting to find an answer.

From the Montreal Gazette: In response to a question from the audience regarding the asbestos industry, which has employed hundreds in the region for generations, Ignatieff said science has shown it is a harmful product and Canada should not be exporting it, but other work will have to be found for local workers if production is halted.

And from the Sherbrooke Record: Ignatieff reiterated his opposition to Canada’s asbestos industry, fully aware of its importance in the region. “I know how important asbestos is to the region around Thetford Mines and I’m aware of the hardship involved,” he said, “but the science is telling us that its is dangerous and we have to follow the science. I don’t think we should be exporting dangerous substances.”