“More asbestos! More asbestos!”

From today’s Morning Brief, courtesy of iPolitics:

“Later today Prime Minister Stephen Harper was scheduled to be in Thetford Mines, Que., to partake in a St-Jean Baptiste holiday barbecue. If you recall from Grade 7 geography, Thetford Mines is home to one of the largest asbestos deposits in the world.

“It’s perhaps no coincidence then that, while the prime minister scarfs a few hot dogs and shakes a few hands, his officials in Geneva were fighting late into the evening to keep asbestos off an international list of hazardous chemicals. Delegates at meetings of the Rotterdam Convention were evidently prepared on Thursday to declare chrysotile asbestos a hazard when Canadian delegates moved to block the designation.

“India is a major buyer of Canadian asbestos,” the brief noted, “but this week the country dropped its longstanding objection to putting chrysotile on the hazardous list. Canada is the only G8 country to object to the listing.”

Naturally, as reported by the CBC, the move drew plenty of fire from the opposition. “”Asbestos is the greatest industrial killer the world has ever known,” NDP MP Pat Martin said. “More people die from asbestos than all industrial causes combined, yet Canada continues to be one of the largest producers and exporters in the world. We are exporting human misery on a monumental scale. Our position is morally and ethically reprehensible.”

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