In Quebec, Hypocrisy is Spelt "A-S-B-E-S-T-O-S"

To listen to the various interviews of old time residents of Asbestos, Quebec, the asbestos capital of the world,  one might be pardoned for thinking that the much maligned mineral is as harmless as Play-doh.

Interviewee after interviewee explain on television news programs how they've been working around asbestos their whole lives with no ill effects and that the campaign against the product is ill-founded. Yessir!

I'm not going to insult readers by presenting the opposite view, the scientifically accepted fact that asbestos is a dangerous product that well deserves it's placement as a banned substance in the industrialized world.
If you'd really need convincing about the life-threatening consequences of living with asbestos, READ THIS

The current debate about the opening of the defunct JEFFREY MINE, to re-start production is one of the saddest and clearest cases of the politics of hypocrisy that I can recall. LINK

At stake are 450 direct jobs and 1200 indirect jobs in a decidedly depressed area of the province. The town of Asbestos grew up around the mine and the mineral's downfall led to  a similar downward spiral in the fortunes of the residents.

It is just amazing to see the tap dancing occurring by politicians trying to justify the project, based on the idea that the product can be handled and used safely under the right conditions.
But those conditions don't exist where the product will be exported to, third world countries like

India, Indonesia and the Philippines, where "little or no protection exist for workers or exposed populations. LINK

The minister in charge is hemming and hawing, claiming a decision on the required 58 million loan guarantee hasn't been made, but the pressure is on.  

Before giving a green light to the project, he demanded that local politicians take responsibility for the decision, in a sad effort to spread around the inevitable blame and somehow shirk responsibility.

"This is not a prerequisite, but it is a desirable condition that there is community support for the operation of chrysotile. I think it's a major consultation that will come in weighing the government's decision."- Clement Gignac, Minister of Economic Development.

What is hard to stomach is the media lobbying campaign that is being waged by forces in favour of the return of the mine.
The Quebec government has for years provided the major funding for a propaganda website that promotes asbestos.
The Chrysotile Institute 'strives for;'

"THE SAFE AND RESPONSIBLE USE OF CHYRSOTILE"

While medical journals like The Lancet condemn asbestos production as immoral, the Quebec government, the asbestos industry and all it's beneficiaries, stick their collective fingers in their ears, shouting the familiar child's chant of; 
"I CAN'T HEAR YOU! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" 

"Although Canada will not expose its own citizens to asbestos, its plans to continue exporting the deadly substance to developing countries has drawn widespread condemnation."  Read the Lancet Article

Of course internationally, it is Canada that is suffering the black eye, not Quebec.

A demonstration was held on Thursday outside the Canadian embassy in London, England protesting the project. LINK 

 The story is reverberating around the world, as far away as Australia;

"A high-income country like Canada dumping their asbestos on countries where there are no health and safety regulations, the population is completely exposed to any sorts of hazardous exposure - it's pretty reprehensible," she said.
Ms Kazan-Allen says Canada has also blocked attempts by the World Health Organization to include white asbestos on a list that alerts nations if they are about to import hazardous substances.
Protests against the new Canadian mine have been held in Seoul and Tokyo and more are planned for Quebec, Paris and London". ABC News

Anti-asbestos activists from Asia came to Quebec to get  their message across;

"Millions of workers in the developing countries are going to be exposed to the asbestos which is being exported from Canada," said union activist Anup Srivastava from India.

It is utter hypocrisy for Quebec to complain about the Alberta Tar Sands at international conferences , while pedaling asbestos innocently on the world market, like a drug dealer, who maintains that the product can be used safely.
 
And so Quebec is somehow seen as Canada's green Garden of Eden, something that would be laughable if not so patently untrue.

"If Quebecers  felt pride seeing an Australian forest named  after Premier Jean Charest for his actions on climate change, would they be just as happy if one day we baptized a cemetery in the name of their first Minister to commemorate the victims of the Quebec asbestos in the world? " Link fr

What is more galling, is that this asbestos mess is being blamed on Canada internationally. The reputation of all Canadians is being sullied by a policy that wouldn't fly in any other province but Quebec.

I'd expect the Premier of Alberta to point out the irony and step up and condemn Quebec at some international conference himself, but perhaps he's too much of a gentleman.

We all know what would be if the shoe were on the other foot....