So no surprise, then, that on Friday, June 24, the Canadian Government once again embarrassed our country on the international stage. Canada alone prevented the United Nations from adding chrysotile asbestos to the global list of hazardous substances.
Here in Canada we won’t allow asbestos in our homes and offices. We are spending millions to remove it from our Parliament buildings. Here in Canada, we know asbestos is hazardous. Yet our government refuses to let the world officially recognize it as hazardous because they want to continue to export it to countries whose non-existent health regulations have not caught up with modern environmental health and safety realities - without even a warning label.
I am convinced that the judgement of history will weigh very heavily on this action of our Canadian Government last Friday. Some political decisions are just that - political ideology with little or no great moral component. For example, should toll roads be publically owned or privatized? Other political decisions have such a huge moral component that the political element, over time, continuously diminishes until all that is left is the moral component. Consider slavery, apartheid, the Holocaust as obvious, if extreme, examples. At this stage nobody has any idea how historians will view a government that knowingly chose short term balance of trade gains, and vote garnering in one riding in Quebec, over the health and safety of millions of unwitting people in the Third World. I am pursuaded that the judgement will be such that I want my grandchildren to know that I did not agree with it, was not a part of it, and stood up against it.
Whether or not you voted for Stephen Harper in the last election, for the sake of your conscience and your reputation with your children and your grandchildren, let your voice be heard. Here are two ways that you can do this. The Green Party of Canada is inviting all Canadians to join in saying “We’re sorry!”
Firstly, if you have a FaceBook account, you can post a message of apology on the Asbestos Facebook page by clicking "Like" and then entering your message. I have posted the following:
Dear World. I am so sorry that Canada has let you down. As someone who has cancer and who has a close family member who is a cancer survivor, I deeply regret and am ashamed of the cancer that is going to bring so much needless suffering to so many people as a result of the nationally selfish decision that was made by our government that does not have the courage of its convictions to allow asbestos in its own parliamentary halls of power. I wish these words and these apologies could undo the harm that is going to come. I am truly sorry for this immoral action.
Secondly, you can send your own email of apology to imsorry@greenparty.ca and the Green Party will forward your email to the General Secretary of the United Nations.
If you are not a Green Party supporter and so are not comfortable doing something associated with the Green Party that is understandable, but for goodness sake, do something to distance yourself from this shameful, immoral action of our government and that will let Stephen Harper know that he has crossed the line of moral acceptability.
Photos on this page can be found on a blog called Mesothelioma Information.
