Assorted content for your weekend reading.- David Olive chimes in on the toxic effects of inequality:Many of us did not engage in “excess,” yet are struggling to make ends meet. The real story is where did all the money go that has been generated b…
Continue readingTag: asbestos
Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted material for your weekend reading.- He’s a bit too shy in pointing out exactly how thoroughly the Cons’ position on the Canadian Wheat Board has been rebuked in CWB elections for ages. But Bruce Johnstone nicely describes the PR blitz designed…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: More on Asbestos
The other day I wrote a piece lamenting the ongoing immoral Canadian export of asbestos and the fact that Canada was the sole country that recently prevented it from being listed as a toxic substance under the Rotterdam Convention. I also suggested tha…
Continue readingLeftist Jab: What The Asbestos Debate Is About
“This government will not put Canadian industry in a position where it is discriminated against in a market where sale is permitted.” -Stephen HarperIn my previous post, I had established the Conservatives know that asbestos is unsafe, they know it’s u…
Continue readingLeftist Jab: What The Asbestos Debate Isn’t About
“This government will not put Canadian industry in a position where it is discriminated against in a market where sale is permitted.” -Stephen Harper (April 26th, 2011)Chrysotile is “ethical” asbestosDespite Christian Paradis repeating that “…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Asbestos – Canada’s Shame Continues
I recently wrote about the opportunity that Canada had to end its pariah-like status by no longer opposing the listing of asbestos as a toxic product in the Rotterdam Convention. Because the Convention requires consensus, Canada, of all the member cou…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading.- Tabatha Southey eviscerates the Cons’ determination to force Canadians into a state of constant and unregulated online surveillance at their own expense:Bill C-51 seems to indicate a shift. It makes accessing…
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Sure It’s the Right Thing. But That Doesn’t Matter in Harperland.
Another international disgrace for Canada – thanks to Greasy Steve Harper.The Canadian delegation to a UN conference in Geneva agrees that chrysotile asbestos fully deserves to be labelled as “hazardous” but Harperland will veto even that basic protect…
Continue readingTrashy's World: Friday, er, Saturday miscellany
OK. I didn’t get to the Friday Miscellany thing yesterday. My bad.
I was golfing in the afternoon – and dodging lightning – and had to work like the dickens to get some stuff done in the morning and over lunch so I didn’t get the chance to finish my Friday post! Gimme a break, will […]
Accidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week.- Plenty of observers have noted the Cons’ complete lack of a reasonable explanation for standing in the way of a global consensus to at least ensure that asbestos is accurately labeled as a hazardous substance. But yo…
Continue readingLeDaro: Asbestos: Bad for Canada but good for poor countries
This is an amazing and scary situation. Asbestos has not been used in Canada for the last 25 years and the buildings which already had asbestos proceeded to remove it because it is an established fact that it is a very dangerous substance to human heal…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On matters of principle
Stephen Harper on how we’re supposed to perceive the Cons’ foreign policy, as described just weeks ago:The Prime Minister reflected this new reality in his triumphalist speech to the Conservative party faithful on the weekend, where he articulated Cana…
Continue readingLeftist Jab: Hack Pundit Of The Week: Kelly McParland
In 1949, French-Canadian asbestos miners sought better working conditions from its English-Canadian and American companies. The miners had some basic demands: that the hourly wage be increased to one dollar, union security, a pension plan and measures …
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Asbestos – An Opportunity to End Canada’s Shame
While I have written previously on Canada’s ongoing indefensible practice of exporting chrysotile (asbestos) to developing nations despite its well-known lethal health effects, this country does get the chance to begin to rectify things today as it mee…
Continue readingCalgaryGrit: Friday Link Grab Bag
A few random Friday thoughts:1. Don’t expect this weekend’s NDP convention in Vancouver to be nearly as exciting as Wednesday night. Still, the possibility for riots and/or make out sessions does exist when delegates begin debating a motion to repeal t…
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: "The Conservative government’s position on asbestos is morally bankrupt."
And the editorial board at the Ottawa Citizen isn’t mincing words on the issue. On June 20, the Canadian government will have a chance to do again what it has done in the past: block the addition of chrysotile asbestos to the list of hazardous materials governed by the Rotterdam Convention on Prior Informed Consent. Note the convention’s full name. If our government were to reverse course here, it wouldn’t actually be voting to ban the trade in asbestos. Mia Robson at the Winnipeg Free Press explains: Substances on the list are not banned but countries exporting them must provide written warnings to the importing nation about their hazards and include information on how to safely handle them. … To date Canada has blocked repeated recommendations by the convention’s Chemical Review Committee to add chrysotile asbestos to the list. And Canada has maintained that position despite repeated advice to reconsider from scientists, physicians and its own public health officials. The government that boasts it will always adhere to principled foreign policy is against giving other countries the opportunity to fully understand what they’re buying when they buy what Canada has to sell. Good to know. Canada’s back….
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading.- I’ll agree with Barbara Yaffe that one of the most important tasks for the Cons as a majority government will be to avoid having their heads inflated to dangerous levels. But I’m not sure how Yaffe could possibl…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading.- Brian Topp’s initial observations on the new sitting of Parliament include this note on the Libs’ interim leader:(A)s a footnote, Interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae was also interesting in these exchanges. H…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Stephen Harper, John Steward, and Asbestos
An online article in today’s Globe and Mail, written by Gerald Caplan, explores how the Harper government’s retrograde policies have made Canada something of an international pariah. Especially interesting is how the export of asbestos was recently ske…
Continue reading