Ok, for lack of anything original, I’m going to do a variation of what DeBeauxOs did earlier over at Dammit Janet. Boys ‘n’ girls, how do you spell ReformaTory? C-A-N-C-E-R. I do mean cancer in oh so many ways as anything they touch is poison. But today, of course, we’re talking about their persistent, gung-ho asbestos or bust lobby!
Today, I, like many other Canadians, are showing their support for and standing in solidarity with Michaela Keyserlingk, the widow whose husband died of asbestos related mesothelioma, who is now being sued for using the ReformaTory logo with her ads, linking to her web site. Read my earlier post on this subject here.
Pale from A Creative Revolution, did some good work, as usual, creating the poster below, to show solidarity for Ms. Keyserlingk.
I have one question though, the fact that we’re basically accusing the Harpercons of causing cancer, won’t they wear that as a badge of honour?
Alison over at Creekside has a great comic and corresponding post,
Here’s a petition:
I would also like to add what was not mentioned in this petition. That is the ongoing potential $58 million loan guarantee that Johnny Boy Charest and the Quebec Liberal Party are still dangling in front of the Jeffrey Mine and Balcorp, the company that is still looking for $25M to sink into this dying company. This makes Johnny Boy not much better than Stevie, now does it? After all, if Stevie wasn’t such an enabler and a promoter, hell, better still, if he actually did the right thing for once in his miserable life and voted asbestos onto the Rotterdam Convention, Johnny-boy wouldn’t be this motivated.
Jean Charest and Balcorp
Then there’s Balcorp, itself. Commenter M Savard dropped this article following my original Michaela Keyserlingk post. Go read it. Something tells me there’s something much more sinister behind the relastionship between Baljit S. Chadha, the owner of Balcorp and the Quebec Government. Here’s an exerpt:
For the past fifteen years, Baljit Chadha has been at the forefront of the effort to increase trade between Quebec and India. He has worked with all governments at the provincial and federal levels to that end. He has participated in the negotiation of trade agreements. In 2006, he represented the Quebec association of Manufacturers and exporters in Kolkata where he signed, on their behalf, a Memorandum of understanding with the Confederation of Indian Industries. He also played an important part in the opening of the Canadian Consulate General in Chandigarh. He has himself participated, or has delegated a representative, to several of the trade missions organized by those governments.
In the context of the current trade mission, he has delegated Mr. Harshal Owalekar, a 28-year old university graduate he hired three months ago to promote business development. The participation of Balcorp to this mission furthers two ends: first, to actively support the Government of Quebec and the business people from Quebec as they meet with their Indian counterparts and second, to further its own business development by creating new links between Quebec and India. There is no link between this trade mission and the ongoing negotiations regarding Jeffrey mine.
And
Balcorp has been a client of Jeffrey Mine for over 15 years. In the summer of 2010, Baljit Chadha was informed that Mine Jeffrey may file for bankruptcy. Because he believed in the future of the world market for chrysotile, Baljit Chadha felt that he could bring together a group on international investors to buy the mine. Only at that time was Baljit Chadha introduced to the government of Quebec by Mine Jeffrey as the new owners, with whom the government should continue the negotiations.
Don’t know about you, but to me, something don’t quite pass the smell test here. I think there is something much more than meets the eye and that article I linked to barely scratches the surface. Even if Balcorp has been a client of the Jeffrey Mine for all those years, it’s no reason to go to all this trouble. Balcorp, as an import/export company that deals in all kinds of products with emphasis on trade between Quebec and India surely doesn’t need to breathe life support into a dying industry, does it? I mean, surely they can move on to other business ventures.
And why does the Quebec and Federal Government insist on being all gung ho for this dying industry that really only covers a portion of one riding, federally and provincially? I mean, it’s not really a loss, electorally speaking.
Sadly, I don’t think it’s exclusively a Johnny Boy Charest thing. I think this would hold true, regardless of party and leader in power. However, he is the one in power these days and given how many parties are sprouting or about to sprout in la belle province these days, Charest can well squeeze out another election win, thus being around awhile longer.
Oh, and assuming the Charest government does breathe life support into the Jeffrey Mine, guess who’s on the hook for much of the debt should the Jeffrey Mine fail, as it surely will? That’s right, the workers, themselves.
Just what kind of jobs are they protecting? The current and only mine is in bankruptcy protection and its employees have had their wages cut virtually in half. Not a single private investor would put a dime into the new mine and workers were forced to sign a deal putting aside 10 per cent of their already slashed wages into a fund to repay the government $10 million if the mine fails. The National Asbestos Union president, Rodrigue Chartier, said mine president, Bernard Coulombe, used fear tactics to get the workers to sign a deal with a “starvation wage” of $15.93 an hour for young workers.
This is the humiliating agreement Quebec labour thinks is worth defending — against the lives of thousands of Indian and other developing country workers. The new mine will last 25 years, which means another generation of workers in the developing world will suffer because of government and union collusion in lying about the “safety” of asbestos.
Why Indeed?
This whole drama begs the question, why? Why so gung ho for a dangerous carcinogen that is produced in a two dying mines in a portion of one riding? Hardly seems worth the trouble. And even then, health and safety of everybody here and abroad should be tantamount to all. Damn the riding!!
Why is Johnny Boy Charest even entertaining such a loan guarantee? Really, after all those years of chronic unemployment in the amiante region, no one was innovative to create different industries, thus creating different jobs for the economy of the region? It’s just as easy, if not easier, to fund job creation for new and different industries; safer industries.
As for Balcorp, I still don’t get the importance of the Jeffrey Mine to them. Like I said, as an import/export company dealing with many different types of products, they could surely move on from asbestos to other products; products that are safer and yes, more profitable than asbestos?
Oh, and let’s debunk a myth, while I’m still here, boys ‘n’ girls, those two failing asbestos mines do not contribute anything to the economy of the Eastern Townships. If they did, the one in Thetford Mines would not be looking at closure in 2012 and Jeffrey Mine would not need investors and government loan guarantees.
Here is Michaela Keyserlingk’s website.