Clapper, Patti, Schweizer and Mason

A curious liking for asbestos

FOR more than a decade, workers in hazmat suits have been boring into the walls and ceilings of Canada?s parliament buildings to remove tonnes of asbestos insulation. This tedious and expensive work is to protect the health of lawmakers and their staff: even limited exposure to asbestos can cause lung cancer or mesothelioma, a deadlier cancer. These risks have prompted most rich countries, and many poor ones, to ban all forms of asbestos.

But they have not stopped Canada from exporting large quantities of the mineral to developing countries, especially in Asia, nor discouraged the government from paying to promote its use abroad. This is ?corporate welfare for corporate serial killers?, says Pat Martin, a former asbestos miner who is one of the few members of parliament to denounce the hypocrisy. ...