Ad Campaign Targets PM Harper’s Support for Asbestos Exports

Media Release
For Immediate Release
November 16, 2010

Ad Campaign Targets PM Harper’s Support for Asbestos Exports

(Ottawa) An advertising campaign urging Prime Minister Harper to end Canada’s asbestos exports was launched today in two major Canadian daily newspapers.

“Stephen Harper’s Killer Legacy,” an ad endorsed by more than a hundred unions, organizations and health defenders from 23 different countries, was published today in the Ottawa Citizen and the Edmonton Journal.

The ad features a mock cadaver with a toe tag which reads “Product of Canada. Cause of Death: Asbestos.” It goes on to state:

All asbestos kills. That’s why over 50 countries have banned it, and why the World Health Organization has called for an end to its use. That’s why no industrialized country, including Canada, uses it. That’s why we spend millions of dollars removing it from our schools, hospitals and homes.

But Canada still exports asbestos to developing countries. Stephen Harper is the only national political leader who still supports the export of asbestos.

Prime Minister Harper, stop exporting asbestos disease to the developing world.

“This is an amazing example of international solidarity,” said campaign founder Kathleen Ruff. “Canadians and people around the world are demanding that Prime Minister Harper end his deadly asbestos policy. He can no longer hide from this issue.”

The ad appears at a crucial moment. An anonymous consortium of investors wants to open a new asbestos mine in Quebec to export quantities of asbestos to the developing world, increasing Canada’s already substantial contribution to the global trade in asbestos.

The campaign is organized by RightonCanada.ca, the human rights outreach and advocacy program of the Rideau Institute. The Rideau Institute is non-profit, independent research, advocacy, and consulting group based in Ottawa.

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Kathleen Ruff, Rideau Institute board member and campaign founder,
kruff@bulkley.net    (250) 847-1848

The Rideau Institute is an independent research, advocacy, and consulting group based in Ottawa.