Raging Grannies protest against asbestos exports
Montreal Gazette January 17, 2011
Monique Beaudin http://www.montrealgazette.
Members of the Raging Grannies group talk to police during their protest Monday outside the Sherbroke St. building where Premier Jean Charest has his office. The group was protesting exports of asbestos to countries such as India, “where they don’t have strict rules and don’t really know how to use the stuff properly,” said Joan Hadrill, 80. “We say that’s really unethical and immoral to do that.”
Photograph by: Pierre Obendrauf, Montreal Gazette
By Monique Beaudin, Montreal Gazette January 17, 2011
MONTREAL - Montreal’s Raging Grannies had an earful for Premier Jean Charest on Monday, when they showed up outside his Montreal office. Wearing their customary outrageous hats and bundled up against the cold in bright layers of colourful clothing, the nine women sang “I’ve been working with asbestos” to the tune of “I’ve been Working on the Railroad”, including lyrics like “Asbestos has been proven to kill, kill, kill.”
“Quebec and Canada have basically banned asbestos for building, yet we think it’s okay to ship it to other countries like India, where they don’t have strict rules and don’t really know how to use the stuff properly,” said Joan Hadrill, 80, who has been a member of Montreal’s Raging Grannies for the past 21 years. “We say that’s really unethical and immoral to do that.”
The women taped an “asbestos manifesto” to the glass doors of the Sherbrooke St. office tower, calling for Quebec to halt asbestos exports and for the federal and provincial governments to stop funding the industry’s Chrysotile Institute.
Quebec is considering whether to give a $58-million loan guarantee to a company that wants to expand the Jeffrey mine in Asbestos in the Eastern Townships.
The World Health Organization, Canadian Medical Association and the Association pour la santé publique du Québec have all called on the province to stop exporting asbestos, which is linked to cancer and lung disease. A poll done last week found that three-quarters of Quebecers oppose the Jeffrey Mine loan guarantee.
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