Recent times have dealt some deadly blows to Quebec's asbestos industry, putting its continued survival in question. The first blow came in August when the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) voted 95 per cent in favour of calling for an end to asbestos mining and export.

The industry lobby argues that chrysotile asbestos -- which represents 100 per cent of the world asbestos trade -- poses little threat to health and can be safely used. In reality, scientific research has shown for decades that chrysotile asbestos, like other forms of asbestos, causes cancers and asbestosis and has never been safely used anywhere, including Canada.

For this reason, Quebec -- like the rest of the industrialized world -- doesn't use asbestos any more, while its industry-paid "experts" tell developing countries that asbestos is "absolutely safe."

The CMA resolution to ban asbestos was another nail in the asbestos coffin. It was followed by a chain of unexpected political and economic upheavals. The industry has always counted on unquestioning support from the federal Liberals and the Conservatives, exploiting their desire to win seats in Quebec. As recently as April this year, this support was rock solid. All five Conservative and three Liberal MPs on a parliamentary committee rejected a direct appeal to them by the Canadian Cancer Society and voted to continue giving funds to the asbestos lobby group (the Chrysotile Institute).

Imagine then the shock and horror of the asbestos industry when at a public meeting in Quebec just a few months later, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said that asbestos is dangerous and we should stop exporting it. A couple of times earlier Ignatieff had made similar remarks, but the industry was in deep denial and confident it could make him retract.

"If Ignatieff said it was a dangerous industry, I don't think he knew all the facts then," said Quebec Liberal organizer André Beaumier. "I am sure he will change his mind on this issue." But less than 10 days later, Ignatieff, right in Quebec's asbestos mining region, said the industry should close down.

A howl of fury ensued. The Liberal candidate for the area, Marc Giroux, nominated a few weeks earlier, was aghast. He resigned. The mayor of Asbestos and Ignatieff's Quebec lieutenant, Denis Coderre, launched a desperate effort to get Ignatieff to go visit the Jeffrey Mine and have his mind changed.

The Jeffrey open-pit mine is virtually closed, its asbestos deposit being exhausted, so this was odd. Why the Jeffrey mine and not the active asbestos mine in Thetford Mines? The reason soon surfaced. Chinese investors were about to invest $40 million in an underground mine at the Jeffrey site. Over $130 million has already been invested in this project, which was almost complete, when the company faced bankruptcy and mothballed it.

The Chinese investment would open up a huge deposit of asbestos, giving the industry a new 50-year lease on life, starting in 2010. After a year of intense negotiations, the Chinese were about to sign the final documents.

It seems Ignatieff's timing was thus catastrophic for the industry's plans. Just days after the media furor about Ignatieff's statement, the Chinese announced that they were pulling out. Mine owner Bernard Coulombe was shocked. While not directly blaming Ignatieff, Coulombe noted sombrely that the Chinese embassy reads the Canadian newspapers.

More than the survival of the Jeffrey mine is at stake. The last operating asbestos mine in Canada is in Thetford Mines and employs 340 people. It has only a year or so supply of asbestos left.

Without the Chinese or other investment, not only the Jeffrey mine, but the whole Quebec asbestos industry, will close down.

The asbestos mining region has made enormous strides in diversifying its economy, reports a Laval University study. The mayor of Thetford Mines, Luc Berthold, says that, through its successful economic diversification, the asbestos mining towns represent "one of the best kept secrets in Quebec."

The history of Quebec's asbestos miners is one of extraordinary courage. They deserve support and dignity. At this point strategic investment from the federal government could secure the region's future, one without asbestos.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is the last remaining national leader supporting this dying and deadly trade. It's time he, like Ignatieff and two of Harper's own backbenchers, recognized what both ethics and economics are showing: it's time that he stopped supporting asbestos.

(By Kathleen Ruff*, The Ottawa Citizen, 17/10/2009)

* Kathleen Ruff is senior adviser on human rights to the Rideau Institute and author of Exporting Harm: How Canada Markets Asbestos to the Developing World