BS: Bad things Canada has done.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: Peace
Date: 02 May 05 - 12:13 AM

Good night, Bruce. Argue more tomorrow. A day without you is a day without sunshine.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: beardedbruce
Date: 02 May 05 - 12:09 AM

Worldwide, deaths due to asbestos are expected to rise to at least 1 million over the next 30 years, while millions more will die in developing countries for decades to come because asbestos is in growing use there.

http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_10.28.99/news/asbestos.html

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: Peace
Date: 02 May 05 - 12:07 AM

"Indeed, the true weapons of mass destruction are the jet fighters, tanks, machine guns and other military exports that the United States ships to nondemocratic countries -- a record $8.3 billion worth in the 1997 fiscal year, the last year for which figures are available."

In the spirit of your post on the Pax Americana thread, here ya go. So while I compose a letter objecting to this practise on Canada's part, perhaps you might do the same regarding America's role in THIS bad thing. Whadyasay, huh?

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: beardedbruce
Date: 02 May 05 - 12:02 AM

The Canadian Government and their 'impartial' Asbestos Institute experts claimed that under regulated conditions asbestos could be used without posing any risk to human health. Yet in even the most stringently regulated conditions, like those in Canada and the US, workers continue to be exposed to deadly fibers and fall victim to asbestosis and mesothelioma. If workers are dying from exposure even here, imagine what conditions must be like in nations lacking even the bare minimum of regulatory mechanisms. It's precisely these countries to which Canada is exporting its 'magic mineral'.

Time and time again those who have visited asbestos-manufacturing plants in the South return with stories of horrific working conditions. A 1980s exposé of Thailand – one of Canada's key markets – revealed employees who spend their days in clouds of dust without respirators. They split open bags of asbestos with their bare hands. They walk home to their families covered in layers of dust. In India, both women and children were found working with asbestos. Many importing countries like Turkey, the Philippines and Singapore have such repressive regimes that anyone who raises concerns may find themselves out of a job or in trouble with the police. 'Controlled use' doesn't offer much protection to workers here.

********************


Yet Canada persists in its promotion of asbestos and has vowed to seek out new markets for the deadly fiber. One can only hope that the message is heard and understood: the Canadian Government is not selling development, but death sentences in the form of a 'magic mineral.'

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: beardedbruce
Date: 02 May 05 - 12:00 AM

It mines more than 320,000 tons of asbestos a year, more than 90 percent of which is exported to other countries, including the United States.

*******************

Now that most North American and European con-struction legislation has banned totally the use of as-bestos in human habitation, what have Canada asbestos miners and manufacturers done with 95% of our Canadian asbestos? Guess! Sold it and shipped it off to the third world to use in its building projects, markets in Thailand, Singapore, Brazil, India and other developing nations.

Most of Canada's toxic asbestos goes to Asian countries. But it's all okey-dokey, say the many government-sponsored "safety" agencies.

**********************

Chrétien followed the official line that Canadian asbestos – 'white' chrysotile, like that exported to Chile – is safe. Sounding much like a press release from the Quebec-based, industry-funded Asbestos Institute, the Canadian Government has been suggesting that chrysotile, which has been mined and used in Canada for nearly a century, is a 'new and safe' form of asbestos. However, they omit to tell the public exactly where they've found the scientific evidence to back up such assertions. The reason we are never shown this documentation is simple: it doesn't exist.


*************************

Asbestos is a word that has lost much of the meaning it once held for Canadians. Within our own country we have essentially prohibited its sale, use and manufacture. The 'magic mineral' has faded from our collective memory. We have forgotten how prevalent it once was in brake linings, cement sheets, flooring, tiles, packing and textiles. We have also forgotten about asbestosis, mesothelioma (a deadly and incurable form of cancer which gives its victims between 6 and 24 months to live) and various other types of cancers including throat, oesophagal, laryngeal, kidney, stomach and colorectal.

Ask the average Canadian what they know and you will likely hear something along the lines of: 'That stuff will kill you. It causes cancer. That's why we don't use it any more.' Exactly. Chrysotile asbestos, still heavily mined in Quebec, isn't used precisely because it kills. It will continue to kill those Canadians exposed to it in the past as well as those who handle it today. What most Canadians aren't aware of is that our Federal Government, in partnership with the Province of Quebec and its asbestos industry, is peddling the deadly dust abroad.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: Peace
Date: 01 May 05 - 11:56 PM

BB, thank you. I have been waiting for you to post this. I will not, unlike you, be gauche enough to mention what a certyain country is doing in another certain country. That I will reserve for the Pax Americana thread.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: beardedbruce
Date: 01 May 05 - 11:50 PM

Canada is currently the world's second biggest chrysotile (white asbestos) exporter, sending this class 1 carcinogen to countries with few, if any, safeguards, where it is used by poorly trained and uninformed workers with little access to medical care or sickness benefits.

Dr. Jukka Takala, Director of InFocus Programme SafeWork at the International Labour Organisation (ILO), has estimated the number of work-related asbestos deaths from mesothelioma, lung cancer, asbestosis and other diseases worldwide as 100,000 every year, and growing.

The Canadian and Québec governments, the asbestos industry and the unions representing its workers maintain that chrysotile can be used safely under "carefully controlled conditions." An intensive disinformation campaign in Canada and abroad is lead by the Asbestos Institute, a heavily subsidized industry public relations organization. However, Canada exports more than 95% of all the asbestos it produces and critics suggest that the Canadian principle of "safe use" is impossible to enforce in the third World countries where the asbestos in imported. They say "safe use" is a hypocritical ploy to profit from the export of a substance too hazardous to be used at home.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: TS
Date: 25 Apr 05 - 03:48 PM

Can't help but notice that no one argued Heric's comment.. (enter cricket sound here)

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: Peace
Date: 25 Apr 05 - 03:25 PM

Heric has us all on that one.

Brador was even worse. If you can believe that. Much like--well, imagine an equine derivative, liquid in nature and supposedly quite poor in taste. People who have sampled both prefer the unadulterated stuff from the horse. An', that's a fact.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: heric
Date: 25 Apr 05 - 02:49 PM

They made Molson's Canadian and fed to their own population.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: TS
Date: 25 Apr 05 - 02:33 PM

hmm..ok..first..I now have lunch and about 4 cups of coffee into me..secondly..I took some nice pills before bed last night and my head is still a bit foggy from it..so please accept my apology for not tasting the bitter sweet sarcasm in the "wow is me" portion of the previous message Rapaire...Cheers!

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: Rapparee
Date: 25 Apr 05 - 02:26 PM

Sure did. This was back around 1988, and my wife and I cheered on the CGC.

I can't imagine what the hell the skipper of the fishing boat was thinking, tearing off for the US with a Canadian Fisheries Inspector on board.

Actually, I think that they got off rather lightly.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: Peace
Date: 25 Apr 05 - 02:05 PM

Got caught, didn't they?

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: TS
Date: 25 Apr 05 - 01:50 PM

Our Coastguard aren't armed..the guys with were no more than a simple boarding party...the "submachine guns" were C-7's (a weaker version of an M-16). just clarifying...but...as gnu said..."oops.sorry"..but it IS illegal to fish in foreign waters..

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: gnu
Date: 25 Apr 05 - 01:40 PM

Oops. Sorry.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: Rapparee
Date: 25 Apr 05 - 01:29 PM

I was in Halifax when the Canadian naval forces captured -- by force! -- an innocent American fishing vessel. And I was shocked, yes indeed, SHOCKED to the very depths of my soul, let me tell you! Just because a Fisheries Inspector boarded the fishing vessel because it was fishing in Canadian waters, and the vessel took off for Gloucester with the inspector and failed to heave to when ordered -- was that ANY REASON for a Canadian special forces-type unit, armed with submachine guns, no less! -- to board the vessel from a helicopter and have TWO Canadian Coast Guard ships -- ARMED ships, with the guns ready to shoot! -- standing by? And was any of it a good reason to jail the skipper, deport the crew, keep the boat, and auction off the catch?

Oh, sure. Call it what you will -- kidnapping, failure to stop, disregard of the fishing laws, or whatever -- but CANADA attacked an innocent US fishing vessel!

Hmph!

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: TS
Date: 25 Apr 05 - 12:33 PM

well boys and giirls..we're beating a dead horse now...we know ALL Canadians aren't racist, we know that ALL Quebecois are not against Canada, we know ALL British Columbians aren't pompous. We ARE all Canadians and generally think of our own region as the best region for one reason or another..coming from a PROUD Maritimer who loves living in Saskatchewan..and that my friends..is one of the best things about being a Canadian.

Back to the BAD things we've done..how about BLACK MONDAY..or a possible alliance between the Reds and Oranges...here's something to consider..of use a crayon and mix red and orange...a rather unappitizing colour if I do say so..

cheers!

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: GUEST, heric
Date: 25 Apr 05 - 12:10 PM

Nobody in BC believes that, TC. We know we are the only real British Columbians. And we are somewhat fond of our Albertan brothers.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: Peace
Date: 25 Apr 05 - 11:49 AM

A game of tag with no rules, and everyone thinks they're it.

I think of our military--such as it is--and am very aware that regardless of ancestry/race/language, the guy or gal will lay it down for me and my family, and they'll do it without inquiring as to my background. The SAR people and other rescue types around don't ask who they are going in after. It's enough to know that someone needs help and they go give that.

I have met racists in Canada, but truthfully, they seem to be the exception, not the rule.

BM

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: TS
Date: 25 Apr 05 - 11:32 AM

Brian...far ffrom excusing OR denying it..but in NB we don't have the Native population like other areas and in school we don't learn a great deal about it. So really, if you are unfamiliar with a culture, how can it be bias? As for les Acadiens, moi je suis biligne. Je suis anglophone. Je suis fiere d'etre Irlandais-Canadien, et j'aime l'histoire du N-B. I know I don't share the same sentiments as EVERYONE in the Province, but where BOTH languages are spoken at any given moment and you CANT get a Gov't job withoutt knowing both languages. I think any bias comes from the fact that CERTAIN (not all) Acadiens forget they are Canadians first. But we deal with that coast-to-coast..be they Acadiens, Newfoundlanders, Cape Bretoners, etc,or the reverse...those in Ontario, Alberta, or BC who believe they are the only REAL Canadians.

TS

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: Peace
Date: 24 Apr 05 - 11:42 PM

Haven't been there, but it's lots bigger than Fort Good Hope. I spent eighteen years there in 22 months.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: Rapparee
Date: 24 Apr 05 - 11:36 PM

No, the place in Alaska. The website is more exciting than the town, unless there's a car wreck or something.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: Peace
Date: 24 Apr 05 - 11:05 PM

Tuktoyaktuk?

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: Rapparee
Date: 24 Apr 05 - 06:22 PM

Hate to admit it, but I just read my last post as "I'm going to a whorehouse in August."

I dunno -- I've already been to the BIG cities of the Yukon: Beaver Creek, Destruction Bay. Whitehorse is gonna have to go some to beat Beaver Creek, lemme tell ya. The nightlife, the cuisine...why, I hadn't had such a time since I'd left, oh, Tok.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: Little Hawk
Date: 24 Apr 05 - 06:14 PM

Well, a lot of Canadians haven't heard of Harry Lee Wigley either, eh? I don't think we should go throwing snowballs when we're living in igloos. Know what I'm sayin'?

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: gnu
Date: 24 Apr 05 - 04:07 PM

Nah. Your gonna love Whitehorse. BTW, you might want to bring some REALLY FUCKING DEEEEEP Woods Off fly repellant. Just a thought.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: gnu
Date: 24 Apr 05 - 03:19 PM

I had their first two albums on tape but they got gone. Amazing blend of folk, rock, orchestral (or should thjat be long hair? anyone?), jazz. And, the engineering was far beyond most in those days.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: Rapparee
Date: 24 Apr 05 - 03:11 PM

I'm going to Whitehorse in August.

Pray for me.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: Peace
Date: 24 Apr 05 - 02:36 PM

Harmonium began to make it in Quebec in the mid 1970s. Just about when I was leaving Montreal. Never did get to hear them live.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: gnu
Date: 24 Apr 05 - 02:28 PM

Ah, yes, brucie. And, I am surprised so few Canucks have heard of Roch Vosine, or Mitsou (J'mange dat, la.) or... That minds me... seems to me, brucie, you said you lived in La Belle Province for a while, or, at least, Montreal, ahem. Harmonium?

Thanks, Rapaire. Okay, so maybe it's just the yuppie set she hangs with.

Sorry for the thread drift.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: Peace
Date: 24 Apr 05 - 01:10 PM

BUT, the crime of crimes is that so few ever heard Michel Pagliaro. Ya want rock, he got rock. Man does that boy play.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: Rapparee
Date: 23 Apr 05 - 10:26 PM

I've heard of April Wine, The Guess Who, Natalie McMaster, and the rest. I've even heard of Bruce Murdoch and Patrick Sky and Ian and Sylvia and Stan Rogers. But who's this Gordon Whitefoot or whatever his name it?















Jist funnin' ya. I think he wrote "Mary Ellen Carter," din't he?

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: gnu
Date: 23 Apr 05 - 08:49 PM

Hehehehe!!! Of course, if they get a few bucks...

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: heric
Date: 23 Apr 05 - 08:39 PM

I've heard of'm. They do a Lenny Kravitz cover.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: gnu
Date: 23 Apr 05 - 07:23 PM

I talked today to a distant, VERY distant cousin. I haven't seen her since she was an infant. She was born and has lived in the States all her mid-thirty or so years. I filled her in a bit on family history and the discussion got around to tunes. It started about our old family and Trad Irish tunes as she had heard that my cousins and I "play".

Then, I mentioned that music is a big thing here and the tradition carries on to "modern" tunes, more to her taste. Then this. She has never heard of April Wine.... she has NEVER HEARD of April Wine! She has NEVER HEARD of Burton or BTO or... you get the picture... when I asked her about The Guess Who, she accused me of playing mind games.

Now, I can understand a young Yank not knowing regional bands, but when they don't know The Hip or Kim Mitchell, or... really... how can anyone not know The Guess Who?

If that's that's really the case, I am a VERY lucky man because I have been graced with some of the best tunes on the planet. As for folk, she has heard of Gordon Lightfoot but what the f*** is a Valdy? Joni who? Is she related to Kim? Natalie who? Rankin what? The Rankins? JC!!!

Apparently, Canada has done a poor job of sharing these joys with the world. And that really is a bad thing.

Leahy! Natalie MacMaster! The Guess Who! April Wine! And on! Never heard of them! Unf***ingreal!!!

I'd like to know if these names are a blank with any other of our brothers to the south. Any of you guys never heard of The Guess Whio?

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: dianavan
Date: 23 Apr 05 - 03:14 PM

exactly!

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: Peace
Date: 23 Apr 05 - 02:32 PM

Ain't that the truth. Long as we keep hating each other, we'll never have the time to sit down together and figure out who the real problem is.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: Brían
Date: 23 Apr 05 - 02:30 PM

It keeps the wheels of Capitalism greased as well.

Brían

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: Peace
Date: 23 Apr 05 - 02:03 PM

There is that here too, Brian. I am in Alberta. The bias seems to go both ways. (I taught for three years on a reserve and for two years in a settlement in the NWT.) Racism is cheap and ugly. No question about that.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: Brían
Date: 23 Apr 05 - 01:49 PM

They made New England seem like an inviting place to go during the Great Depression (I am part French). Although I am impressed by the general openess and progressivenes of Canadian society, (They even are tolerant of my attempts at French), I am amzed at the open bias against Native People and French Acadians I observed in NB.

Brían

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: Peace
Date: 23 Apr 05 - 01:25 PM

And she's still the psychotic garbage she was to begin with. I hope she slips and breaks her neck.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: *daylia*
Date: 23 Apr 05 - 01:22 PM

Seriously though, I think this is one of the worst things 'Canada' has ever done   Is the criminal justice system here fatally flawed, or what??

The price of convicting Paul Bernardo for the murders of Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy was Homolka's plea bargain, and we now know that price was sickeningly high. Videos that emerged after Homolka secured her deal in 1993 showed her not just participating but revelling in the torture of the two Ontario teenagers, plus the rape of a third woman.

Those images, along with news that Homolka participated in the fatal drugging and rape of her own 15-year-old sister, Tammy, long ago laid ruin to the theory she'd been Bernardo's compliant victim, forced on pain of death to help him live out his monstrous fantasies. But by then the die was cast: swallowing the victim theory whole, Crown lawyers had offered Homolka 12 years in prison on two counts of manslaughter. Bernardo, by comparison, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

How quickly a dozen years have passed. On July 5, 2005, Homolka will walk free from Joliette Institution north of Montreal, a relatively young woman at 35, having paid the debt society asked and completed almost nothing in the way of rehabilitation...

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: Peace
Date: 23 Apr 05 - 01:12 PM

"The Quinlan Quints - four quintuplets (the fifth one went missing and has never been found) who live in Buchans, Newfoundland and Labrador; portrayed by Cathy Jones, Rick Mercer, Greg Thomey and Mary Walsh (Colin Mochrie plays Mercer's quint role for seasons 9 and 10)."

If you check out, "This hour has 22 minutes" you'll find more.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: Peace
Date: 23 Apr 05 - 01:03 PM

"Don Harron has made many people laugh with his alter ego, plaid-clad Charlie Farquharson. This Hour Has 22 Minutes's Quinlan Quints -- never mind that there's only four of them -- are unquestionably the dopiest group of flannel-wearing siblings on television."

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: dianavan
Date: 23 Apr 05 - 12:38 PM

gnu - Who are the Quinlan quints?

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: Metchosin
Date: 23 Apr 05 - 12:35 PM

Of course it might have been so cold at the time it could have froze the balls off a brass monkey too.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: Metchosin
Date: 23 Apr 05 - 12:31 PM

Someone knocked off poor old Frank the Baggage Handler's penis in Penticton.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: Willie-O
Date: 23 Apr 05 - 11:45 AM

Exported David Frum, Pamela Anderson and Celine Dion. All to the U.S, as if it needed them.

Especially Frum. Sorry about that. A most annoying little man.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: Peace
Date: 23 Apr 05 - 11:20 AM

This ain't a bad thang, but is is different. The goose what laid THIS egg was HUGE.

Really big egg. (Vegreville, Alberta.)

Subject: RE: BS: Bad things Canada has done.
From: Peace
Date: 23 Apr 05 - 11:08 AM

Y'ain't seen nothin' 'til ya seen the goose.

Sixtieschick should be real thankful that THIS ain't crappin' in California.