- Allan Dewey’s Uncle, Ralph Dewey
This is a letter to all Canadians:
Shame on you, Pat Davidson (MPP), your pathetic government, and Stephen Harper for your totally absurd comment, “Asbestos is safe if handled properly.”
Those are not very comforting words to my mother, three aunts, and grandmother, who have all hurtfully lost their husbands to asbestos-related causes. With the exception of my grandfather, I have lost them all in the last one year and four days! That’s a rate of 1 every 92.25 days, and that hurts so, so badly. They died simply because they went to work to provide for their families, not to be exposed to asbestos. All suffered a painful and suffocating demise. If only they knew what we now know.
Around 300 people in Canada and over 100,000 worldwide die each year from asbestos-related causes. Yes, its use is banned here in Canada, but our reputation of being a loving, caring, compassionate country will someday be replaced by a label of “killers and criminals” as we continue to allow the mining and exportation of that crap to developing countries. In these countries, people have no clue as to the dangers involved and the future suffering of thousands.
So I ask….Do you as a taxpaying Canadian realize some of your tax dollars are used as support and funding to keep the mines in Quebec open? If after reading this you have any conscience at all, I beg you to write, call, or sign a petition to close ALL asbestos mines forever, so we can end the exportation of death! The future suffering can be prevented.
To Mayor Mike Bradley, Sarnia, Ontario, I thank you for your fighting spirit in working to stop the mining of asbestos and for mentioning my family at Saturday’s “Walk to Remember Victims of Asbestos.”
To Linda Reinstein, guest speaker and CEO of ADAO, I thank you on behalf of my family from the bottom of my heart for dedicating your Candlelight Vigil and Walk speeches to them. It will not be forgotten. We will win this fight, we have to!
Sincerely,
Al Dewey
Sarnia, Ontario, Canada