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    October 27, 2021
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    COMMONS
    MINING #2 – Life and Death in Asbestos, QC
    For a century, Canada was one of the world’s leading exporters of asbestos, most of it mined from the small town of Asbestos, Quebec. But during that time, governments and corporations in Canada did everything they could to hide the fact that asbestos is deadly.
    Arshy Mann
    Host & Producer
    Jordan Cornish
    Producer
    Damilola Onime
    Producer, Wag the Doug
    Kieran Oudshoorn
    Managing Editor, Podcasts
    Tristan Capacchione
    Audio Editor & Technical Producer

    Support us at commonspodcast.com

    For a century, Canada was one of the world’s leading exporters of asbestos, most of it mined from the small town of Asbestos, Quebec. But during that time, governments and corporations in Canada did everything they could to hide the fact that asbestos is deadly.

    They went to extraordinary lengths — secret organ smuggling, corporate-supervised police torture — to keep the ugly truth from the world.

    Today, there’s no longer a town called Asbestos, QC. But more people than ever are dying from what was mined out of the ground there. 

    Featured in this episode: Heidi von Palleske, Jessica van Horssen, Tavia Grant (The Globe and Mail)

     

    To learn more:

    A Town Called Asbestos: Environmental Contamination, Health, and Resilience in a Resource Community by Jessica van Horssen

    “No Safe Use: The Canadian Asbestos Epidemic” by Tavia Grant in The Globe and Mail

    “Asbestos: Canada’s Dirty Secret” by CBC’s Fifth Estate

     

    Additional music from Audio Network

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