POWELL RIVER, B.C.—It is too often the case that history highlights important developments that current affairs seem to miss. That unfortunately seems to be the case with what will certainly be recorded as one of the most shameful moral failures of the Quebec labour movement in its history. I am speaking of its blind support for the asbestos industry in that province, support that contradicts almost every important tenet of trade unionism. Asbestos kills more people worldwide by far, than any other industrial material. And that includes Quebec, where 55 per cent of all worker fatalities in 2009 were caused by asbestos, according to La Confédération des syndicates nationaux study released Oct. 18, 2009.

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