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Canada’s Conservative Party threatens asbestos widow with legal action

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Summary of story from nationalpost, August 15, 2011

Canada’s Conservative Party leaders have threatened legal action against a Quebec asbestos widow turned anti-asbestos campaigner.

Michaela Keyserlingk, whose husband Robert was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2007 and died in 2009, received a cease-and-desist email from Conservative Party Executive Director Dan Hilton on July 29.

The email concerned an ad banner that Ms Keyserlingk had been using to promote canadianasbestosexports.ca, her anti-asbestos website.

“Canada is the only western country that still exports deadly asbestos!” reads the banner’s text, which is nestled in between a ‘Danger’ symbol and the Conservative logo.

In a reply Ms Keyserlingk wrote: “I am delighted that someone in the Conservative Party of Canada is finally reacting after years of work by chrysotile asbestos victims.”

“[Hopefully] we could come to some agreement before the ads get replicated too often.”

According to Ms Keyserlingk’s banner, Canada is the only country in the G8 that continues to produce asbestos.

Her site also says that the World Health Organization estimates that asbestos kills at least 90,000 people a year – about half of all occupational cancer deaths.

In late June, Canadian delegates successfully blocked the mineral from being added to a UN-sponsored list of hazardous chemicals.

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