Relative of Asbestos Mine Founder Opposes Jeffrey Mine Funding
The great-great niece of the founder of the first asbestos mine to ever open in Canada is speaking out against the continued production of asbestos at the Jeffry Mine in Quebec.
Susan Henry is the descendant of Andrew Stuart Johnson, who founded the Johnson Mine Company in Thetford Mines in 1878. However, despite her heritage, Henry opposes governmental support of asbestos production in Canada, particularly the government’s recent decision to promise a $58 million loan guarantee to Westmount-based Balcorp Ltd. to expand the Jeffry Mine into an underground operation.
With the expansion, the mine would be capable of producing 200,000 tons of asbestos annually, the Montreal Gazette reported.
In order to protest the expansion, Henry has partnered with the David Suzuki Foundation over the last three months to launch a letter-writing campaign designed to increase sentiment against the mine expansion.
“Although my great-great uncle, Andrew S. Johnson, founded his mine … in good faith, the intervening years have revealed the very dangerous nature of asbestos,” read a message Henry recently released to foundation members, according to the Gazette. “It is deeply disturbing to me that we are now poised to ramp up exports to developing countries, when we are fully aware of how lethal this mineral can be.”
The campaign aims to send 10,000 messages to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Quebec Premier Jean Charest that oppose the reopening of the Jeffrey Mine. Currently, almost 9,000 letters have been sent.
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