Remembering Jim Murray

I would like to dedicate this year's postings on Manitoulin Uprising to the memory of Jim Murray (1942–2009). Jim was a true pioneer of the Manitoulin Uprising, having lived off the grid here with his wife Mame and their sons for 30 years. His friend Helke Ferrie describes him as ‘a shaman disguised as an alternative energy engineer who installed solar and wind sourced systems.’ Jim raised the level of psychic energy in every gathering that was blessed with his presence. He had a keen awareness of juice, as he called it – i can't quite explain what that is (organic electricity, perhaps?), but Jim was adept at finding and sharing it with all of us who knew him. Now we'll have to do it without him. Jim died on February 16 after a year-long battle with mesothelioma, a deadly cancer caused exclusively by exposure to asbestos. Thanks to information provided by Helke Ferrie, my first act in remembrance of Jim's life was to write the Prime Minister's office protesting the Canadian government's shameful and deceitful support for the asbestos industry. Here's the letter i sent:

I am writing in regards to your government's continuing support for the chrysotile asbestos industry despite the fact that ‘all forms of asbestos fibres, including chrysotile, are carcinogenic,’ as the Auditor General of Canada has acknowledged. That support has included grants to the Chrysotile Institute, whose sole function is apparently to promote asbestos use by hiding the clear scientific consensus that the substance is lethal. In February 2008, your government announced another grant of $750,000 to the Chrysotile Institute for the next three years. I would like to know whether this grant continues under the current budget. Since the World Health Organization (among many others) has called for a total ban on all forms of asbestos, Canada's efforts to support this dying industry are bad enough. But even worse is Canada's efforts to suppress basic information about its lethal nature. Canada has ratified the Rotterdam Convention on Prior Informed Consent, which protects human health and the environment by controlling international trade in hazardous chemicals and pesticides. The Convention's expert scientific body recommends inlcuding chrysotile asbestos among the hazardous chemicals requiring prior informed consent before being exported. Canada, which exports 95% of its chrysotile asbestos to developing countries, has so far blocked this recommendation. These appalling facts came to my attention with the recent death of a good friend of mesothelioma, which is caused exclusively by asbestos. When he worked with the substance decades ago, its lethal effects were virtually unknown. This is certainly not the case now, and for Canada to prevent potential users from knowing the risk involved in using it amounts to a crime against humanity. I sincerely hope that your government will reverse this unconscionable policy, and stop wasting taxpayers' money on support for an industry which should be allowed to die rather than being subsidized to kill more human beings.

For more information on this, visit the Ban Asbestos Canada website, or read the recent editorial published by the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ). As soon as i hear of other ways to remember and celebrate Jim's life, i'll post the notice here.