RightOnCanada.ca

Kathleen Ruff, RightOnCanada.ca

A London UK Public Relations company, Muller & Green PR, has launched a campaign to defeat the Canadian government’s plan to ban asbestos. In an email sent to Canadian journalists on March 21, “the team” of Muller & Green attacked the proposed ban, saying Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau is “on the Verge of Wasting $114 Million on Canadian Asbestos Policy.”

The UK Public Relations company did not disclose who is the client who is paying them to carry out this campaign to defeat a Canadian law.

Muller & Green PR states that it “knows all essential elements of an effective public relations campaign.”

In its email message, the company encourages journalists to cover the story, saying “We are here to assist you in any way possible and make sure you are given all the information and facts, related with the issue.”

The company then provides the journalists with information that is utterly false, such as:

• Chrysotile asbestos is non-harmful
• Numerous businesses and industries in Canada rely on products containing this non-harmful form of asbestos
• Many worried citizens, business owners and legal personas are expressing their concern over the proposed ban
• Many of these businesses are likely to become obsolete if the ban goes through
• The Rotterdam Convention recognizes that chrysotile asbestos is not harmful
• The health of Canadians is not in danger, thanks to adequate regulations already in place

Corrupt tactics

Muller & Green PR sent a media statement to the Canadian journalists.

The statement, in Donald Trump style, seeks to whip up anger against government regulations, saying “Moreover, removing safe asbestos from public buildings would take running costs into the billions.” The link provided for “safe asbestos” takes people to an anonymous website where they are urged to CLICK and send a message to the federal government’s consultation process and oppose the ban. Here is what the website says:

“Fed up with Federal Red Tape? Have Your Say Now!

If you agree that the proposed asbestos regulation is a waste of federal time and money, contribute your views and help protect Canadian jobs.

You don’t need to be politically engaged or affiliated with any party to do this. Every submission will be considered by the Department of Environment.

So send an email now. Be sure to include your name and to cite the Canada Gazette, Part I (Jan 6, 2018). Feel free to add your own comments!

Together, we can disentangle the government from its own bureaucracy.”

The website provides no information on the identity of who is behind it. Thus hidden interests are seeking to manipulate and influence Canada’ s political process.

Cision Public Relations is assisting the Muller & Green PR campaign and has distributed a media release on its behalf. Cision is a multi-million dollar company based in Chicago, USA and states: “Now PR Can Communicate Like Never Before. Cision empowers communicators to identify influencers, craft and distribute meaningful stories, and measure the impact.”

Need for transparency

The consultation process that the Canadian government is carrying out to finalize its asbestos regulations is a serious matter. RightOnCanada requested the government to practice transparency and put all submissions it received on its website, which is the practice of other governments. Sad to say, the Canadian government rejected this request and submissions will not be made public. Canadians will not know who made submissions or what they called for.

This lack of transparency weakens democracy.

And now we are witnessing a foreign company and an anonymous website, working for undisclosed asbestos interests, seeking to pervert Canada’ s democratic process and undermine regulations to ban asbestos in Canada.

This is corruption of democracy.