Supported by her union, the United Steelworkers (USW), and other worker advocacy organizations, Janice Martell waged a relentless campaign to compel Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) to recognize Parkinson’s as an occupational disease linked to the use of so-called McIntyre Powder in mining and other industries.

McIntyre Powder was an aluminum-based inhalant used between 1943 and 1979 in mines and other industries where workers might be exposed to silica dust. The theory, eventually proved false, was that inhaling the powder would protect workers’ lungs. Instead, it made workers sick, and led to many deaths.

The campaign led by Martell, the USW and the Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers (OHCOW), has finally achieved its goal. Ontario Labour Minister Monte McNaughton has announced the government will recognize McIntyre Powder-related compensation claims from former workers and surviving family members.

Martell’s father, Jim Hobbs, developed Parkinson’s after being subjected to the non-consensual McIntyre Powder treatments while working at a uranium mine in Elliot Lake, Ontario. Martell founded the McIntyre Powder Project and spent years trying to help her father secure workers’ compensation benefits, without success. The WSIB and Ontario government rejected such claims despite mounting scientific evidence demonstrating the link between Parkinson’s and the aluminum powder.

After her father’s death in 2017, Martell vowed to continue her campaign for other McIntyre Powder victims.

“My dad did not live to see this day, but it is a fitting legacy to a man who always enjoyed ‘breaking the trail’ during our winter walks, because he wanted to make the path easier for those coming behind him,” Martell said after the government’s announcement.

“Now, other workers who are struggling with occupational disease, and the families of workers who have died, will be able to pursue the compensation they deserve, and find some measure of justice,” she said.

“In my dad’s memory, I want to thank the United Steelworkers and the OHCOW for providing support and occupational disease expertise for these miners and their families.”

The USW has been a fierce advocate in this struggle for justice for miners and families affected by McIntyre Powder. The USW partnered with the OHCOW to seek out those workers and families and to hold public intake clinics in northern Ontario in 2016, which helped to confirm high rates of Parkinson’s and other diseases among the miners.

“This is a major victory for these miners and their families. It is the first time since 1994 that an occupational disease has been added to the WSIB’s presumptive schedules of recognized diseases,” said Myles Sullivan, the USW’s Ontario director-elect.

#TorontoOntarioCanada #Toronto #PeoplesStruggles #UnitedSteelWorkers

Toronto, Canada – 290 anti-imperialist activists from 120 organizations and 21 countries attended the Solidarity and Fightback Conference sponsored by the International League for People’s Struggle – International Women’s Alliance Solidarity in Toronto August 4 – 7. The conference theme was “Building Resistance to US-led War, Militarism and Neofascism.”

A sizable number of participants were young, energetic Filipinos from the anti-imperialist organizations Gabriela and Akbayan.

The conference was opened by a video messages of greetings and support from Jose Sison, chairman of the International League for People’s Struggle (ILPS) and Leila Khaled, Palestinian liberation icon and member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Panels featuring leaders of struggles against U.S. imperialism from the Philippines, Middle East, Congo, Mexico, Pakistan and across the world described the struggles in their countries and their movements’ resistance to it.

Margaret Kimberly of Black Agenda Report spoke at length about the Black liberation struggle. She talked about the importance of the campaigns for community control of police in Chicago and Saint Petersburg, Florida.

Nerissa Allegretti, of the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns, said, “I had the opportunity to join the workshop on Militarism and Counterinsurgency and listened to speakers Sarah Martin, Bill Doares, Rania Masri, Potri Ranka Manis and Padi Rex. It gave me a sharp picture of how counterinsurgency has consistently been a tool of maintaining imperialism in many forms; FBI raids and targeting of anti-war activists, using religion to divide the people, criminalization of liberation movements, and rape and kidnapping.”

A march to the U.S. consulate was held on August 6, the anniversary of the day the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Marchers chanted in Spanish, French, Tagalog and English. The march then went to and joined the public commemoration of that horrific war crime.

The last day of the conference, Wilmer Barrientos, the ambassador of Venezuela to Canada spoke. He debunked the widespread misinformation on the current political unrest in his country that is being propagated by Western media.

He went on to say, “What about Iraq, Syria and Libya? They [the U.S.] said, ‘Let’s liberate them.’ But do they live better than before? Many live on less than $1 a day. They want to impose this same intervention on Venezuela because we are a sovereign country that decides where our natural resources go.”

The conference ended with a call to action including all out for Rasmea Odeh in Chicago Saturday, August 12 for her going away party and in Detroit on Thursday, August 17 for her sentencing.

The next international ILPS conference will be in Mexico next summer.

#TorontoCanada #Toronto #ILPS #InternationalLeagueOfPeoplesStruggle