Mr. Speaker, that is exactly what I intended by encouraging the Conservative government to expand this notion of white-collar crime and mandatory minimums to include those who commit environmental offences, who offend mother earth.
I concur with him that the CEO and board of directors should be accountable for the present and past activity of the company that they represent. This is a board of directors issue. There is a fiduciary obligation to watch over the financial well-being of a company, but there is also a duty and obligation to ensure that environmental laws are not violated.
The asbestos industry is a perfect example. There was a big asbestos mine in Newfoundland. As far as I am concerned, the asbestos cartel has gotten away with murder in this country for the better part of a century. The current board of directors of W. R. Grace and LAB Chrysotile in Quebec should be hauled up before a court of law and charged with criminal violations for contaminating most of the country. They should have mandatory minimum jail sentences imposed on them, because they have known full well since the 1920s that all asbestos kills. Yet, the federal government has supported the asbestos industry. The Canadian government has demonstrated some irrational affinity for asbestos year after year.
I look forward to the day when some federal government has the courage to stand up and challenge that kind of environmental degradation, which has affected the health and well-being of so many communities. The asbestos mine that I worked in closed due to normal market forces.
The asbestos industry that remains in Quebec is still artificially supported and propped up by cowardly federal governments that will not do the honourable thing, and shut that appalling industry down and charge the perpetrators with the criminal offence of putting the health and well-being of Canadians at risk year after year. That is an absolutely appropriate use of mandatory minimum jail sentences. I thank my colleague for asking the question.