The Daily Show visits Asbestos Que In English it means slow hacking death
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The town of Asbestos Que was the object of ridicule on one of the world's most popular comedy programs Thursday night
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart produced a segment that began with lighthearted mockery and ended with moral indignation over the town's attachment to the asbestos industry
It interviewed local officials who said chrysotile asbestos is perfectly safe if handled properly then spoke with a Canadian Medical Association doctor who called the industry a national embarrassment
The piece saved its most scathing bits for last
It reminded people that asbestos is blamed for 100,000 deaths a year and that there's little evidence the product is handled safely in India the prime market for Quebec asbestos
It ran CBC images of Indian workers tossing around the substance without any precautions That's when the comedian-reporter on the story toughened his tone
Reporter Aasif Mandvi who was born in Mumbai asked the president of an asbestos mine Have you ever been to India Do you think in India people are following the regulations
He then lures the asbestos executive Bernard Coulombe into a tongue-in-cheek conversation about Indians Mr Coulombe quips that Indian workers can handle a lot Maybe they're used to the pollution It's like antibiotics They have natural antibodies the businessman says
Mr Mandvi plays a long for a bit smiling and joking that Indians must be tougher than westerners
Then he tears into the businessman That's really f---ed up man Mr Mandvi says I mean selling them things that are going to kill them I mean that's my family over there
He adds What's the French word for douchebag
Quebec holds the last of Canada's remaining asbestos mines Jean Charest's government recently announced a $58-million loan guarantee to keep one of them the Jeffrey Mine open Mr Coulombe is president of that operation
As the segment ended Mr Stewart chuckled as he cut to commercial
It's wasn't the first time the town was fodder for foreign comedians An Australian TV show once held a contest for advertising professionals to try making tourists want to visit the place The segment on Mr Stewart's show began with a similarly light tone
The studio audience laughed as Mr Mandvi poked fun at the town's name at the start of the five-minute piece His first exchange with Mr Coulombe played on linguistic misunderstandings
Does Asbestos mean something different in French than it does in English he asked Mr Coulombe Because in English it means slow hacking death
A wide-eyed Mr Coulombe replies Yeah It means that
The Daily Show attracts well over one million TV viewers per night and its segments regularly go viral on the Internet as well
Neither town nor mine officials were immediately available to comment on the segment However the Quebec government said it believed safety precautions were constantly improving
Economic Development Minister Clement Gignac noted that India's Supreme Court has demanded that the country's government better regulate the industry
He says he has travelled to India with representatives of the provincial workplace-safety board to share best practices with India's minister responsible for mining
It's just like chemical products we don't pretend they have no risk at all Mr Gignac told a news conference in Quebec City
They have risks But if we go in a safe way with the best practices we can minimize risks One death is one death too many whether it's in Quebec India or Indonesia
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