Article content

Concordia University is reviewing a report it commissioned and published on public relations lessons that can be learned from Quebec’s asbestos industry.

The review comes after the report was decried as “replete with inaccuracies and bias,” by a group of 10 scientists and human-rights advisers.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Concordia to review asbestos report Back to video

The report, written by John Molson School of Business lecturer John Aylen, aims to answer whether or not “there can be meaningful dialogue and consensus when facts come up against feelings.”

Aylen argues facts will never trump feelings when it comes to public opinion, and attempts to prove as much by using events in the two years leading up to the Quebec government cancelling the $58-million loan planned for the Jeffrey Mine as an example.

“Opposition based on strongly held feelings can rarely be swayed by logic or facts, and this was proven in the Quebec experience,” Aylen writes.

Not disclosed in the report is the fact Aylen himself has repeatedly spoken and written in favour of the asbestos industry while working as a paid spokesperson for Baljit Chadha, who was the lead proponent of the Jeffrey Mine expansion.