"If I Fed You Arsenic Every Day"

Disturbing news has recently emerged concerning pollution in Chemical Valley, Sarnia, Ontario. There, companies such as Imperial Oil, Shell Canada, Suncor Energy and Plains Midstream have their plants. 57 companies are registered as polluters with the Canadian government, all within 25 kilometres of Sarnia.

The smell of Benzene pervades the air. An independent company measured the levels at 50 parts per billion. If sustained over 30 minutes that would be 22 times higher than the provincial safe standard. The report, and 500 others conducted in 2014 and 2015, was obtained by a national investigation involving the Toronto Star, Global News and 2 Toronto schools of journalism.

On April 26, 2016 benzene levels were logged at 161 micrograms per cubic meter -- 23 times Ontario's standard – for half an hour. Hospitalization rates for respiratory problems are higher in the Sarnia area than nearby Windsor and London. There are more lung cancer cases and mesothelioma than the Ontario average in part because of the regions production of asbestos.

As one Sarnia resident put it, ''If I fed you arsenic every day I'm poisoning you and you could charge me. These companies are leaking things and slowly doing harm and they get a slap on the wrist or nothing at all. We have to prove it, but there are so many companies how can you point out one? So capitalism doesn't just stink figuratively it all stinks physically.

For socialism, 

Steve, Mehmet, John & all contributing members of the SPC.