Trudeau leaves PH; Canada’s trash remains

Canada’s newly-elected Prime Minister Trudeau arrives in the Philippines for his first APEC Summit.
(Photo from @apech2015ph)

MANILA – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau departed from the Philippines on Friday, after attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Summit held in Manila on November 18 and 19.

Although promising to study and make amendments on the law which allowed the shipping of hazardous wastes, Trudeau left the Philippines and the issue on tons of illegally imported garbage from his country.

Some 55 container vans which arrived in 2013 supposedly carried recyclable scrap materials but turned out to be full of household trash and soiled adult diapers instead.

With the toxic wastes misdeclared, the companies and officials responsible for the dumping violated the Revised Penal Code, the Tariff and Customs Code, and the 1990 Toxic Waste Act.

In a surprise press conference, Trudeau was vague on the action his government will take regarding the controversy but asserted that a solution was being developed.

“I have obviously been made aware of the situation and I’ve also been told that there is a Canadian solution in the process of being developed. But, at the same time, I know that this has exposed a problem that needs fixing within our own legislation that we’re going to lean into and make sure happens,” he said.

“We need to ensure that if a situation like this were to arise once again that the Canadian government has more power to actually demand action from the companies responsible. I believe there are loopholes here that were allowed to be skirted that we need to make sure we close [these], both for Canada’s interest and for our good relationships with our neighbors,” he added.

With still no guarantee that the garbage in question will be shipped back to its source, the foreign household trash and diapers remained at a dumpsite in Capas, Tarlac.