GMW: Farmers Denied Entry Visa to Canada to Tell Their Story

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GM WAT.CH daily

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PRESS RELEASE

For immediate release

 

Farmers Denied Entry Visa to Canada to Tell Their Story

 

Keeping out the Opposition

or

Just the Usual Treatment for the Third World?

 

Edmonds, Washington and New Delhi, India.

 

Today, in a story that began late last week when Canada denied an entry

visa to Dr. Tewolde Berhan

Gebre Egziabher, the Ethiopian government's chief scientist and its

representative to the Montreal-based UN Convention on Biological

Diversity

(CBD), two farmers from India were denied visas to attend the same

meeting that Tewolde was hoping to attend. The meeting begins Wednesday,

May 25 in Montreal, Canada..

 

Professor Kavulakunpla Ramanna Chowdry, a farmer, retired professor of

agricultural economics, and adviser to the Andhra Pradesh state

government, and Kaka Ramakrishna, a farmer who suffered huge losses to

the recent Bt cotton disaster in his region, were scheduled to speak

about their experiences with the genetically engineered cotton at a

side event at the Convention on Biological Diversity, which

headquarters in Montreal. The side event, aptly entitled " Lie Ability

and Liability " , was to have been sponsored by the Edmonds Institute,

which headquarters in Edmonds, Washington, and the Research Foundation

for Science, Technology and Ecology (RFSTE), which headquarters in New

Delhi, India.

 

" I don''t know whether this is about keeping the opposition out of

Canada, " said Beth Burrows, Edmonds Institute director referring to the

fact that Canada is an ardent proponent of genetically engineering, " or

whether this is about Canada''s usual treatment of people from the Third

World. "

 

" After their visas were denied, " she added, " the farmers were invited

to reapply, provided they showed their bank records and that of the

Edmonds Institute, a non-governmental organization that has been

following

the Convention on Biological Diversity since before it began. "

 

" Afsar Jafri, of RFSTE, called me from India this morning to tell me

about it. The farmers were there. We all felt so bad. It was too late to

reapply. The event is the day after tomorrow. "

 

" My apologies to people in the Third World, " said Burrows, " I should

have protested this kind of thing long ago. I had no idea that this was

going on as a general rule. I learned just this morning that Canada -

which I have always thought of as a lovely country - does this all the

time to visitors from the South. "

 

" I have brought many people to lecture at side events before and never

had a problem like this. Despite the bank account request, it can''t be

about money. I mean, if everyone had to show their bank account, all

the people from all the debtor countries in the world - the United States

included - wouldn''t be allowed to enter Canada. It must be about

something else. "

 

For more details contact:

Beth Burrows

Edmonds Institute

Until May 24: 1-425-775-5383 (in Edmonds, Washington)

After May 24: 1-514-845-9803 (in Montreal, Canada)

 

Afsar Jafri

Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology

phone: 91-11-26968077 or 91-11-26853772 (in New Delhi, India)

 

* * * * * * * * * *

 

The Edmonds Institute is a non-profit public interest group that is

recognized as a 501©(30 organization by the U.S. Internal Revenue

Service. Focused on education about environment and technology, the

Institute is registered as a non-profit corporation and a public

charity in the State of Washington.

 

Contact: Beth Burrows (425-775-5383, at the Edmonds Institute until May

24,

-514-845-9803 - Hotel Manoir

des Alpes - after May 24)

 

Edmonds Institute

20319-92nd Avenue West

Edmonds, Washington 98020 USA

phone: 425-775-5383

email: beb

website: <http://www.edmonds-institute.org>