GMW: Canada's Corruption/Canadians Call For Independent Investigation Into

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GMW: Canada's Corruption/Canadians Call For Independent

Investigation Into

" GM WATCH " <info

Thu, 16 Jun 2005 09:48:44 +0100

 

 

 

 

 

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1.Canada's Corruption

2.Canadians Call For Independent Investigation Into

Whistle-Blower Firings

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1.Liberal Corruption, beyond the Sponsorship Scandal

Thursday June, 16 2005 [excerpts]

http://www.thetyee.ca/Views/2005/06/14/BeyondSponsorship/

 

What is it if not corrupt -- that is, indicative of moral deterioration

-- that our federal government would deliberately deny a visa to

Africa's Dr. Tewolde Egziabher one of the world's foremost scientists

in the

field of bio-safety, in order to prevent him attending a UN conference

in Montreal?

 

This crude move against Tewolde (eventually reversed) because he

opposes Canada's position, on behalf of corporations -- on

commercialization

of GMO foods, is a violation of the principles Canada agreed to when

Montreal was made the centre for the

Secretariat for the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Montreal.

It is also evidence of corruption at the highest levels of the Liberal

government.

 

What is it if not corrupt -- as in a perversion of its original state

-- that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), which in its

original form was mandated to protect Canadians from unsafe food

products, now

has a mandate that trumps this important goal?

 

The CFIA now must promote the export of Canadian food products, again

at the behest of industry. This institutionalized conflict of interest

has played out just as you might expect. When Shiv Chopra, Margaret S.

Haydon, and Gerard Lambert, scientists in the veterinary drugs

directorate, who for years had dedicated themselves to protecting

Canadians,

tried to do their job they were harassed, threatened and eventually fired

for it.

 

....What is it when Canada sends delegates to a conference examining the

safety of so-called terminator seeds with a secret agenda to try to

pass a resolution that would allow for the corporate commercialization of

his horrible technology? ...Or when Canada's own trade officials,

unbeknownst to Canadians, and in concert with giant service corporations,

negotiate away our domestic regulatory authority at the WTO?

 

It is the dictionary definition of corruption: a perversion of the

original state of democratic governance, the moral deterioration of our

democracy.

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2.Canadians Call For Independent Investigation Into

Whistle-Blower Firings

June 08, 2005

http://www.canadiandemocraticmovement.ca/displayarticle660.html

 

Canadians are calling on the federal government to convene an

independent investigation into the firing of Health Canada

whistle-blowers Shiv

Chopra, Margaret Haydon and Gerard Lambert.

 

Petitions signed by thousands of Canadians will also be introduced in

the House of Commons this afternoon by members of all three opposition

parties -- Nanaimo-Cowichan MP, Jean Crowder (NDP), Hochelaga MP Real

Menard (Bloc Quebecois) and

Oshawa MP Colin Carrie (CPC).

 

The petition follows hard on the heels of the three scientists'

presentation to the Standing Committee on Health on May 19 and the

Federal

Court decision on April 29 that ordered the Public Service Integrity

Officer to reconsider complaints from the

three scientists. The scientists assert that they were pressured,

harassed and finally dismissed for speaking out about the dangers of

mad cow

disease and about the use of hormones and antibiotics in the food

supply, particularly the use of [Monsanto's genetically engineered] bovine

growth hormones.

 

All three scientists were fired on July 14, 2004, shortly after the

Martin government took office. No satisfactory explanation has been

forthcoming from either Health Canada or the Prime Minister's Office.

 

" All we want is an open, public investigation into what happened to

us, " says Chopra. " Then the truth will come out. Our job was to protect

the health of Canadians, and that's just what we were doing. We believe

that the public has a right to know the

full story. "

 

" Parliament must not turn a blind eye to the fate of these courageous

scientists, " said Mike McBane, national coordinator of the Canadian

Health Coalition. " The whistle-blowers are on the front lines, putting

health protection ahead of business

interests. If the government is unwilling to launch a full

investigation, it bodes ill for the future health of Canadians and for

our

democracy. "

 

" There has been an incredible outpouring of support from Canadians all

across the country who are outraged by this scandal, " observed Cathy

Holtslander, of the Beyond Factory Farming Coalition. " We certainly hope

that Parliament will now act to ensure that a full, independent and

transparent investigation will be done as soon as possible. "

 

The BFF Coalition is a network of local, provincial and national groups

including the Council of Canadians. It promotes livestock production

that supports food sovereignty, ecological, human and

animal health, as well as sustainability and community viability and

informed citizen/consumer choice.

 

 

 

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