To: Honourable Rona Ambrose rona.ambrose@parl.gc.ca
Minister of Health
Canada
Dated: Friday, May 9, 2014
Subject: Canada’s continued approval of Pesticides that may be harmful – and a request for a talk for a podcast.
Dear Honourable Minister Amrbose,
I am a retired Marine Engineer and a citizen journalist, blogger, podcaster and a videographer that has been involved with food security and seed independence issues and their relevance to Canadian sovereignty and sustainability.
I write this to request you, or your representative, to consider speaking with me, preferably on record, to cover the issue of the Canadian Govt’s continued acceptance of potentially harmful chemicals that are banned elsewhere.
I have been speaking with and meeting relevant people across the planet that are involved in some way or another to raise awareness, or act, to protect both the environment and the food web for the world population. This act sometimes comes in conflict with the efforts of some corporations that wish to maximize profit through agriculture models that allow promotion of mono-culture crops as well as a monopoly hold on the food business through patented technology.
I write to you with regard to the Neonicotinoid pesticides and their possible link with the collapse of the bee populations, both honey bees and other bees, that are instrumental not just in honey gathering, but in pollination of plants. Apart from bees, the neonicotinoids may be involved with the death of many other kids of insects that are outside of our radar right now, but are part of the planet biomass and therefore important ingredients of our environment.
One of the key scientists that actually conducted field tests, not lab tests in artificial conditions, of effects of Neonicotinoid pesticides in bumble bees in Europe is Dr. Dave Goulson of UK. His research papers so rattled the EU government that it triggered a ban of these pesticides for at least two years, while more substantive tests are ordered to find if Neonicotinoid pesticides could be directly involved with population collapse of bees and other insects.
I have spoken with Dave Goulson personally, and have edited that talk and put it up as an audio podcast for the general public. I would encourage you to listen to it. It is at : http://www.tonu.org/2013/06/06/dave-goulson/
Now, to best of my knowledge, Canada has not conducted independent direct investigation of the effects of these pesticides on bees and how it might or might not affect Canadian Nature, its flora and fauna. Further, Canada may actually not have any institution that is capable of conducting such investigations and yet is not funded either by the corporations that have a vested interest in the outcome, or where the scientists that conduct such investigations cannot be fired or gagged by the Canadian Government that, for whatever reason, may not want to find problems with these pesticides. In other words, Canada may be incapable of finding unvarnished truth about safety concerns relating to these poisons.
As you are surely aware, several environment groups such as David Suzuki Foundation, Eco-justice etc are challenging Health Canada to review its continued acceptance of a number of potentially harmful chemicals that are banned in other parts of the world for the health risks they pose.
I am scheduled to speak with some representatives of these groups, on record, so as to edit and put up their comments as public podcasts for the people to learn. My blog and podcasts are not super popular, but they are beginning to get some traction, with between 600 and 1,000 hits a day and a fairly global reach, but more concentrated in North America, Europe and India.
I include a map of recent hits on my blogs and podcasts / videos of the last 48 hours, as provided by the built in apps of WordPress, for your reference.
So, I end this letter with a request to either speak with me at your convenience, or provide information as to how the Canadian Govt is being prudent in safeguarding interests of the people and the environment of Canada and not narrow short term economic goals of corporations at the expense of everything else. In absence of possibility of a direct talk, I should also be happy to receive a written response.
For public awareness, I intend to make this letter public, possibly on my blog or on Facebook or twitter. Should I receive a response from your Government, I shall be most glad to also put that up for public consumption, including an audio podcast, if any.
