To: Ms Lois Jackson,
Mayor, Delta, BC
Dated June 12, 2014

Good day.

I had written to you on May 15, 2014 (http://www.tonu.org/2014/05/15/deltamayor/) on this topic, but received no response.

This letter is a reminder that we are still awaiting a response, and to keep you updated and to see if you or the Municipality of Delta, which collects our taxes, and which is our representative local Government, might have any interest in the wellbeing of its residents regarding exposure to nasty pesticides.

We have started a nationwide drive to check how much of Glyphosate is present in our drinking water, agricultural runoff, in our food sold in stores, and in our body. The basic concept is described in the blog :http://www.tonu.org/2014/05/31/glyphosate_testing-ca/. This is a citizen’s direct action, since our Governments so far appears non-plussed about it.

In case you are wondering what Glyphosate might be, it is the active ingredient (poison that kills) in Monsanto’s RoundUp weed killer. We have found no evidence that any government in Canada or any organization, have ever tested for accumulation of this weed killer in human body fluids or in food sold in local stores, or grown in local farms. This chemical is suspected to be involved in epidemic level rise of various auto-immune diseases. Government and the industry are resisting independent study of the effects of this pesticide on environment, on food and in people. Of relevance is a new book – ‘Poison Spring’ by Mr. Vallianatos, who worked for 25 years in EPA (Environment Protection Agency, USA) and describes how the EPA has continuously bypassed safety and allowed poison makers a free hand in running the institution. Our Ministry of Health has, instead of conducting independent safety checks on these substances, approves them based on tests done by the poison maker, and on EPA approval. I have spoken with the author and whistleblower Mr. Vallianatos himself. You can find it here : http://www.tonu.org/2014/06/06/poisonspring/

We have also written to Walmart and Safeway to check if they might like to join us in our testing food items sold in their store, for presence of this weed killer (http://www.tonu.org/2014/06/12/walmart-safeway/), but have not received any response.

The grassroots organization is citizen funded and a lot of people have joined hands to make this happen. Those that can afford to pay, will fund their own tests of samples collected by them, while we have just created a crowd funding program yesterday for others to contribute, so that poorer sections of the population, who cannot afford to pay for their tests, but who are likely more affected by Glyphosate poisoning, can be tested :https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/nationwide-glyphosate-testing/x/7927653

We have also written to the BC ministry of agriculture and forestry, for release of data about the quantity and type of pesticides used in wood preservation industry in BC (http://www.tonu.org/2014/05/10/pesticide-in-bc-forestry/) and followed it up with a letter to the MLA Mr. Scott Hamilton (http://www.tonu.org/2014/05/20/scott_hamilton/). We have received letters of acknowledgement from both, though are still waiting for the data.

Incidentally, some of these questions have been picked up by MP Alex Atamanenko of BC and placed directly with the Minister of Health, in Ottawa. MP Mr. Atamanenko informed me from Ottawa about it:http://www.tonu.org/2014/05/29/atamanenko/

We shall be attending Municipal Council meetings in near future where we might present these questions to your council.

Meanwhile, here is a second request to you, to see if the Municipality or its environment, food, agriculture or health initiatives have any interest in joining our effort, or to use some of the tax it collects from us, to test how much RoundUp, the the most used Pesticide in Canada, has gotten in our water, our urine, in breast milk of our nursing mothers and in the food that are sold in our stores, in Delta BC.

Should there be another mechanism for approaching your good office to raise these questions – I shall be obliged if you advise me the details.

Being a fully transparent and citizen supported initiative, this letter may be circulated among friends and other partners, by email, on social media, and on internet.

We shall be more than happy to see you, or meet your council, or converse with you on phone on this matter that is considered to be of utmost importance by a large body of people.

Thanking you
Tony Mitra
(address & Tel)

To, the Manager,
Walmart, 
12451 88th Avenue, Surrey, BC, V3W 1P8, (604)-597-7117

Subject: Testing for food sold in Walmart Store, for presence of Glyphosate

Good day,

We, Canadians For Testing Glyphosate, a citizen’s grassroots body, are engaging in a massive citizen driven nationwide program to test if Glyphosate is present in our water and soil, in our body, and in the food sold in our stores, such as in Walmart, Surrey, BC.

In case you are wondering what Glyphosate might be – it is the active ingredient (poison that kills organisms) in Monsanto’s ‘RoundUp’ herbicide weed killer, and what is suspected to be linked to epidemic level rise of a multitude of serious illnesses and deaths, and possible species extinctions in the last 20 years.
In that respect, we intend to test food items from your store such as :

Baby formulae
Cow milk
Bread
Corn
Canola and other cooking oil
Beet
Meat products such as Beef, Chicken and Pork

Our legal team is advising that we do not need to either inform you or take your permission, to test these products, and that we have the right, as citizens living in a free country, to test the food that we buy to eat from any store that is open to public.

However, this letter is sent to seek your opinion on this, and to check if you might like to join us in this test. Good quality tests involving, say the ELISA method (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) costs around $150 or so per test in an accredited lab. We shall be glad if your organization decides to join us by funding some of these “independent” tests on your own products.

We are planning to conduct them any way, but thought it might look better if your store were perceived to be cooperating.

Also, should you have an objection to the testing, i.e. if your position is that we may eat what we buy from you, but we may not test it, I shall appreciate if you shall validate that with a proper statement.

Lastly, we aim to be a transparent organization that let the public know of our involvements in this regard, so this letter, and others like it, may be circulated among members and in social media and internet, for others to either write similar letters, or compose their own.

I shall be more than happy to meet you or speak with you about our effort, and shall be looking forward to any response from you.

Absence of a response will be taken as you do not feel comfortable discussing this matter with us.

Thanking you
On behalf of Canadians for Testing Glyphosate
Tony Mitra
(address)

To, the Management, supplier.support@safeway.com, ecredi@safeway.com
Safeway, Canada 
7450 120 St, Surrey, BC, (604) 594-7341

Subject: Testing for food sold in Safeway, for presence of Glyphosate

Good day,

We, Canadians For Testing Glyphosate, a citizen’s grassroots body, are engaging in a massive citizen driven nationwide program to test if Glyphosate is present in our water and soil, in our body, and in the food sold in our stores, such as in Walmart, Surrey, BC.

In case you are wondering what Glyphosate might be – it is the active ingredient (poison that kills organisms) in Monsanto’s ‘RoundUp’ herbicide weed killer, and what is suspected to be linked to epidemic level rise of a multitude of serious illnesses and deaths, and possible species extinctions in the last 20 years.
In that respect, we intend to test food items from your store such as :

Baby formulae
Cow milk
Bread
Corn
Canola and other cooking oil
Beet
Meat products such as Beef, Chicken and Pork

Our legal team is advising that we do not need to either inform you or take your permission, to test these products, and that we have the right, as citizens living in a free country, to test the food that we buy to eat from any store that are open to public.

However, this letter is sent to seek your opinion on this, and to check if you might like to join us in this test. Good quality tests involving, say the ELISA method (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) costs around $150 or so per test in an accredited lab. We shall be glad if your organization decides to join us by funding some of these “independent” tests on your own products. We are planning to conduct them any way, but thought it might look better if your store were perceived to be cooperating.

Also, should you have an objection to the testing, i.e. if your position is that we may eat what we buy from you, but we may not test it, I shall appreciate if you shall validate that with a proper statement.

We aim to be a transparent organization that let the public know of our involvements in this regard, so this letter, and others like it, may be circulated among members and in social media and internet, for others to either write similar letters, or compose their own.

I shall be more than happy to meet you or speak with you about our effort, and shall be looking forward to any response from you.

Absence of a response will be taken as you do not feel comfortable discussing this matter with us.

Incidentally, we found it rather difficult to locate an applicable contact email for making suggestions to the Manager of the Store in the address given above. In that respect, the Safeway website seemed designed make it difficult for customers to send any email to the management. It seemed designed to tell customers many things, but with no mechanism to listen from them. Thus, we send this message to the only two emails we could locate after some searching around, at http://suppliers.safeway.com/canada/edi_can/edi_contact.asp.

Should this message be better directed to another person or department, I request that this be done.

Thanking you
On behalf of Canadians for Testing Glyphosate
Tony Mitra,
(address)
tony.mitra@gmail.com