To: Jagmeet Singh, MP, Burnaby South, NDP
jagmeet.singh@ndp.ca
Date: Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Subject: Suggestions on GMO, Glyphosate and proportional representation
MP Jagmeet Singh
Congratulations on your recent victory in your riding in the general election, and the position NDP is in with regard to possible participation in a minority Government under Justin Trudeau. I write this with a short list of suggestions that your party might consider, should it be asked to support a Trudeau’s government. My requests are of national interest and not covering any personal issues. I shall never ask you for any personal favour.
- Reverse Bill C-291 on mandatory labelling of GMO as a starting point on pushing back at Glyphosate (many GMO crops are designed to increase sale of glyphosate).
- Bring Proportional representation in Canadian federal elections.
Before proceeding, I’d like to introduce myself as an Indian born Canadian citizen, a retired engineer and a food security activist focussing primarily on banning Glyphosate (Roundup and other branded herbicides) from Canadian agriculture, forestry, coastline and nature. I had a role in pushing the Harper Government into having CFIA to test thousands of food samples collected in Canada, for presence of glyphosate. A now retired NDP member of parliament, Mr. Alex Atamanenko, assisted in my effort to bring this matter to the floor of the parliament and forcing the hand of the then conservative health minister Ms Rona Ambrose. 
Thus the Canadian government became the only one so far to conduct large scale testing of all foods for glyphosate. My analysis of all those results, totalling near 8,000, proved that North America produces the most toxic foods on earth. This is the primary reason why Canadians and Americans are the sickest people among all developed nations. I composed a 400 page reference book with data and charts, titled ‘Poison Foods of North America’, for other research scholars, available on Amazon.
That glyphosate is safe for humans or other animals, has not been directly proven by anybody in the fifty years of its existence. The documents the Canadian government is supposed to have seen prior approval of glyphosate back in the 1970s and many times since, has never been made public. This hiding of safety document and data makes the very approval of glyphosate constitutionally illegal, in my understanding of the law. What the Government doles out in exchange, is carefully selected third party reports and opinions, that someone else found glyphosate to be safe enough, provided it was used carefully.
A few years ago, I had brought over twenty thousand signatures to my Delta MP and federal minister Carla Qualtrough, demanding that the then newly formed Trudeau government discloses all the documents it received from Monsanto covering safety tests and data on glyphosate. She took the documents to Ottawa but did not deliver. Ottawa continues to stonewall all public efforts to seek disclosure on this issue.
Although it is not difficult to conduct independent lab test to check if a substance such as glyphosate is or is not harmful to animals and organisms, the Canadian Government has not encouraged independent verification of this most used poison on earth – glyphosate.
I am aware of the ongoing sixth mass extinction and the effects of glyphosate spray over Canadian forests, practiced by logging firms and approved by provincial governments. I am aware of the fact that scientists and medical officers that raise alarm over this issue, end up getting fired and their voice silenced.
I am aware that your platform has been to bolster better government funded healthcare for people. I would like you to also consider the fact that the first step towards better health is prevention of diseases. What most people understand by healthcare is caring of the sick. I am talking about ensuring folks do not get sick to start with.
I am aware how bill C-291 of the Canadian 42st parliament — an Act to amend the Food and Drugs Act (genetically modified food) , requiring mandatory labelling of GMO, was proposed by the then NDP and was defeated because Conservatives and most though not all, members of the Liberal party voted against it, while members of NDP and BQ voted in favour of mandatory labelling.
My own MP and federal minister Carla Qualtrough, despite my meeting and passing damaging information on glyphosate, and despite overwhelming support for the bill from Canadians, opted to kill this bill.
My first request for you is to force the hand of any coalition government with Mr. Trudeau, to reverse that anti-people vote by the Liberals, and pass a fresh bill mandating labelling of GMO as well as ensuring that the “definition” of GMO is not altered so much that what was considered GMO last may end up considered as “natural” now. This GMO labelling should be the first step, followed by independent and rigorous assessment of the safety of glyphosate, where promoters of the product or politicians in high places have no influence on the study, and to ultimately work towards banning the product and moving away from the concept of using poisons in agriculture and forestry.
If you are interested to learn more about glyphosate and what independent science is discovering – albeit outside Canada, since independent science is being killed in Canada, then I shall be most happy to meet with you some day to discuss.
My second suggestion is to insist that the new minority government passes a fresh bill so all future federal elections will be based on proportional representations.
Being an activist and encouraging people to find ways to raise issues of national interest with politicians, I may circulate copy of this letter in social media, or read it aloud on youtube, to encourage others to also voice their views to elected public servants.
I also intend to send a copy of this letter to my own MP, ms Carla Qualtrough, for her reference.
I look forward to a positive response and end this letter wishing you success.
Tony Mitra
10891 Cherry Lane, Delta, BC, V4E3L7 Canada
604-649 7535, tony.mitra@gmail.com