Category Archives: Activism

A Petition about Glyphosate

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I have had a series of exchanges with Health Canada on Glyphosate. These include :

1. A letter to Ms Rona Ambrose, the minster of health, hand carried by outgoing MP Alex Atamanenko to Ms Ambrose, on the issue of lack of laboratories in Canada (at the time, i.e. last year) where Canadians could test themselves (urine sample or breast milk), or their food, for presence of Glyphosate. That produced a convoluted response from the ministry, without actually covering the main issue, i.e. labs for Canadians. At the time, Canada had labs that test for Glyphosate only in soil and in water. That is all.

Things have improved since then. I do not know if it happened because of my question, and because MP Alex Atamanenko pushed it with Health Canada, or because World Health Organization re-classified Glyphosate as a probable carcinogen, or for a combination of reasons including the above two. Whatever the reason, a number of Canadian labs now offer testing of food items for presence of Glyphosate. Some will test only vegetables, or processed food. Some will test grains. Some might only test crops from the field. Some have this testing methodology and process accredited. Some claim they can get the accreditation but have not done so because it is costly and they do not know if the business will be enough to maintain this accreditation that involves high annual fees.

Some will only test target weed type plants that show visible damage due to suspected glyphosate attack, but will not test plants that show no trace of damage, such as RoundUp Ready crops.

They mostly use High Performance Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry or similar high end methods and have a lowest repeatable and verifiable detection level that is between 10 and 20 parts per billion.

Most will do such tests for any paying customer including the general public. Costs can vary from around 200 to 400, depending on various factors.

Unfortunately, testing of human body fluids such as urine, blood, or mother’s breast milk, for presence of Glyphosate, is still not possible in Canada. There is a system in the US, that allows Canadian urine to be transported safety and tested in the US, for USD 119 each – and effort in which I am personally involved. We have sent out the first batch of samples and are awaiting results. This is covered in another blog.

2. Safety test documents: Request to Health Canada, through Access To Information (ATI) act, for Health Canada to disclose to me the document, based on which it approved Glyphosate. This resulted in huge file being copied into a CD and sent to me by mail. But the document and its attached reports and links did not include direct test data conducted on animals that have been exposed to the chemical. Rather, it was a summary report comprising of visiting other scientific papers. So the issue remains unresolved, i.e. if Canadian Government of its Pest Management Review Association has at all sighted a direct safety test report with their raw data, or not. And if it has, then will it make those document(s) public. I intend to make fresh requests to Health Canada, with different wording, for disclosure of the safety test raw data.

3. Results of Canadian foods being tested for Glyphosate content. I know the Canadian Government has started testing our food for Glyphosate content. I know existing labs are scrambling to get on board, and are either developing their own technology or adopting/licensing European or American systems. I asked the Government, against under Access To Information Act, to disclose to me all such results. Unfortunately, again, I am being given selective results, involving tests of crops suspected to be clean already, such as organic plants, and not conventional, or RoundUp Ready plants. So, in my view, the Government is playing hide and seek with us on safety data on glyphosate.

4. A fresh petition: Now that we have a fresh Government to take helm, and this Government is promising to be more transparent, I intend to see if fresh engagements will help bring transparency in this field which has been opaque for too long.

This petition, which is now collecting signatories and is sort of open ended. I was thinking of closing it when it collects 500 signatures. A letter should be sent to New Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as well as the new Minster of Health, for them to disclose the safety documents relating to Glyphosate, and also to make the system transparent so that people do not have to run around to get an honest answer on issues of food safety.

Meanwhile, there has been some interesting sniping behind the back from some anti-GMO and anti-pesticide talking heads, who might be harbouring a desire to own the movement, or appear to be the omnipotent guru in their ivory towers.

One comment that has come back through circuitous paths is that it is not Health Canada’s duty to sight first hand safety test data and not their duty to prove to the citizens of Canada that a product it approved is safe. All Health Canada needs to do, perhaps, is copy paste whatever they get from the biotech industry.

The petition has gathered over 19,000 supporters by November 14. It also got under the skin of a Harold Ingram, who was kind enough to send me an email.

Naturally, that is not what we expect a Government to do. There are rule books and guidelines on that the approval regime under the ministry of health is supposed to follow.

I had a minute and a half talk with Dr. Shiv Chopra, and converted that into a video, for clarifications.

[youtube 7K54gEqDedY]

So, here is a request for those that believe such a petition is necessary – go sign it. Click on the petition image to go to that page.

Thank you.

Yellow journalism

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Used to be a time when each town had one or two family owned newspapers, and collectively a nation had a lot of variety in their news services. Each paper may or may not have a particular tilt in its presentation – pro poor, pro rich, left or right, anti this or anti that.

Together, they presented multiple angles and points of view on issues that mattered to the people, and to the nation.

Unfortunately, that is not how things are today, thanks to extreme consolidation of the news media. Today a single mogul or media house, who may not even be from your country, can own every large paper and coax all of them to to push its own bias on an entire nation.

Ideally, there should have been an anti-monopoly laws that prevent this from happening, but then, there are a lot of things that should have happened in Canada but did not.

Here is an example – of what I consider to be yellow journalism. This article came out in Globe and Mail on October 29. This looks like an angry reaction to an interview that CBC conducted on Dr. Shiv Chopra, in relation to the TPP deals  in general, and about possible import of American milk from cows treated with growth hormones in particular. The CBC interview with Dr. Chopra can be found here.

In my opinion TPP is engineered to promote profiteering by corporations against the interests of a nation and gives these corporations extraordinary power to prevent national Governments from protecting its market, its interest, or its people from predatory practices by these corporations. In its basic form, it can be argued that such deals are anti-democratic, and there are justifiable reasons one can have objections to such deals.

This lady might be beholden to the religion of corporate greed or share holder profiteering. Anyhow, her article appears to be aimed at trashing Dr. Shiv Chopra’s life work, particularly because Chopra was vocal in his criticism of TPP and questions the safety of American milk treated with rBGH.

Perhaps she considers a corporate driven USA to be the reference point of every heavenly thing that earth has seen, meaning, if something happens in USA, then it must be the best thing.

One could take this kind of convoluted logic to an extreme, and claim that, if USA has most per capita people in jail, then Canada should follow suit and start jailing our people right and left, because, by that mind set, we are badly lagging behind USA in this important area.

Dr. Chopra was employed as a top scientist in Health Canada involved in approval of products that went into human food system. His concern was human health and safety.

The bovine growth hormone (rBGH) was being touted as the next best thing since our species ancestors lost their tail and got down from trees, figuratively speaking. Injecting cows with this growth hormone is supposed to force ( they used more Gandhian terminology such as “induce” instead of force) the cows to produce more milk than they would normally do.

Shiv wanted to see safety tests done on this product before approving it. This is a very normal request, especially from someone in his position. His job was not to see if the injection does indeed result in more milk. His job was to check if that milk could be harmful to people who drank it.

So he asked for test results to be submitted to him. These results would normally involve sample mammals such as rats or rabbits to be injected with this hormone, and then the blood chemistry and milk chemistry of these animals as well as other health parameters to be measured, and compared with another set of animals of the same species that were not treated with this hormone. The resultant comparison of raw data is expected to indicate if the treated animal remained healthy, if its milk did not contain undue amounts of growth hormone, if its body did not produce unwanted antibodies as a reaction to the hormone, if its milk did not contain anything other than what normal milk should contain, etc.

Normally, it would not be necessary for an approval authority to ask for these safety test data, because it would automatically be included by the producer in their application. But, for reasons better known to the producers, this safety test documents were excluded from the file and Shiv Chopra did not have them.

So he asked for them. Simple.

But, instead of providing the requested information, the producer went over his head to the politicians, and got Shiv Chopra sacked. Not only that, the Government passed a gag order on Shiv, so that he would not be allowed to speak about the circumstance under which he was fired. Dr. Chopra had to fight this gag order in court and had that lifted, before he could publish a book – Corrupt to the core, to expose endemic corruption within Health Canada.

That is the story about Shiv Chopra, and rBGH. That hormone remains unapproved in Canada and milk treated with it remains banned from import. A majority of European nations have outright banned the hormone in their dairy industry. But now, thanks to TPP, such milk may enter Canada through the back door.

That is what concerns Dr. Chopra, and that is what he spoke about.

The article in Globe and Mail essentially amounts to a murder of truth, and an sorry example of corporate driven yellow journalism. You can see your yourself by clicking on the picture.

I do not fault the woman for the twisted view she is projecting. Not every one is knowledgable. Not everyone is perfect. People have a right to be stupid. I however fault Globe and Mail for putting it up. But then, I started this blog on the issue of death of true investigative journalism. Globe and mail article proves that in Canada, free press has been replaced by free jokes.

The question in my mind is – should I consider Globe and Mail same as junk mail.

Bill C-51

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How does bill C-51 stack up for a constitutional democracy?

Should we be concerned about possible loss of personal freedom in the name of protection from terrorism?

How important is protection from terrorism? Who is out to terrorize Canada? Are we doing something around the world that we should not be doing, and are we creating enemies that we should not be creating? Are we hurting or killing innocents in far off lands using Canadian tax payers money that the tax payers have no say in? What is going on?

Well, here are a few comments on Bill C-51 – Anti-terrorism Act of Canada.

Perhaps this blog and others, covering issues that should be important for Canadian voters, will help the reader in forming an educated opinion on where Canada is heading, and where you might consider casting your vote.

I would recommend voters to know individual candidates and not go blindly for a party. Thee are great politicians and rogue politicians all across the landscape. We need good ones that keeps the Canadian constitution, its land, water, air, nature and people in mind first, and money, corporations and shareholder interest, later.

Chris George is a politician and a contestant in the coming election from Okanagan-Shuswap riding in BC on behalf of the Green Party of Canada. Here is what he had to say.

[youtube R9m3XROnHkA]C51

Alex Atamanenko is a sitting MP, for the NDP, and here is a speech he made directly in the Parliament about this bill C-51, back in Feb 2015. I got a copy of it directly from Alex. Here is a transcript. Now that a fresh election is called, members of parliament are not allowed to make any recorded talks, and hence I could not get him to read this letter out.

Alex Atamanenko (British Columbia Southern Interior)
2015-02-23 13:01 [p.11510]
Mr. Speaker, let me start by saying how proud I am of our leader and our party for taking a principled stand against this flawed piece of legislation.

Alex Atamanenko – outgoing MP, NDP

As I move closer to retirement, I have been reflecting on my past nine years here in Ottawa. I often think about all those individuals, not only in my riding but right across this country, who are deeply committed to the cause of social justice. As a member of Parliament, it has been an honour for me to work with them in our common struggle for a better world. The issues have been many: world peace, food sovereignty, climate change, the environment, poverty, violence against women, and many others.
As a party, we have taken principled stands against the ideologically driven policies of the current Conservative government, such as its so-called tough-on-crime agenda, the abandonment of environmental protection, and anti-labour legislation. Today our position on Bill C-51 is consistent with this proud NDP tradition.
I should say that with all this anti-terrorism and anti-Muslim hype generated by the Conservatives, it would have been easy to come out in support of this draconian piece of legislation. After all, it appears, as the polls are saying, that Canadians are afraid, and they want tougher laws to protect them against terrorists. However, as the official opposition, that would not be in the best interests of Canadians.
I believe that my party has taken the responsible approach, and I am very proud of it. After carefully listening to experts and studying Bill C-51 in detail, we have determined that the bill would be a direct threat to the rights and freedoms we currently enjoy in this country. Here I would like to offer my sincere thanks to my colleagues from Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca and Alfred-Pellan and the research team for their due diligence on Bill C-51.
The following points summarize our concerns.
This bill threatens our way of life by asking Canadians to choose between their security and their freedoms. The bill was not developed in consultation with the other parties, all of whom recognize the real threat of terrorism and support effective, concrete measures to keep Canadians safe.
What is more, the bill irresponsibly provides CSIS with a sweeping new mandate without equally increasing oversight. It contains definitions that are broad, vague and threaten to lump together legitimate dissent with terrorism. It does not include the type of concrete, effective measures that have been proven to work, such as working with communities on measures to counter radicalization of youth.
We agree that terrorism is a real threat and everyone agrees that public safety should be a top priority for any government, but Canadians should not have to choose between their security and their rights. The Prime Minister is offering them a false choice.
We need concrete measures that protect Canadians without eroding our freedoms and undermining our way of life. However, time and time again, the Prime Minister goes too far and puts politics before principles.
As I endeavoured to study this bill, I read through various articles that appeared in our mainstream media. A number of them, such as the National Post editorial of February 19, dealt with the efforts of university professors and national security specialists Craig Forcese and Kent Roach, who have produced three exhaustive analyses of Bill C-51. They are concerned about the new powers granted to CSIS to engage in disruptive activities.
We have also recently learned from an internal RCMP document that the environmental movement is already being targeted as a national security threat. According to the National Post, “that does not require a particularly paranoid mind to be interpreted as evidence that the environmental movement is already being targeted as a national security threat”.
Prior to CSIS being created in 1984, the RCMP had engaged in disruptive activities that were illegal. That is why the McDonald Commission was created and why CSIS was given a mandate to collect and analyze information and produce intelligence about potential national security threats to Canada. Now, under Bill C-51, they would be able to do legally what the RCMP was doing illegally in the 1960s and 1970s. This is a direct threat to the rights and freedoms we currently enjoy.
As our leader stated:
Bill C-51 would expand CSIS’s mandate to spying on ‘interference with infrastructure and interference with economic or financial stability.
The language is so broad that it would allow CSIS to investigate anyone who challenges the government’s social, economic or environmental policies. What is to stop this bill from being used to spy on the government’s political enemy?
We have also learned that former CSIS officer Francois Lavigne is alarmed by this bill. According to an article that appeared in The Windsor Star:
He believes the measures proposed in C-51 are unnecessary, a threat to the rights of Canadians and that the prime minister is using fascist techniques to push the bill.
Mr. Lavigne was part of the barn burning, off-the-leash Mounties group whose law-breaking ways led to the McDonald Commission and the eventual establishment of CSIS in 1984. He spent years tracking dangerous radicals without the powers the government wants to give CSIS. He said:
I find it a little convenient that in the past few years that these radicalized people are the biggest threat to ever hit us. There are more people dying because of drunk drivers or because of gang violence.
It would also appear that the Conservative government is using terror to deflect us from real problems facing Canadians, such as the loss of jobs, the growing disparity between the rich and the poor, and climate change, to name a few. History is full of examples of irresponsible leaders rallying their citizens by exaggerating threats to their security. As Mr. Lavigne goes on to say:
Some of these tactics are taken right out of the fascist playbook. Create an enemy that is hard to identify. Make it an enemy that is nebulous and seems to be able to do things that nobody else can. Don’t define the enemy. Just identify. Generate fear around that enemy. Then send out the message that the only people who can deal with this enemy are us.
This is totally irresponsible and, I would say, immoral on the part of the Conservative government.
As our leader said, the NDP believes that current laws, at this time, allow the police and intelligence officers to do a good job. Providing new legislative tools is not the only solution. We must first ensure that our officers have the financial resources they need to better enforce laws.
In the end, any legislative measure to fight security threats must satisfy the following principle: the legislative measure must protect both Canadians and their civil liberties. The protection of civil liberties and public safety are both fundamental Canadian values. What is needed is a more rigorous legislative approach to fight terrorism based on evidence and facts, an approach that provides for strict monitoring of security agencies.
There is a lot of concern that this bill has been rammed through with the typical time allocation, not giving enough time for experts and the public to consult with the government, as happened in 2001 after what happened in New York City, when it took time, and committee meetings and hearings were held. This is being rammed through under the guise of fear.
I would like to quote from a disturbing article I read this morning in The Globe and Mail by Campbell Clark, which said:
Two things are clear: First, the Conservatives think this bill will help them win an election, and second, they don’t want people to understand it. That’s a bad combination for a bill that will change things in secret, in ways we won’t know for years.

Questions for Canadian election candidates

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Canadians are facing an election. It is our duty, as citizens, to be responsible in voting.

I decided to ask the candidates my question, directly, to ascertain what each candidate feels about it. Here is a copy of it.

Letter sent to :
Conservatives : Kerry-Lynne Findlay
NDP – Jeremy Leveque
Liberal – Carla Qualtrough
Green – Anthony Devellano

Dear candidate (name) from Delta,

I am a voter and a concerned citizen. I believe it to be my duty to be engaged this election season as a concerned citizen. That is the reason behind this letter, trying to understand the individual candidates of my riding.

I am against voting along party lines.

I am an engineer and have worked in multiple continents with folks from all across the world. I have also studied the economic, social and political systems of the nations of this planet within my means, and looked at them through the lens of time. In short, I believe I am not completely stupid.

I have serious reservations on the general economic model that is often pushed by the Canadian Govt. under different leaders and different parties.

Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta BC

I have decided not to vote for any logo or picture of party leaders and will vote for the person from my riding that seems to be most balanced and with good convictions that rhyme with my views. 

Jeremy Leveque, NDP, Delta BC

I am not interested in learning what a candidate can do for me. Instead, I am keen to learn what he or she will do for the long term health of Canada – its land, its air, its water and its people. Canada has been doing poorly those areas for a while now.

To that effect, I need to find answers to questions that are not being asked by the mainstream media, and what I have not heard a candidate address so far. Again, I am not so much interested in what their party leaders have to say. I am supposed to be voting for a person and not a lamp post that carries a party tag.

My questions are, briefly :

1) Canada has a huge landmass and huge reserve of resources and forestry and a small population to manage and distribute this wealth to. Yet, Canadian people are fast sliding to be at the bottom of the barrel in quality of life, public support systems towards healthcare, education, transportation, jobs, living wage, housing, poverty index, and toxicity in their environment. This is what I believe. Question – what do you believe ?

Anthony Devellano – Green Party, Delta BC

2) Canada is signing trade agreements that allows foreign corporations to trump Canadian citizen’s concerns. This destroyed our independence and democracy. Canada should not be for corporations to loot. This is what I believe. Question – what do you believe ?

3) Canadian food and agriculture is moving away from small farmers growing organic food, to mega farms producing potentially toxic food that is also patented by foreign corporations. The toxicity of these crops and pesticides have never been independently tested by Canadian institutions that are outside of influence by either the corporations or the Government. The patent rights intends to have all useful living organisms to belong to a few patent holding corporations instead of Gods own creation. Seeds will not longer belong to farmers. Trees will no longer belong to nature. This is what I believe. Question – what do you believe ?

Kerry-Lynne Findlay, Conservative, Delta BC

4) Canada has surpassed Brazil and every other country on earth in most rapid destruction of its forestry and depletion of its carbon reserve This is disastrous and shameful. We are cooking the planet and killing ourselves. This is what I believe. Question – what do you believe ?

5) Canada, while promoting industrial chemical agriculture, has been steadily depopulating the rural landscape, forcing folks to move to towns and be unemployed job seekers, instead of reversing the trend, reducing massive corporate controlled farms and solving its employment, urban sprawl and civic services problem by repopulating its agricultural landscape with thousands of farming families and assisting rather than hindering them. This is what I believe. Question – what do you believe ?

6) Canada appears to be excessively in control of big corporations. It allowed these corporations to pay minimal taxes for taking away natural resources from our land, which essentially amounts to robbing the land. We aught to greatly increase tax revenue from these corporations, impose controls on how they do their business with regard to environmental degradation, and increase public owned firms to be involved in resource management, and thus improving the wealth of the nation instead of fattening the pocket of a few individuals and corporations and their share holders. Example to follow – Norway. This is what I believe. Question – what do you believe ?

7) I believe bill C-51 was a blow to democracy and takes away citizen rights that should have been unalienable. I believe a Canadian is more likely to be killed by a moose than by a terrorist. I believe we would not be targets of terrorism at all if our Govt stopped warmongering and bombing innocent people in far off lands that have done nothing to harm Canada, and that the best way to protect Canadian citizens is to stop bombing others and to stop supporting a military industrial model. This is what I believe. Question – what do you believe ?

8) I believe the Canadian constitution, on which elected officials should be taking oath of service, obliges the elected persons to a) abide by the constitution and b) follow the wishes of the electorate of his riding and NOT c) the wishes of the party leader. This is what I believe. Question – what do you believe ?

I shall be very happy to read your response, or speak with you either face to face or over the phone. My telephone number if 604-649 7535.

Based on my finding, I may donate, or volunteer or promote a candidate or a number of Candidates, as part of my duty as a citizen and a voter.

Looking forward to your response

Tony Mitra, a voter
(address & contact)

Glyphosate poisoning test for Canadians

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This is a follow up announcement for all Canadians.

We have been trying for a long time to have a system by which Canadians can test themselves for glyphosate poisoning, and also test their food to learn where the poison is coming from. Now, finally, some solutions are coming up. But there are also changes in the offing. The original lab that was offering the test in USA may not do so after Nov 30. A new system is being looked at through another commercial lab. So our advice at this moment is to hang on and wait to see what comes up in Jan 2016, unless you already paid and have to send samples across right now. Organizations that with to be involved in collection and handling of samples for as a shipping transit point from Canada to US labs, please contact me.

People interested in joining us to lobby various segments and layers of our Government and healthcare system to pay for some of these tests – please contact me. We need to present an unified, or collective, voice.

Please who believe in the need for testing glyphosate, and would like to join our effort in Canada, please consider contacting Tony. The time is right, with a new federal Government in place. Meanwhile watch this space.

Canada did not have a lab that would test body fluids or food for glyphosate content. We still don’t. However, things are changing. Public awareness on the dangers of Glyphosate is rising daily, along with an awareness that our Government does not test imported toxins for possibility of harm, but bases its decision on third party information, and is influenced by foreign corporate power more than a genuine concern for any long term safety of the people. Thankfully, there are still some institutions that are willing to rise up against this trend. World Health Organization is one. It recently classified glyphosate as a class 2A probable human carcinogen.

Meanwhile, US-EPA started mumbling about testing American food, for glyphosate content, a mumble that is likely to be echoed by the Canadian counterparts.

A lab or two in Canada are appearing ready to test vegetables and processed food for presence of Glyphosate. This will be covered in another blog, as we get organized to start testing our food.

Meanwhile, a lab in the US is offering citizens test of urine, water and breast milk for glyphosate. These labs are using high end High Performance Liquid Chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MSMS) methods and are offering these tests at substantially lower rate than before.

Payment and schedule details

Payment and schedule details

And, our earlier problems of finding an easy way for Canadians to send body fluids across the border to labs in the US, has been solved, thanks to cooperation from Henry Rowlands of Feed The World Group. For logistical and technical reasons, testing of breast milk is not offered to Canada right now, but urine and water can be sent. I shall remind people here that in Canada it is possible now to test soil, water as well as food for Glyphosate already, using both ELISA and HPLC-MSMS methods. Click on the above image to find details of when the next batch of urine samples might be ready for testing, and how to pay for it. Meanwhile those that have already paid for the test, in Canada and not yet sent their samples, follow this instruction and send the samples to Tony Mitra.

But for urine, which is so important for people to know if they have been poisoned or not, now Canadians can pay directly on line to the testing scheme, and then follow instructions specific to Canadians, as described in the attached video, regarding sending urine samples.

[youtube _f1Ik_Sgg7Y]

Please follow the instructions on the above you tube video, and the attached flyer below. Please do pass this information around to others that might be interested.

The idea of this test comes from realization that our Governments and Medical systems have been turning a deaf ear when it comes testing if the most used toxin in Canadian food system and agriculture has been poisoning our children, our elderly and ourselves.

This is the first prong of our citizens initiative to test ourselves bypassing our do-nothing Government. The second prong will be to test our own food by ourselves, possibly using one of our own Canadian labs. Details for that will be followed up by a separate blog and perhaps another “how to” video.

If you have any question, feel free to contact me.

As results are coming in, it has become clear that nearly everyone of us are exposed to glyphosate, one way or another. Its only a matter of degree. As the first batch of people are expected to be those already concerned about glyphosate and likely are careful to eat good food, the results are likely to be lower than the national average when a broad cross section of the population are checked, including those that are unable to be selective of what they eat, and those that are unaware.

Link to this blog has been sent to folks people across the world that I have had the pleasure of communicating with in regard to Glyphosate testing. Only one of the email did not go through. The failed emails are listed below:

1. Ms Sinvia Bishop – elected municipal councillor of my town, Delta, BC : sbishop@delta.ca. The emails service returned a note that my email was rejected by her server.

The remarkable story of Richard Miller

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Richard Miller was a healthy, barely thirty young man back in the 1990s, when he started getting sick with an incurable and permanently present migraine headache. The illness made him unfit to work every so often. Some days he would be unable to get off his bed, or keep his food down. He was visiting the Hospital sometimes 18 to 20 times a year. He lost his regular job. He spent countless thousands of dollars trying to cure himself, without success. He got progressively sicker, became obese, developed blood cholesterol and other problems, got into an indenting list of medicines he had to take. But nothing helped.

Then, in the fall of 2013, he saw Dr. Mercola on TV, in Hawaii. The doctor was taking in calls from the public. So Richard called him, and luckily got through. The doctor, after listening to his story, suggested that Richard tries to go 100% organic for a month, and see if that helps.

Richard did. On the tenth day, he woke us without a headache and feeling better than he had for the last 20 years. The experience changed him. Today he looks trim and healthy, years younger than his fifty plus years. And along with himself, he is changing his very neighbourhood in Chilliwack, BC, Canada.

Now, he is a messiah that is converting his neighbourhood, one house at a time, to get them to start growing their own organic food in their own front and/or backyard, and promoting chemical free food, including organic sprouts. In order to help convince his neighbours, Richard passes out free seeds, saplings, compost, and even his own about, to help a neighbour get started.

Watch the remarkable story of Richard Miller, in his own voice.

[youtube _chKm0a65Yw]

Nationwide Glyphosate Testing comes to Canada

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Feed The Word is offering the first validated public testing for glyphosate in the World for urine and water. The lab that created the testing is based in the U.S. and therefore there are difficulties for Canadian citizens to get involved in the testing project. However, we believe we have now solved these difficulties and we would like to involve Canadian citizens in this vital public testing.

Feed The Word is offering the first validated public testing for glyphosate in the World for urine and water. The lab that created the testing is based in the U.S. and therefore there are difficulties for Canadian citizens to get involved in the testing project. However, we believe we have now solved these difficulties and we would like to involve Canadian citizens in this vital public testing.

This testing will also provide the first validated peer-reviewed data for use in challenging Canadian regulators on the World’s most used herbicide – glyphosate.

NATIONWIDE GLYPHOSATE TESTING, a Canadian citizen action grassroots group, is  proud to join hands with Feed The World to bring a hassle free first step effort for Canadians to get their urine or water tested in a high quality per reviewed system for detecting Glyphosate, at a price which is a third of what a commercial lab in the US might charge. We are aware that Canada does not even offer a lab at the moment to the public for testing Glyphosate in people, food, animals or plants.

The future aim of Feed The World and Canadian Citizen group, with local NGOs is to push for a lab in Canada to either develop a method for testing or to license the U.S. method – however long it might take. Canada deserves a lab that tests for glyphosate in biological samples as a long-term solution.

PAYMENT : US$ 119 per sample.  To register and pay for the testing visit here: http://feedtheworld.info/glyphosate-testing-test-yourself/ Results will be sent within 12 weeks of receipt of sample via e-mail.

Sample Collection in Canada : Feed The World, with the help of Tony Mitra, has set up a collection point in Canada for urine and water samples. The cost of the postage to the Canadian address needs to be covered by you. Please send Mr. Tony Mitra a message via e-mail on or before the day you send the package to his address: glyphosate.testing@gmail.com and tony.mitra@gmail.com. For more information – watch this page time to time watch this page.

Send sample to: After registering and paying for the test, send sample, with registration details to : Tony Mitra, 10891 Cherry Lane, Delta, BC, V4E 3L7, Canada.

Please send Tony Mitra a prior message via e-mail: glyphosate.testing@gmail.com and tony.mitra@gmail.com. For more information – check www.tonu.org. Your samples will then be sent to the lab in batches so effort will be made to time them so that early samples do not wait too long in Canada before shipment to the US.

NEWSFLASH : We are informed that two more countries – Switzerland and Australia, has decided to follow the Canadian example and join the global effort to get Glyphosate detected in people.

Flyer:

To download the above flyer, click on it . It will take you to another page with the pdf file displayed. Download it from the file menu. Link :
http://www.tonu.org/tonu/Mypics/MP09/MP375_GlytestCanadaFlyer02.pdf

 Dr. Anthony Samsel on Glyphosate & Cancer

[youtube uCrkVoEjqLQ]

Kate Storey of the Green Party nails it on GMO and Glyphosate

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Kate is an organic farmer based in Manitoba. She is also the Agriculture critic of the Green Party and an aspiring politician that is standing for the coming federal and provincial elections, hoping to be either an MP or an MLA.

For me this was a back to back interview with two candidates of the Green Party. They are on a fast growth track, far as I can see, but are starting from a near zero level. Their system and policies stand apart from any other conventional party.

Besides, being concerned about Canada’s food security and this chemical and biological attack we are subjected to through foreign biotech corporations efforts to own everything in Canada and our politicians penchant to sell Canada piece by piece to the lowest bidder is, at least to me, a national crisis whose root is in political corruption and can only be resolved politically, by electing good people into our parliament. Just like Politicians have a duty to protect the land and the people, a task in which they are failing, citizens have a duty, to ensure good people get elected, and to keep our politicians in check. A functioning democracy needs both elements – good politicians and involved citizens.

I wanted to ask her questions that relates to the particularly unenviable position that Canada is in, with regard to exposure to transgenic organisms and nasty biocides such as Monsanto’s RoundUp herbicide and others being used on our food system, our prairies, forests, parks and everywhere else.

I wanted to ask her if the Green Party might bolster its policy on UN convention on biodiversity and the Cartagena Protocol on biosafety, by proposing to ratify the Cartagena Protocol and actually pass a law that will protect indigenous flora and fauna. She agreed this is a good idea and asked me to send her the details. Members of the party can propose amendment on their party policy and she was a member, so she would consider helping the party adopt it.

Then she spoke for around ten minutes straight, describing the Green Party agriculture policy, possibly reading it out, and covered a lot of ground so we did not have to ask each item one by one. I was concerned about the rural heartland being depopulated as small farmers were driven to extinction, and becoming unemployed job seekers while mega corporate farms replaced them and turned to extremely energy and input dependent toxic chemical dependent mono-culture regime that only bring illness to the people and lifelessness to the land while impoverishing the people. She did a good job explaining all of that in one shot.

Then we went to another difficult issue – political alliance in ridings where the left vote is split and the conservatives gain by stealing the seat there. I got a response from Tom Mulcair about his effort to form an alliance with the Liberals, but that the Liberals refused. He did not mention the Greens.

Kate spoke on record that the NDP had refused to form any alliance with the Greens. The Greens had tried very hard to form alliance with both Liberals and the NDP but apparently none of the larger parties were interested. This is a tragedy, in my mind, because ego of the parties get in the way and open the path for the Conservatives, who are ruining the country.

I should be asking Tom Mulcair again to clarify the issue of alliance with the Greens.

Kate opposes absentee owners of the farm land and supports agriculture cooperatives for helping small farmers and dependence in local food instead of our cauliflowers coming from California.

Pesticide use has increased instead of decreasing, with widespread adoption of GM crops. The party is aware of Glyphosate poisoning of people and proposes all children being tested for Glyphosate.

I did not interrupt her to state that Canada does not even have a lab that will test children or our food for Glyphosate content. Canadian labs at this moment only offer testing Glyphosate in water and soil. I am personally involved in trying to coax labs to offer this service on one side, and asking the people to demand this test, so as to create a “demand” for this service, so that labs take note and get on board.

I should be asking Kate to consider writing in a policy to help in this effort so Canada gets a few labs that will test Glyphosate in people and food.

I asked her about mandatory voting law. Its not mandatory in Canada, and Canadian voter participation is rather poor. She things this is a great idea, as is the issue of proportional representation. The problem is, I thought, that current senators may never vote these systems in, because they are the beneficiary of the absence of these laws.

However, these are necessary goals and can only happen with public pressure and public demand.

She said NDP is in power in Manitoba and that they have a policy to support proportional representation, and yet, they have not passed this law. So,  somebody needs to ask NDP Manitoba about it. Perhaps I shall ask them by email, and see what they say.

Kate predicts that the Greens will get somewhere between ten and twenty seats in the next federal election, with British Columbia leading the way and perhaps PEI following suit.

All in all, this is one politician and hopefully a future MP that I really enjoyed speaking with.

I do hope she wins, and gets to kick some butt in Ottawa.

The podcast is just over 31 minutes long. You can listen to it by clicking the play button at the bottom of this page.

Introducing Becka Viau, Green Candidate from PEI

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Becka is an artist, a young mother, and a self described active social catalyst. She is standing for the provincial election next week on the Green ticket.

I spoke with her on record, and asked her about :

  • Why she is standing for election
  • Pesticide load on Prince Edward Island
  • Splitting of the left vote as against making political alliance
  • Mandatory voting

She also stated about bringing the voters out, especially the youth vote, because the young folks allegedly do not vote. She hopes to energize this segment.

She believes there needs to be more Green voice in our politics and she likes the strong  environmental policies.

Regarding the pesticide load, Becka describes how agriculture is the largest business and it uses a model of potato mono-culture that is heavily dependent on synthetic pesticides which are linked to diseases. She things there are newer organic farmers that are willing to come in and replace this mono-culture regime, if the Govt does not stand in their way. Becka hopes to be that agent to change.

She is standing from a riding that has a strong incumbent, the current health minister of the province. In case she does not win the provincial election, she intends to stand for the coming federal election.

Green Party has some of the best party policies in Canada. It is also the youngest and smallest party. Rumour has it that the party might make significant inroads into PEI during next weeks election.

She supports electoral reform including proportional representation. But that is unlikely to happen any time soon. She also promotes giving a positive message during her campaign rather than giving a negative message that things are bad with Canada and that folks must vote to fix a broken system. She believes this drives voters away. She prefers to give a positive message

She also does not believe mandatory voting, such as in Australia, should be adopted unless our education system is reformed and kids are taught civic duties. Actually I was a bit surprised to learn that Canadians are not taught civics in school.

She is not coming from big money and represents herself as our neighbour. She hopes to run a strong campaign. She is not a hundred percent certain she can win against a strong incumbent.

I wish Becka Viau the best of luck. Election is on May 4th.

Our talk covers less than 15 minutes of audio, and you can hear her by clicking the play button at the bottom of this page.

A few reference links:
Becky on Facebook
Green Party on Facebook
Her candidacy web page

Edmonton uses toxic chemical banned by other cities

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Meet Sheryl McCumsey of Edmonton, Canada.
She has been battling the municipal Govt of Edmonton for a while on account of using Dursban within city limits. I spoke with her and recorded her conversation for you all to listen to.

What is Dursban ? It is a brand name product by Dow chemical. The active chemical is named Chlorpyrifos. It falls under a group of chemicals called organophosphates.  The chemical interrupts the electrochemical process used by nerves of insects and higher animals to communicate with brains, muscles, organs and with one another.

It was discovered a few centuries ago, but its killing powers got better understood in the 1930s and this chemical was manufactured in Nazi Germany as a nerve gas agent for killing people although chemical weapons had been banned by then.

Today, it is often used in agriculture and as pest control.

EPA ordered a phaseout of this chemical by the turn of the century, year 2000, and removed the product from shelves, mainly due to concern of health risks for humans, particularly children.

The chemical Chlorpyrifos is banned in Singapore from using it for termite control. It is banned in South Africa from residential use. In 2010, India barred Dow from commercial activity in india for five years after its Central Bureau of Investigation (Indian version of FBI) found Dow guilty of bribing an Indian official in 2007 to allow the sale of Chlorpyrifos.

In Canada, it is not used anywhere except in Edmonton. Winnipeg stopped using it but had leftover stock. Edmonton reportedly bought the stuff. Somehow, Govt of Canada re-registered the product and allowed its use, and the municipality of Edmonton is reportedly using it without disclosing to the public where, when and how much of it is used.

I leave it for Sheryl to explain the rest. Its a 25 minute podcast. You can listen by clicking the play button.

From Sheryl McCumsy :
Besides sharing information and researching the harm of chlorpyrifos I suggest people lobby to city and provincial government to discontinue the use of this insecticide as there are safer alternatives. Bee well and Bee informed! Ditch the Dursban and Delight in Dragonflies. contact Sheryl at Pesticide Free Edmonton on facebook or e-mail at: Pesticide Free Alberta