Tag Archives: Rona Ambrose

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.

Asking Politicians to come clean on GMO and pesticides

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To :
Hon. Rona Ambrose, P.C., M.P., Minister of Health
Hon. Gerry Ritz, M.P., Minister of Agriculture
Libby Davies, NDP Health Critic
Hedy Fry, Liberal Party Health Critic
Elisabeth May, Green Party leader
cc:
Alex Atamanenko, M.P, NDP – concerned on GMO & Glyphosate
Bruce Hyer, M.P. Green Party – concerned on Glyphosate
 
Dated – Nov 6th, 2014
 
Honorable minister of health, Minister of Agriculture,
Health critics
Concerned Parliamentarians
 
Good day
I have written in the past to a few of you on this general topic and put up the feedback, if any, on my blog at www.ton.org on issues considered to be of grave concern for Canadians. Today, I have another set of questions for you.

Hon Rona Ambrose – Health Minister

 
I am a retired Marine Engineer, Shipmanagement executive, consultant, and a blogger, podcaster, science interviewer, photographer, videographer, citizen journalist, food security activist and a writer, not to mention a public speaker currently on a talking tour, along with retired Agriculture Canada Scientist Dr. Thierry Vrain, across Canada on GM organisms and what it means to Canada’s future as an independent nation. 

Questions I have are about GMO, pesticide, and patented life forms introduced into Canada, to replace natural life forms.

1) What Science ?
Science in the western hemisphere is no longer public funded, and is wholly supported by the Industry. The Industry has no interest in funding any science project that aims to find faults with its product. As a result, science itself has gotten one side and lost its neutrality.
Please comment on this. 
2) Where is the independent analysis?
GM crops are considered intellectual property of the patent holder, which denies the right for any independent analysis of its quality or safety without express permission of the patent holder, and this permission is only given with conditions that the findings be first be vetted by the patent holder and any analysis that is not flattering, does not get to see light of day.
Please comment on this.

3) Science under dictatorial censorship.
Few scientists that, in spite of such severe restrictions, found problems with the GM technology or its pesticides and published their findings, manage to get fired, or their papers retracted from the journals, and they are discredited, lambasted and literally hounded out of the academic world.
Please comment on this.
 
4) Who owns living organisms? 
How do corporations get to own living organisms and their DNA? They did not create them from scratch, but first stole the DNA of a few living organisms (I say stole because if life forms can be “owned” then those living organisms must have been property of some entity, even God, before the Corporations decided to use it). And then these stolen DNA were polluted it by inserting genes of unrelated organisms, such as a toxic bacteria and a food crop plant. So, should we allow such patents and let the whole organism be patented and owned by a corporation?
Please comment on this.
5) Attack on God’s creation and on Canadian Independence?
The plan, as it appears, is for all living organisms, be it food we eat, or grass and alfalfa in the prairies, or trees in the forest or fish and animals and micro organisms, all living creatures that have some value, to be owned property of a few patent holding foreign corporation.No living organism that has any value to humans in any way, will belong to Canada or be God’s creation any more.
Please comment on this.

This is an open letter and will be put up on the web (www.tonu.org) for the public. Any answer from you or another recipient in copy, will also be put up. Our belief is that the public needs to know where politicians stand on such issues

 
Thank you
Tony Mitra
tony.mitra@gmail.com
(Address and contact)

MP Bruce Hyer Responds:

Good letter

I agree

Bruce Hyer, Deputy Leader, Green Party


Canada and pesticides – a letter to the Health Minister

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To: Honourable Rona Ambrose rona.ambrose@parl.gc.ca

Minister of Health

Canada

Dated: Friday, May 9, 2014

Hon. Rona Ambrose

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.

With many thanks

Tony Mitra

10891 Cherry Lane, Delta, BC, V4E 3L7, Canada

604-649 7535, tony.mitra@gmail.com, www.tonu.org