Hello Stephanie, Eric, Zen & Anthony I regret being late in responding. I have been reading up on the correspondence, and have considered what a good response might be. I am not sure which country you are located in, Eric, hence some of the confusion in my mind. I am assuming that you are in USA, although there is a Sierra Club in Canada. I have had some minimal exchanges with them in the past. There is a social justice law firm named EcoJustice, that used to be affiliated, or somehow connected with projects with the Sierra Club in the past, in Canada. I have had some past correspondence with Eco-Justice too, asking them if they might be interested to involve in the GMO pesticide issue of Canadian agriculture, especially in finding out and advising me/us Canadians, on where the Canadian law stands with respect to an ordinary citizen challenging the Government, either provincial or federal, in court, for introduction of GMO food and pesticide systems that are not tested in Canada, and there may be evidence that these are not tested anywhere by any independent authority, and only tested by the promoters of the products. I wanted to know the answer for two reasons: 1. The only legal study I have so far found has been a study done by an US law firm, presumably on request of the US biotech industry, to find out how Canadian law applies with regard to a Canadian organic (non GMO) farmer suing the biotech industry for contaminating his crop. 2. I presumed that the Canadian constitution would be similar to the Indian constitution, since both derived them from the British, and I know the Indian constitution allows an ordinary citizen to take anybody to court, even the Govt of India and even to the Supreme court directly, if his basic rights are infringed upon. This right is enshrined in a clear and short article directly into the original constitution of India. I could not find a corresponding text in the Canadian constitution or in its charter of rights. Canadian constitution appears a lot more complex to follow since it is a collection of a number of documents and not a single one. This was the basic question I had. This question was also influenced by the fact that I knew a woman in India that singlehandedly challenged the Govt of India in the Supreme Court for trying to unleash potential hazardous and untested GMO onto the Indian public, through a public interest litigation, using the same constitutional right that I mentioned above, and has literally brought the previous Govt to a standstill on the issue of GMO. A new Govt is now in power as the court case draws to a close and she has perhaps a better than even chance of winning, since the preliminary reports from the Supreme court and its technical committee seems to suggest that India should permanently hold off introduction of any GMO and first postpone even controlled field trials of GMO and pesticide till such time that India established laboratories that are outside the influence of the politicians and the biotech industry, so that it can “independently” verify the claims of the biotech industry with regard to GMO and pesticide. Unfortunately, I failed to get EcoJustice or the Sierra Club interested to assist a citizen in finding out where the Canadian law stands with regard to citizens rights. Next, I personally was keen to have Canadian citizens test their food as well as themselves, for presence of Glyphosate. Testing of urine etc would help people know if they have this undesirable item inside them. Testing of their food water and drinks might help them find out where it is coming from. The idea was to initiate a citizens action system, whereby the citizens can bypass the entire political shenanigans and the biotech industry along with its captive scientific community, and organize a self activated labelling and banning system. We test the food, we put up the results for anybody to see. If folks do not like Glyphosate, they can avoid buying those brands that show up Glyphosate. If the producers object to the findings, we encourage them to also pay for “independent” tests where we can verify the process. This bypasses the circus that is going on in USA where the people want labelling and the industry manages to squash it through pumping money into campaigns. Unfortunately, our efforts is not going well because : i) There are no labs at the moment in Canada that are geared to test food, or human body fluids, for Glyphosate. ii) Sending samples across to US labs to test is proving to be a customs nightmare, since nobody knows how to declare these samples and Canada post declined to accept the package for shipment to the US labs, as did DHL for wrongful declaration of goods. Nobody is able to advise us how to declare the goods properly without paying an arm and a leg in shipment alone. So, right now, I am beyond frustrated. I realize that asking others for help is of not too much use. The only sustainable solution is one where no outside help is required. I am now concentrating mainly on three fronts i) Try to coax an existing Canadian lab to also offer testing of Glyphosate in urine and food. I have not succeeded yet. ii) Try to find a way to send off samples easily and painlessly to US labs. I have not succeeded in that yet, though efforts are on. iii) Trying to entice some investors or some branch of a government to set up a lab within Canada so Canadians can test themselves and their food for Glyphosate. I consider it part of a basic right that is indirectly denied to Canadians. A lot of correspondence is now piling up with various levels of Government on this issue, and a few ministers have been approached along with a few members of parliament. No investor has come forward yet, though low level efforts are on. I am also sort of a public speaker cum activist, who am going across the country, province to province, town to town and village to village, along with retired genetic engineer Mr. Thierry Vrain, talking to the people. Thierry tells them how bad Glyphosate is. I tell them how much the Canadian politicians suck, and how some of the bottom up grassroots movement on the lowest level of Government, in the municipal elections, is beginning to make a difference. British Columbia, the province where I stay, is leading the battle against GMO from the municipal level onwards. We have covered most of Canada already. In November we are leaving for a tour of Ontario and later in Quebec, the only two provinces not yet covered. SO that in a nutshell, is were we are in Canada. I have no idea of you all can be of assistance or not. If you are, I should be pleased to correspond further. Thanks Tony Mitra 10891 Cherry Lane, Delta, BC, V4E 3L7, Canada
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 23:51:10 +0000