statism watch

Related: Native residential school hearings open in Manitoba | Native residential school forgiveness granted | N.B. aboriginal group sues over ‘genocide’ | Truth and Reconciliation Commission seeks global forum on abuse of native peoples | Residential school survivors fear network end | Residential school graves research a daunting task | For many aboriginals, the truth of residential schools is irreconcilable: commissioner | The future of the residential school commission — An interview with Judge Murray Sinclair | GG relaunches Truth and Reconciliation Commission | New members tapped for residential school commission: report | Chair to have final say as residential schools commission jobs rewritten | Remaining 2 members resign from residential schools commission | Commission to Probe Graves at Native ‘Residential School’ Sites | Government to hold talks over future of residential-schools commission | Chairman quits troubled residential-school commission | Truth commission tied too closely to government: aboriginal groups | Canada hears of native abuse pain | Location of Mass Graves of Residential School Children Revealed for the First Time; Independent Tribunal Established

CBC News
June 21, 2010

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is pleased with the outcome of its first national event in Winnipeg, despite receiving a smaller number of survivor statements than hoped.

“We are deeply grateful to those who came forward to share their experiences, and to those who opened themselves up to hear those stories and show those individuals that they no longer walk alone,” said Manitoba Justice Murray Sinclair, TRC chair.

“What we have started here is a national dialogue that sheds light on a terrible chapter in our history.

“It has been a painful experience for many, but an important first step in what will be a lengthy but vital healing process for our country.”

The national event, which ran June 16 to 19 in tents at The Forks national historic site in Winnipeg, was the first of seven national events that will take place across the country.

The events are intended to be an opportunity to educate the public about the residential school system that existed in Canada for more than 100 years, and give former students, staff and others whose lives have been affected by the experience a chance to talk about it publicly.

The goal was to help survivors heal and “close the divide between aboriginal people and the rest of Canadians,” Sinclair has said.

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Related: N.B. aboriginal group sues over ‘genocide’ | Truth and Reconciliation Commission seeks global forum on abuse of native peoples | Residential school survivors fear network end | Residential school graves research a daunting task | For many aboriginals, the truth of residential schools is irreconcilable: commissioner | The future of the residential school commission — An interview with Judge Murray Sinclair | GG relaunches Truth and Reconciliation Commission | New members tapped for residential school commission: report | Chair to have final say as residential schools commission jobs rewritten | Remaining 2 members resign from residential schools commission | Commission to Probe Graves at Native ‘Residential School’ Sites | Government to hold talks over future of residential-schools commission | Chairman quits troubled residential-school commission | Truth commission tied too closely to government: aboriginal groups | Canada hears of native abuse pain | Location of Mass Graves of Residential School Children Revealed for the First Time; Independent Tribunal Established

CBC News
June 12, 2010

Federal Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl has accepted a “charter of forgiveness” from members of the aboriginal community as part of the healing process for survivors of Canada’s residential schools.

Chief Kenny Blacksmith presented the charter Saturday at the National Forgiven Summit, a conference of Aboriginal Peoples in Ottawa.

The charter was signed by elders and survivors, as well as young people, who said that the damage from residential schools is intergenerational.

It stems from Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s apology two years ago for previous government policies of assimilation. Standing in the House of Commons, Harper apologized on behalf of the government and asked for “forgiveness of the Aboriginal Peoples of this country for failing them so profoundly.”

Blacksmith, a residential school survivor and former deputy grand chief of the Grand Council of the Crees of Quebec, said that “at that moment, the onus was placed on our people as individuals to respond.”

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Look for organic soy if you must eat the stuff. Of course meat is being pumped full of hormones these days as well so you really have to be careful with just about everything you eat thanks to agribusiness.

Related: EU Embargoes Canada’s GMO-sabotaged Flax Industry | Monsanto’s GMO Corn Linked To Organ Failure, Study Reveals | Canada’s flax crop mysteriously contaminated by GM seeds | Britain will starve without GM crops, says major report | It is too late to shut the door on GM foods | Organic food no more nutritious, study finds | Meet — and eat — the modified Atlantic salmon | Researchers working on swine flu ‘vaccine corn’ | High-fructose sweeteners linked to obesity, diabetes | Doomsday seed vault’s stores are growing | Genetically Modified Seeds: Monsanto is Putting Normal Seeds Out of Reach | UK Environment minister calls for international food treaty, GM foods at Fabian Society address | GM Crops Climb to Nearly One-Tenth of Global Crop Production | Genetically engineered meal close to your table | The GM genocide: Thousands of Indian farmers are committing suicide after using genetically modified crops | Europe’s secret plan to boost GM crop production | Hunger in Africa blamed on western rejection of GM food | Are we already dining on clones? | GM crops could lead to ‘disaster’: Prince Charles | Small Farmers Pushed to Plant GM Seed | American thinktanks sowed seeds of food crisis | Agribusiness positions GM crops as panacea to predicted global food shortageMonsanto Plans to Save World with its Biotech Crops | | High-level UN task force to tackle global food crisis | Scientist who claimed GM crops could solve Third World hunger admits he got it wrong | Codex Alimentarius – An Emerging Threat | Codex Alimentarius Commission adopts more than 50 new food standards

Jeffrey Smith, The Institute for Responsible Technology
June 3, 2010

“This study was just routine,” said Russian biologist Alexey V. Surov, in what could end up as the understatement of this century. Surov and his colleagues set out to discover if Monsanto’s genetically modified (GM) soy, grown on 91% of US soybean fields, leads to problems in growth or reproduction. What he discovered may uproot a multi-billion dollar industry.

After feeding hamsters for two years over three generations, those on the GM diet, and especially the group on the maximum GM soy diet, showed devastating results. By the third generation, most GM soy-fed hamsters lost the ability to have babies. They also suffered slower growth, and a high mortality rate among the pups.

And if this isn’t shocking enough, some in the third generation even had hair growing inside their mouths–a phenomenon rarely seen, but apparently more prevalent among hamsters eating GM soy.

The study, jointly conducted by Surov’s Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the National Association for Gene Security, is expected to be published in three months (July 2010)–so the technical details will have to wait. But Surov sketched out the basic set up for me in an email.

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Related: China To Coercively Sterilise 10,000 To Curb Births | Copenhagen: Global Population Control Program Suggested To Stop Climate Change | Diane Francis: We need a global one-child policy | Baby emissions fuel global warming | Aging Shanghai pushes for more babies | Obama Science Advisor Called For “Planetary Regime” To Enforce Totalitarian Population Control Measures | Rwanda denies sterilisation plans | HIV positive women in Africa sterilized, stigmatized | Billionaire club in bid to curb overpopulation | David Attenborough becomes patron for population reduction | UK population must fall to 30m: Optimum Population Trust | Don’t blame right-wing thugs for eugenics – Socialists made it fashionable | Do Swiss parents need a childrearing licence? | Population control thinktank to Britons: Have less children | The Horrifying American Roots of Nazi Eugenics | Alberta Barren: The Mannings and forced sterilization in Canada

Patience Nyangove, Associated Press
June 2, 2010

WINDHOEK, Namibia — Supporters of three HIV-positive women in Namibia who say they were sterilized without their consent held protests to support the women’s decision to sue the government, a legal aid group said Wednesday.

The Legal Assistance Center said protesters began staging sit-ins at two state hospitals in the southern African nation on Wednesday.

The three women allege they were sterilized without their consent, and that the sterilization violated their rights to have children and not to be discriminated against.

The women are seeking damages at a High Court hearing scheduled for Friday. Protest organizers said the sit-ins will continue until after the hearing, the first legal challenge of its kind in Namibia.

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Massive secret databases containing the genetic information of infants have been revealed as existing in (at the very least) Canada, the US, and the UK. There is presently no mechanism for removing your child’s DNA from the database, which is used for genetic studies across populations. In the US, the testing is being conducted in military labs. Any questions? You may wish to direct them to your MP.

Related: Storage of newborns’ blood samples raises privacy concerns | Suit possible over baby DNA sent to military lab for national database | The government has your baby’s DNA | UK Police routinely arresting people to get DNA, inquiry claims | UK: Police ‘must purge innocent DNA’ | Newborn’s Blood Samples Raise Questions of Privacy | Study finds genetic discrimination by insurance firms | US: Ruling allowing Taser use to get DNA may be nation’s first | UK: Police ‘arrest innocent youths for their DNA’, officer claims | UK: Fury as Commons denied vote on DNA database | Australians refused insurance because of poor genes

Carol Driver, The Daily Mail
May 24, 2010

DNA taken from millions of newborn babies is quietly being stored by hospitals without proper parental consent.

The blood samples, taken in heel-prick tests that check for serious conditions, can be accessed by police, coroners and medical researchers, Freedom of Information Act requests reveal.

Despite Government guidelines advising hospitals to destroy the DNA after five years, some facilities have kept them on file for more than 20 years — prompting fears that a covert database is being created.

Campaigners claim the 32-page leaflets – explaining that newborns’ DNA will be stored — handed to new mothers, does not constitute consent for hospitals to carry out further research.

Nor, they say, does it make clear the samples could be accessed by the police to identify people involved in crimes.

And, although the DNA of each child is stored anonymously, The UK Newborn Screening Programme Centre, which oversees the use of samples, say they could be linked to hospital admissions and the child could be identified that way.

The samples can also be accessed by private medical companies and have been used for genetic research and mass screening for diseases such as HIV in babies’ mothers.

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Related: Pentagon Looks to Breed Immortal ‘Synthetic Organisms,’ Molecular Kill-Switch Included

Lauran Neergard, The Associated Press
May 21, 2010

WASHINGTON–U.S. scientists announced a bold step Thursday in the enduring quest to create artificial life: They have produced a living cell powered by manmade DNA.

While such work can invoke images of Frankenstein-like scientific tinkering, it also is exciting hopes that it could eventually lead to new fuels, better ways to clean polluted water, faster vaccine production and more.

Is it really an artificial life form?

The inventors call it the world’s first synthetic cell, although this initial step is more a re-creation of existing life – changing one simple type of bacterium into another – than a built-from-scratch kind.

But genome-mapping pioneer J. Craig Venter said his team’s project paves the way for the ultimate, much harder goal: designing organisms that work differently from the way nature intended for a wide range of uses. Already he’s working with ExxonMobil in hopes of turning algae into fuel.

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Caveat emptor. Those air-freshener things are supposed to be pretty bad for you as well.

Related: Bisphenol A remains off toxic list as Ottawa reviews mystery complainant’s objection | BPA in womb linked to aggression in girls | Reduce fetal exposure to BPA and phthalates, experts say | Bisphenol A traces found in baby food: Health Canada | Elevated BPA levels in people drinking out of plastic bottles, study finds | Tests find Bisphenol A in majority of soft drinks | Chemical ban targets toys, rubber duckies | As in Canada, gender-bending chemicals in UK rivers grow more potent | Chemicals feminizing males, study suggests | Major report to reveal male gender under threat from pollutants | CBC broadcasts “The Disappearing Male”, an expose of hormone-disrupting plastics | Plastics ingredient linked to feminization in children | Health Canada adds bisphenol A to list of toxic substances | Scientists Note Hormones in Water, Feminization of Fish Downstream of Montreal | New study raises concerns Bisphenol-A could be related to heart disease | Air freshener chemicals could impact fertility: study | Bisphenol tied to lower brain function | Chemical Industry Source of Hyped FDA Study ‘Exonerating’ Plastic Bottles

Noor Javed, The Toronto Star
May 12, 2012

They make you smell like an exotic flower, mask the most offending smells, or simply give you a fresher feeling. But popular perfumes and body sprays could also be dousing you with small amounts of chemicals that trigger allergic reactions and disrupt hormones, according to a study released Wednesday.

Toronto-based Environmental Defence and Campaign for Safe Cosmetics in the U.S tested 17 popular fragrance products and found they contained a total of 38 secret chemicals not listed on the label. On average, each product had 14 of these chemicals.

The problem, says Rick Smith, executive director of Environmental Defence, is that cosmetic companies can lump ingredients together under the generic term “parfum” or “fragrances.”

“This is a really worrisome loophole in Canadian law where a company can claim that their fragrance compilation is a trade secret, and then they are not obligated to disclose to anyone what’s in that fragrance,” said Smith.

The report found that on average, the products contained 10 chemicals known to cause allergies and four with “the potential to disrupt the hormone system.” Many of these chemicals are classified as allergens by the European Union, said Smith.

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Part of another disturbingly familiar pattern that’s emerging as state actors warehouse DNA. In the UK, they’ll just take your DNA for dropping an apple core and warehouse it in criminal databases indefinitely. If you’re innocent, they’re moving to keep it for 3 years, and that only after a public outcry. Make no mistake, the state wants that here too.

Related: Suit possible over baby DNA sent to military lab for national database | The government has your baby’s DNA | UK Police routinely arresting people to get DNA, inquiry claims | UK: Police ‘must purge innocent DNA’ | Newborn’s Blood Samples Raise Questions of Privacy | Study finds genetic discrimination by insurance firms | US: Ruling allowing Taser use to get DNA may be nation’s first | UK: Police ‘arrest innocent youths for their DNA’, officer claims | UK: Fury as Commons denied vote on DNA database | Australians refused insurance because of poor genes

Jane Armstrong, The Globe and Mail
May 11, 2010

Vancouver parent challenges unauthorized archiving of infant’s genetic blueprint

It’s a routine test conducted on newborns — a quick needle prick to the heel to test for a range of health disorders and diseases before an infant is discharged.

But the newborn screening procedures, which exist across North America and most of the developed world, have run afoul of privacy advocates because the genetic material collected from infants when blood is drawn is routinely used for other purposes, chiefly medical research.

Millions of infants’ blood samples — along with their names and birthdates — are stored on information cards in laboratories across Canada. What has riled civil libertarians and privacy advocates is that parents aren’t told that their babies’ genetic blueprint will be stored indefinitely, and perhaps used for research purposes.

Instead, parents are told the blood samples are crucial to test for disorders such as hypothyroidism, and more recently, cystic fibrosis.

In British Columbia, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association has helped launch a complaint with the province’s privacy commission on behalf of a Vancouver parent who said the practice is a breach of privacy, and wants all blood cards destroyed if the parents didn’t give consent for their storage.

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This is an historical tragedy – but it doesn’t seem right or just to collectively punish the descendants of your oppressors by demanding this sort of coercive wealth redistribution in a massive payout package. It’s equivalent (in terms of the principle of justice) to kicking families off land that they’ve lived on their whole lives because your ancestors used to live there. Surely there’s a statute of limitations on these things. Well, not even that. It’s more like: the individuals involved aren’t around anymore to bring this case forward. There are no such thing as ‘collective rights’, so such a settlement would be an injustice to individual taxpayers. However, the question of secession is an interesting one since it deals with hunting on crown lands (which, presumably, are unoccupied) and relationships between corporate entities, eg; the crown and the various tribes. It seems eminently reasonable to recognize the right of the Metis to hunt, to live in the nationl park. The government never had a right to restrict access in the first place as though it were the King banning poaching in the Royal Forest. Compare the case of these Newfoundlanders slapped with fees to visit their traditional lands.

Related: Truth and Reconciliation Commission seeks global forum on abuse of native peoples | Residential school survivors fear network end | Residential school graves research a daunting task | For many aboriginals, the truth of residential schools is irreconcilable: commissioner | The future of the residential school commission — An interview with Judge Murray Sinclair | GG relaunches Truth and Reconciliation Commission | New members tapped for residential school commission: report | Chair to have final say as residential schools commission jobs rewritten | Remaining 2 members resign from residential schools commission | Commission to Probe Graves at Native ‘Residential School’ Sites | Government to hold talks over future of residential-schools commission | Chairman quits troubled residential-school commission | Truth commission tied too closely to government: aboriginal groups | Canada hears of native abuse pain | Location of Mass Graves of Residential School Children Revealed for the First Time; Independent Tribunal Established

CBC News
April 29, 2010

Provincial, federal governments named in $13B claim

A New Brunswick-based aboriginal group and three men are suing the New Brunswick and federal governments for $13 billion in damages for alleged “genocide” and loss of native lands over the past 400 years.

They are also seeking a declaration that the two levels of government have no jurisdiction over aboriginal and Métis people in the province.

The lawsuit also demands the province stop all hunting, fishing and forestry prosecutions against aboriginal and Métis people until the case is heard.

The notice of action, filed in Moncton’s Court of Queen’s Bench, cites colonial actions dating back to 1610, saying they amount to genocide against native people.

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Flashback: BPA in womb linked to aggression in girls | Reduce fetal exposure to BPA and phthalates, experts say | Bisphenol A traces found in baby food: Health Canada | Elevated BPA levels in people drinking out of plastic bottles, study finds | Tests find Bisphenol A in majority of soft drinks | Chemical ban targets toys, rubber duckies | As in Canada, gender-bending chemicals in UK rivers grow more potent | Chemicals feminizing males, study suggests | Major report to reveal male gender under threat from pollutants | CBC broadcasts “The Disappearing Male”, an expose of hormone-disrupting plastics | Plastics ingredient linked to feminization in children | Health Canada adds bisphenol A to list of toxic substances | Scientists Note Hormones in Water, Feminization of Fish Downstream of Montreal | New study raises concerns Bisphenol-A could be related to heart disease | Air freshener chemicals could impact fertility: study | Bisphenol tied to lower brain function | Chemical Industry Source of Hyped FDA Study ‘Exonerating’ Plastic Bottles

Martin Mittlestaedt, The Globe and Mail
April 23, 2010

Government won’t identify entity or reason for challenge to proposed designation of controversial chemical

Two years after the federal government announced with great fanfare that it would designate bisphenol A as a toxic substance, the plastic-making chemical still isn’t on the list and there is no indication when it will be.

The reason for the delay, The Globe and Mail has learned, is that an entity filed a formal notice of objection to the listing last summer. The government won’t identify the entity or reveal the reasons for the objection.

“The notice of objection is under consideration,” the department said in an e-mailed statement. “A final order to add bisphenol A to the list of toxic substances … has not yet been published.”

The estrogen-like chemical is used to produce everything from CDs to the liners of nearly all tin cans, and Canada — amid scientific disputes over its impact on people’s health and the environment — was the first country in the world to propose declaring it a toxic substance.

That designation could have international ramifications because both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration have recently announced that they are conducting reviews on the safety of the chemical.

The government’s BPA decision has been opposed by the American Chemistry Council, an Arlington, Va.-based association that represents makers of the material and maintains that it poses no health or environmental risks.

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