Sandra Finley

2012-02-27 Robocall Election Fraud — Amazing response

 Economy / Political Economy, Green Party, Robocalls & Vote moving, Election Fraud, Why we flounder or do not flounder  No Responses »
Feb 272012
 
Postmedia reporters Stephen Maher and Glen McGregor broke this story on Feb 23.  If you want to know how “Racknine” and robo calls work, their article from the Vancouver Sun is posted at: http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=4483
You can hear Stephen Maher in the CBC interview on the programme, The House:  http://www.cbc.ca/thehouse/ (go to the second listening link).  There is also an interview with Jean-Pierre Kingsley, the former chief electoral officer (starts around the 26-minute mark).
I understand the drive for swift action by citizens.   From past experience,  “communications specialists” go into action and soon bury very serious breaches of what is acceptable and not acceptable.
The LeadNow initiative  is at:  http://www.leadnow.ca/robocall-fraud
It’s simple and important.  Let’s give them a hand!
CONTENTS BELOW INCLUDE:
  • Message from Elizabeth May
  • An action item by the Council of Canadians
  • Links to Globe and Mail articles
THE MESSAGE FROM ELIZABETH MAY
Subject: RE: We need answers and real consequences for Robo-Call  election fraud
Date: Sun, 26 Feb 2012 09:17:55 -0500
From: parl.gc.ca>
Thank you for your email expressing concerns about the recent Elections Canada report.  This report, describing the use of illegal “robo-calls”
during last federal election, has traced these calls back to a company that worked for the Conservative Party.
This extremely worrisome development is an attack upon our cherished democratic institutions and demands an immediate response.  There must be a complete investigation to determine those who are responsible.  Individuals or organizations who have conducted such egregious actions need to face jail time.  Additionally, financial rebates for those specific elections must be cancelled and returned to Elections Canada.  (Political parties who obtain a certain percentage of the vote in a riding can receive up to 60% of their expenses refunded via Elections Canada, and 50% nationally.
Combined, this amounts to tens of millions of dollars for the Conservative Party.)  Only through such strong measures will we create a meaningful
deterrent to these actions.
The Conservative government has made continuous efforts to target MPs and opposition parties with unscrupulous tactics as a strategy to gain more voter support.  Like you, I believe this is a disturbing trend that is driving Canadians away from the political process, and have condemned this in the House of Commons on November 22nd:
http://elizabethmaymp.ca/parliament/points-of-order/2011/11/22/telephone-calls-to-mount-royal-constituents
For more information on my experience and thoughts on this issue, I urge you to read my book Losing Confidence: Power, Politics, and the Crisis in Canadian Democracy.  In this book, I focus on the changes occurring in Canadian democracy such as the use of attack ads and muzzling of  scientists.
Thank you for taking the time to write to me.  You are exercising your democratic rights, and I am thankful that you’re doing so.  Please do not
hesitate to contact me if you have any other questions or concerns, and I would encourage you to consult my MP website and peruse Vision Green, available online at http://elizabethmaymp.ca/vision-green.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth May, O.C., M.P.
Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands
Leader of the Green Party of Canada
= = = = == = = = = == = = = = = = = = = = = = =
COUNCIL OF CANADIANS’ ACTION ALERT:
Demand a public inquiry into the ‘robocall election fraud’
—– Original Message —–
Sent: Sunday, February 26, 2012 9:01 PM
Subject: ACTION ALERT: Demand a public inquiry into the ‘robocall election fraud’
It has been alleged that at least 34 ridings received illegal voter-suppression calls – advising them that their voting station had changed – during the
last federal election. The total number is expected to grow on Monday. NDP MP Pat Martin says at least 34 ridings received the calls, while Liberal leader Bob Rae says he knows of 27 ridings. Originally it had been thought that 14 ridings had been affected.
The Harper Conservatives hold 166 seats in the House of Commons, 11 seats above the 155-seat requirement to form a majority government. Rabble.ca has pointed out that, “6,201 is the combined margin of victory across the 14 most closely contested Conservative ridings in Canada, with 6,215 being the number needed by the nearest parties in the race to have won these seats by one vote.”
The National Post reports, “Liberal supporters say the repeated calls usually came during dinner, late at night or early in the morning from people claiming to represent the local Liberal candidate. Calls also were placed to voters with Jewish-sounding names during the Saturday Sabbath and in one riding with a South Asian candidate, voters received phone calls from someone imitating a Pakistani accent.”
“Under the Elections Act, it is illegal to tell voters to go to a wrong or non-existent polling station. …NDP leader Nycole Turmel (has) urged for
a thorough investigation by the RCMP and Elections Canada. …Rae says the (Liberal) party is considering calling for a number of byelections or even pursing legal action. …On Friday, Rae sent a letter to House of Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer, asking him to allow an emergency debate on the matter when Parliament resumes Monday.”
To send a message to Bob Paulson, Commissioner of the RCMP; William H. Corbett, Commissioner of Elections Canada; and the party leaders, you can go to http://www.leadnow.ca/robocall-fraud.  The message you can send says, “I demand a full and independent public inquiry, backed by Elections Canada and the RCMP, to expose the facts about the robocall scandal and ensure that the penalty for this election fraud matches the consequences of the crime – including possible by-elections in the affected ridings.”
At this hour (Sunday night, 9:52 pm ET), 14,679 messages have been sent with this demand.
= = = = = = = =
Tories want answers on voter suppression too
tim powers Globe and Mail Update
Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2012 9:27AM EST
In the opposition’s hysteria around the robo-call controversy you’d think every MP, staffer, member of the party, supporter and Conservative voter has a cultural predisposition to win elections at any cost and through any means. You’d also assume that before Elections Canada has even  included its investigation, never mind charged anyone, the Conservative Party itself is guilty of the most serious infractions possible and has perverted our democratic system beyond compare.
More related to this story Tory staffer leaves MP’s office in wake of voter-suppression probe
Harper denies knowledge of ‘black ops’ phone calls during 2011 election
Elections Canada on misleading Tory call: ‘Inaccuracies can occur’

2012-02-23 Caller pretending to be Elections Canada told voters their polling stations had been moved

 Economy / Political Economy, Green Party, Robocalls & Vote moving, Election Fraud, Why we flounder or do not flounder  No Responses »
Feb 272012
 

‘Robocalls’ tried to discourage voters

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Robocalls+tried+discourage+voters/6196549/story.html

By Stephen Maher And Glen McGregor, Postmedia News February 23, 2012 6:08 AM

Elections Canada has traced fraudulent phone calls made during the federal election to an Edmonton voice-broadcast company that worked for the Conservative Party across the country.

Also, the Conservatives are conducting an internal probe. A party lawyer is interviewing campaign workers to find who was behind the deceptive “robocalls.”

Elections Canada launched its investigation after it was inundated with complaints about election day calls in Guelph, Ont., one of 18 ridings across the country where voters were targeted by harassing or deceptive phone messages in an apparent effort to discourage Liberal supporters from voting.

In Guelph, a riding the Conservatives hoped to take from the Liberals, voters received recorded calls pretending to be from Elections Canada, telling them their polling stations had been moved. The calls led to a chaotic scene at one polling station, and likely led some voters to give up on voting.

CALLS TRACED

Postmedia News and the Ottawa Citizen have found that Elections Canada traced the calls to Racknine Inc., a small Edmonton call centre that worked for the party’s national campaign and those of at least nine Conservative candidates, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s campaign in Calgary Southwest. There is no evidence that Harper’s campaign or any of the other candidates were involved in the calls.

Racknine says it was unaware its servers were being used for the fake calls.

Fred DeLorey, a spokesman for the Conservative Party, declined to say how much business the party did with Racknine during the campaign. He said the party does not know who was behind the calls, and he did not respond to a question about its internal investigation.

Elections Canada came to Racknine after an elaborate digital chase that began with a single telephone number that showed up on call displays.  Investigators traced it to a disposable cellphone registered in area code 450, in the city of Joliette, northeast of Montreal. Using telephone billing records and Racknine server logs, Elections Canada investigators identified the Racknine account holder who sent out the calls.

Matt Meier, owner of Rack-nine, said he was unaware one of his customers was involved in the calls until contacted by Elections Canada in  November.  “We couldn’t possibly have known that it was Racknine that was the initiator of the fake calls,” he said. “I had no idea what the content of the calls were.”

The company does not monitor outgoing calls made by customers through its auto-mated service, Meier said. He estimates 10 million or more  phone calls from about 200 accounts went out during the campaign.

COOPERATING WITH PROBE

Meier and his company are cooperating fully with the probe, he said.

He said he knows whose account was used for the calls, but could not reveal the owner, because of client confidentiality and concerns about interfering with the investigation. He said it was someone “down East” – meaning Ontario or Quebec.

The robocalls received in Guelph were recorded in female voices in both French and English. They told voters their polling stations had moved to a shopping mall in the city’s downtown, where parking was scarce.

A Citizen-Postmedia investigation has found calls misdirecting voters were also reported in ridings across the country: Kitchener-Waterloo, Kitchener-Conestaga, London-West, Parkdale-High Park, Winnipeg South Centre and Sydney-Victoria. It is possible that they were caused by robo-dialling errors.

Liberal supporters in a dozen ridings, mostly in Ontario, reported mysterious harassing calls, often late in the evening or early in the morning, where rude callers from a phone bank pretended to be working for the Liberals.  The calls seem to have been an attempt to alienate Liberal voters in ridings where the Liberals and Conservatives seemed to be in close contests.

“What I provided to Elections Canada was comprehensive,” Meier said in an interview this week. “They know everything. They have every single message recorded by the individuals who did this. That’s something I hope will assist them greatly in determining who made these calls.”

He realized his firm was linked to the deceptive calls only when Election Canada investigator Al Mathews showed up unannounced at his company’s office in Edmonton in November, armed with an order to produce records.

Mathews has travelled to Guelph to interview people who received the calls on election day, including United Church minister Sue Campbell, who was the wife of Green Party candidate John Lawson.

Campbell had just returned home after voting on the morning of election day when a call came in saying her polling station had been moved to a mall in downtown Guelph.

“At first, I thought. ‘Oh, that’s strange,'” Campbell recalls.  “Upon reflection, I thought, ‘This can’t be right. Why on Earth would it change on the day election?'”

She wrote down the digits on the caller ID – the number in Quebec – and called Elections Canada to complain.

Internal Elections Canada emails obtained under Access to Information legislation show officials were rattled by the calls.  At 11: 06 a.m., election officer Anita Hawdur sent an email to to legal counsel Karen McNeil with the header: “URGENT Conservative campaign office communications with electors.” Hawdur reported that returning officers were calling to ask about the calls.

McNeil responded by asking Hawdur to alert Rennie Molnar, the deputy chief electoral officer. He later emailed Michel Roussel, a senior director: “This one is far more serious. They have actually disrupted the voting process.”

Around the same time, Guelph Liberal MP Frank Val-eriote got a call at his home, telling him his campaign staff was hearing from Liberal sup-porters about the same kind of bogus Elections Canada calls.

What they first thought were a few nuisance calls, the Vale-riote campaign recognized was an orchestrated campaign to discourage his supporters from voting.

Voters who ended up in the wrong place and were turned away were unlikely to persist and go to another polling station. A campaign worker was quickly dispatched to the mall, armed with a binder of polling maps, so he could redirect sup-porters back to the right place. Within an hour, more than 100 voters had turned up at the mall.

Despite the dirty tricks phone calls, Valeriote won the election in Guelph.

If Mathews and the Commissioner of Canada Elections find evidence of wrongdoing over the bogus calls, the case could be referred to Director of Public Prosecutions Brian Saunders, who would decide whether to lay charges.

HOW RACKNINE’S CALLS WORK

1. The customer sends identification and credit card information to the company for approval. Once approved, the customer is given an account name and password.

2. Through the company’s web interface, the customer uploads an electronic list of telephone numbers to call.

3. The customer uploads a file with the prerecorded message or calls in to a toll-free number to record the call. The customer can set the caller ID to any number.

4. The service automatically “robocalls” numbers on the call list, charging the customer between 1.9 and 3.5 cents per minute for the calls.

FOLLOWING THE TRAIL

1. An investigator interviewed recipients of the calls in Guelph. They provided the incoming caller ID that displayed.

2. The investigator found that the caller ID belonged to a disposable cellphone with a number in Joliette, Que.

3. The investigator issues a subpoena for the outgoing calls from the phone.  One call is to the Racknine toll-free number.

4. Elections Canada files subpoenas for billing records that trace the inbound calls to recipients in Guelph through data carriers used by Racknine.

5. The investigator obtains a production order that requires Racknine to hand over records that identify which account made the calls and the records associated with the account.

©  Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

2012-02-27 YouTube: Arithmetic, Population and Energy (over-population)

 Corporatocracy or Democracy or Administrative State or WHAT?, Energy, Freedom of Speech. (Remove some wrong postings from category), Propaganda, Sustainability, Take back the University, Why we flounder or do not flounder  No Responses »
Feb 272012
 

More than 4 million people have watched this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-QA2rkpBSY&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=SP6A1FD147A45EF50D

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

See also:  2012-02-28  Over-population, a graphic presentation

2012-02-27 Lockheed Martin, Wikileaks. “Global intelligence” company Stratfor. Hyper-linked index to the leaked files (emails).

 Lockheed Martin, War Economy (includes Cdn Census & Trials)  No Responses »
Feb 272012
 

Hi Sandra,

Just came across this link, I found the ties to Lockheed Martin interesting – –  via wikileaks:

http://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/1666377_fbi-more-on-body-.html 

(Excerpt):

On Monday February 27th, 2012, WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files, over five million e-mails from the Texas headquartered  “global intelligence” company Stratfor. The e-mails date between July  2004 and late December 2011. They reveal the inner workings of a company  that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential  intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal’s Dow  Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government  agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US  Marines and the US Defence Intelligence Agency. The emails show  Stratfor’s web of informers, pay-off structure, payment laundering techniques and psychological methods.

All the best,

Gayle

= = = = = = = = = = =

Note to myself:  Stratfor

 

 

2012-02-22 Powerful: Oil executive son’s testimony at Prince Rupert Northern Gateway pipeline joint review panel

 Corporatocracy or Democracy or Administrative State or WHAT?, Culture and Ethics, Energy  No Responses »
Feb 222012
 

From Janet:  Folks, this is a big WOW item.

Sandra:  I agree!  It’s a short good read – – and if you go to the link, there’s a YouTube of Lee Brain’s presentation.  Our young people move my heart.

Oil executive son’s testimony at Prince Rupert Northern Gateway pipeline joint review panel

Carrie Saxifrage Posted: Feb 20th, 2012

http://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/earthmatters/2012/02/20/oil-executive-sons-testimony-prince-rupert-northern-gateway-pipeline

The most moving moment of the Enbridge Northern Gateway Joint Review Panel hearings in Prince Rupert which wrapped up Saturday were spoken by Lee Brian, the 26-year-old son of an oil executive.

Here is an excerpt of his speech:

My oral evidence today comes in the form of a story, an experience I had three years ago which directly reflects the impacts this project will have
on me, and my community.

The story begins after a lifetime of debating with my father -he thought it was high time for me to finally experience first-hand the magnitude and
power of the oil industry.

So in the summer of 2009, I had the opportunity to spend one full month on one of the world’s largest oil refineries, producing 800,000 barrels of
oil per day. At the time, it was under an expansion project to produce up to an astonishing 1.2 million barrels per day and for confidentiality reasons, the company and details of the project will remain unnamed.

The catch was that this refinery was in a very rural area in a northern province of India – right on the coast of the Arabian Sea, and bordering
Pakistan.

So here I am, 23 years old traveling to India, and needless to say, tensions were high upon arrival. Coming through the airport, between the H1N1 virus outbreak and the one year anniversary of the Mumbai Terrorist Attacks of 2008, the military presence was simply overwhelming.

I landed in Mumbai, or Bombay to the locals, and spent a day travelling to the northern province of Gujarat, Ghandi’s home province. Situated outside the small village of Jamnagar, I stayed in a secured complex surrounded by high walls, meant for expatriates – in literally the middle of nowhere.  The land in the region was primarily used for agricultural production, but due to the strategic location on the Arabian Sea, naturally there was large military and industrial presence in the area as well.

Each day I would wake up at 6 a.m., and travel roughly an hour to the refinery. Guarded with AK47s, I remember the first day of my arrival I had
the whole place in a stir, wondering why I was there. And to tell you the truth, I was thinking the exact same thing. It’s not easy being in a foreign country, being the only young Caucasian male in sight, amongst 50,000 workers constantly staring at me. But my fears quickly subsided as I spent more time there each day, and learned about the gracious, kind and humbled culture of the East – regardless of the portrayals the media would
have you believe.

I spent each day with 2-3 different managers from each department, and was able to learn a large portion of each faculty of discipline during my time there. I was very fortunate to have received such an in-depth, bird’s eye view of the entire project — and not even the most  ualified engineering
intern would have had this opportunity. The experience itself changed who I am, fundamentally, forever.

I learned about the entire EPCM – that is, the production process from engineering, procurement, construction, and management – I spent many
hours and days with managers from piping, documentation control, distributed control systems, civil, biological, chemical and environmental
engineering instrumentation, quality control, marine operations, water management -electrical and on-site power production – from construction
management, procurement and materials, product creation and commercial supply, safety and security, and loading and unloading via rail, truck,
VLCC (very-large crude carriers) and ULCC (ultra-large crude carriers).

I am not exactly sure if the average person could fully appreciate the sheer magnitude of the operation, and the intricate interrelationship dynamics
between workers, departments, managers and corporate headquarters. It is nothing Discovery Channel would ever be able to portray.

The experience made me question many of the fundamental assumptions I had been making regarding the industry itself. I was realizing just how tricky of a situation we are in globally. My naïveness of the reality and immensity of this substance was not fully actualized until I had this experience. I can say right now, that I fully respect the power of oil.

One such day on the refinery stood out in particular. It was a hot, sunny and humid day, after monsoon rainfall my entire time there – I think it
was most likely the Prince Rupert weather following me overseas – and on that day a hand full of managers thought it would be fun to take me out to the Jetty, where they loaded and unloaded the super tankers. Situated a lengthy route away from the refinery itself, we drove down to towards the
coastline.

On our way there, we drove past many different villages. Each one looking extremely impoverished. I learned later that this was not always the case.
There was a time in this region where fishing, farming and the local economy truly flourished. But once the refinery project was approved, among other projects in the region, they built a pipeline directly through nine different villages. Over a period of time, there was pipeline breakage
which contaminated an underground aquifer, and spoiled the wells and water supply of the majority of the surrounding villages. As industry  expanded, and land bought and sold, men were forced into cheap labour at the refineries, after lifetimes of sustainable farming and fishing – now dependent on one or two companies for employment. Women, children and elders went starving after losing access to fresh water, with no accountability for cleanup – just left to fend for themselves. I ask, what would be the case here in our region? Do you see any potential similarities?

Converging onto a thin strip of man-made road spanning about two miles in length, we arrived at the Jetty, greeted by military personnel. After a
lengthy process of clearing me for entry, we walked onto couple massive docking stations. To my right, men were conducting repairs on a rather standard sized vessel, no larger than the ones you would see here in our Harbour. In the distance, an ULCC fresh from the Middle East was
rolling in from the horizon. The size of the vessel stopped me in my tracks. After 10 minutes, the ship stopped and made a slow bank horizontally out at sea.

I asked one of the managers — Jitesh was his name — why the ship stopped so far out. He told me that because of the size of the ship, they had a floating unloading station, and through another piping system they unload and load way out there, and that connects to the main routing station
at the Jetty, to be piped a few miles back to the refinery.

I asked him why, and he said ‘even though we have docking stations here, it is for the smaller vessels that are used for domestic purposes. But these
larger vessels that come from the Middle East can run aground easily.’   This, in open seas, I thought.

So we all stood there, suspended in what felt like an eternal moment -the heat waves rising above the calmed Arabian Sea, and the ship danced in the horizon as I stood dumbfounded by its sheer mass. One man comments: “I always forget just how large those vessels are.”

A few moments passed as we all stood, just watching.

Out of the silence, Jitesh says to me “Do you see what we are doing here Mr. Lee?”

I asked “What’s that, Jitesh?”

He replied, with an unexpected, sobering tone: “We are destroying future generations for now, and forever.”

And in this kind of slow motion life moment, I felt this kind of tingling feeling on the top of my head– and with sweat dripping down from the
inside of my hard hat onto my face, the sun beaming into my eyes – I squint over at six men slowing nodding their heads in silent agreement.

It was such a profound statement, and in that moment, there was silence.

On the way back, I had a lengthy discussion with Jitesh about the ‘whys’ of it all – about life, the human condition, and the challenges we face in
the 21st century. Although I will not cover that conversation due to procedural constraints, I will say that I learned some extremely valuable lessons that day.

I learned that it is not because every man and woman who participate in industry are all evil, bad people – being in India, on this refinery, there was this certain kind of ‘rush’ I felt. I felt a kind of new power within myself –being in a productive, hard working, problem solving environment where there is grit, and dirt, and sweat, and mud and building and pumping and drilling and hammering and huge turbines at massive pressures doing crazy stuff. There is this feeling you get when you’re working with other professionals in a high stake environment — and on some very obscure and messed up level, I can understand how those who work in industry can get excited about growth and yet subsequently, can turn
their eyes off towards any adverse impacts they are creating as a result.

Like I said, on a very obscure and messed up level.

And I just have to be fully honest and mention this, the feeling is addictive – you can literally feel it in your veins. And this coming from just one month of experience, with a totally different ideological perspective.

The major thing I witnessed in my time on the refinery that I feel constitutes as evidence was my observations of the relationship dynamics
between corporate headquarters and the managers on the refinery. What I witnessed time and time again, was the technical experts knowing
the damage, risk and adverse effects of the project, versus what corporate would portray to the general public after reading their materials.

There was a clear and present dual world operating simultaneously – completely undeniable if you are on site. So what I saw, first hand, was this dynamic between ‘what is really happening’ and what the corporate headquarters will have people believe is happening. And as we have seen in
our planet, this situation is not an isolated event.

Based on my experience, what I learned was that the global system of infinite growth attracts men and woman of a certain… level of understanding, a certain type of person who will be attracted to the ideals of the current economic measurement that coordinates the global psychology of things, and a type of person who externalizes themselves and detaches from connection, and so whole-heartedly believes in their reality, their perception of things, that they project their fears out onto everyone else — and their ego becomes the driver, blindly leading them down a path of self-destruction. And they are people of high intellectual prowess, but unfortunately have yet to develop the deep wisdom that we all possess within us as human beings.

And we call these people CEO, and Prime Minister.

The Enbridge Northern Gateway Project is simply just one of thousands of projects across the globe that are bi-products of a severely flawed
global system. Even if this pipeline does not go through, there will be another proposal of the same magnitude appear somewhere else – and this will go on and on, until we either address the fundamental root of the issue – or face the slow decline of our civilization.

We are psychologically stuck. We are good at what we know, but are too scared to try anything else. If we could directly transfer the mobilization power of oil into a new energy economy, into a new economic measurement, into a new level of coordination and cooperation -where the true cost of development is clearly laid out -we may have a chance.  Because you simply cannot infinitely grow, within a finite system of resources – period.

So I do not sit here today, in anger, or in blame, or in judgement. And on behalf of my generation, I forgive these men and women for their lack of
awareness, heart and understanding.  They too were born into an established system, conditioned into a certain way of thinking, and as far as they know, they did and are doing their best. But now, it is time to let go of the 20th Century, and enter into a new global direction towards a path of healing and new design.

In closing, it’s time now for a full scale, mass mobilized transition process off the fossil fuel economy. We need to use all of our resources we have left wisely to create a whole new system of operation that is global in scale. This process needs to have the mobilization power comparable to the proportions of the Manhattan project, and then some. It’s time for us to journey into a new dream, a new way, with new design and new
fundamental principles. It’s time for us to end a millennia of pain, suffering, shame and unconsciousness. It’s time to create resilient, sustainable and flourishing communities, that have the adaptive capacity to respond to any challenges they may face in their external environment –  and be able to effectively respond specifically to the coming age of peak oil, climate change and rampant global economic instability.

It’s time for us to dismantle the institutions that are beginning to imprison us. It’s time for us to un-learn, to remove the power structures, and to decentralize the grid so that individual communities can produce their own food, energy and own internal means of production for hundreds to thousands of years to come.

And ultimately, it’s time for us to become the true masters we are meant to become – true, planetary mastery — in balance with the emotional,
cultural, spiritual and psychological wellbeing of every inhabitant. It’s time for us to embrace the new consciousness that is emerging at this
time, where by busting open the hearts and minds of our people, we will propel ourselves forward into a new golden age of humanity that is imminently upon us.

We are those people.

So, if on one hand, you had an unpredictable path, that leads into a new dream, a new way of life for all of mankind and on the other hand, you had a predictable path that leads to the slow, inevitable decline of a civilization.

Which path would you choose?

2012-02-21 Stop on-line spying. Gary Schoenfeldt to Minister Vic Toews. Privacy Commissioners referenced.

 Privacy of Personal Information; Charter Right; Surveillance; StatsCan Censuses & Surveys  No Responses »
Feb 212012
 

Mr. Toews,

 

Thank you for your email and the additional information. If however, what you say is true, I wonder why the privacy commissioners and ombudsmans’ offices of every Canadian province and territory as well as the Federal Privacy Commissioner would be so concerned about this Bill? For your information, I have reproduced below the March 9, 2011 letter to your Deputy Minister, William V. Baker from the 13 Privacy Commissioners.

 

Today it was reported in the Toronto Star through its web site “thestar.com” that an Ontario man discovered a Global Positioning System tracking device attached to the underside of his vehicle. When he reported it to the Ontario Provincial Police, it was found that an Ontario company, Kore Wireless, had provided the device and supporting technology on contract to a US Company, US Fleet Tracking of Oklahoma, who as a matter of policy refused to tell the name of its end-user client. The police apparently could do nothing. Some might argue that spying on Canadian citizens by foreign companies is in fact a form of international terrorism that your department ought to be taking steps to eliminate.

 

Aside from the massive public objection to internet evesedropping in all its forms, when the Canadian government argues for “modern tools” such as covert internet surveillance and the use of cellular phones as tracking devices, what sort of message are you, as a member of the government, sending to private investigators? It seems that the attitude is developing amongst these professional snoops that it is “open season” on any Canadian citizen who “needs” to be spied upon. Public Safety Canada, I would argue should be about increasing the security and personal privacy of law abiding Canadians’ rather than lessening it. Public Safety Canada should be telling everyone that surveillance of law abiding citizens is totally unacceptable and that nobody, be they the government or a private company or individual may violate such an essential right without some mighty serious arguing before a judge.

 

Telling the public to simply trust in their government, coming from a political reform movement that, while in opposition, took every opportunity to admonish Canadians to in fact NOT trust the government, seems to ring quite hollow now that it is you who are in power. Even if Canadians did trust the government, which I do not think is automatically the case regardless of what party holds the most seats, what should we do if someone else forms government in a few years and inherits the enormous power that you will have have granted to whomsoever may be in charge?

 

No, with all due respect, Mr. Toews, I do not trust anyone to protect my privacy through legislation such as Bill C-30 (formerly Bill C-52) and other similar bills especially when the experts, the “watchdogs,” those who have been specifically hired to examine such things on the public’s behalf federally and in every province and territory, are telling the public to beware.

 

Sincerely,

Gary Schoenfeldt

Letter to Public Safety Canada from Canada’s Privacy Commissioners and Ombudspersons on the current ‘Lawful Access’ proposals

Privacy Commissioner of Canada Jennifer Stoddart, along with all provincial and territorial privacy guardians, have sent a letter to the Deputy Minister of Public Safety Canada regarding the privacy risks stemming from the government’s current initiative to amend the legal regime governing the use of electronic search, seizure and surveillance.  Copies of the letter, dated March 9, 2011, were also provided to members of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, as well as the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights.

March 9, 2011

Mr. William V. Baker
Deputy Minister
Public Safety Canada
269 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0P8

Dear Mr. Baker:

As a group, Canada’s Privacy Commissioners remain concerned about the government’s current lawful access initiative, in particular Bill C-52, the Investigating and Preventing Criminal Electronic Communications Act. We held a teleconference on January 18, 2011 to discuss the issue and would like to relay the substance of that dialogue. While we understand the legitimate needs of law enforcement and national security agencies, as well as their challenges in the context of new information technologies, we would like to bring to your attention the following concerns about the absence of limits on the access powers, the wide scope of information required to be collected and provided by telecommunications companies without a warrant and the inadequacy of internal controls and the legislative gaps in the oversight model.

The overall lawful access initiative

Read together, the provisions of Bills C-50, C-51, and C-52 (augmented by changes in Bills C-22 and C-29) would substantially diminish the privacy rights of Canadians. They do so by enhancing the capacity of the state to conduct surveillance and access private information while reducing the frequency and vigour of judicial scrutiny. In essence, they make it easier for the state to subject more individuals to surveillance and scrutiny.

While we understand the need for law enforcement and national security agencies to function effectively in the context of new information technologies, in our view, it would be misleading to suggest that these bills will simply maintain capacity. Taken together, the proposed changes and new powers add significant new capabilities for investigators to track and search and seize digital information about individuals.

It is also noteworthy that at no time have Canadian authorities provided the public with any evidence or reasoning to suggest that CSIS or any other Canadian law enforcement agencies have been frustrated in the performance of their duties as a result of shortcomings attributable to current law, TSPs or the manner in which they operate. New powers should be demonstrably necessary as well as proportionate. Ultimately, even if Canadian authorities can show investigations are being frustrated in a digital environment, all the various powers that would be granted to address these issues must be subject to rigorous, independent oversight.

The Investigating and Preventing Criminal Electronic Communications Act (Bill C-52)

Clause 16 gives unrestricted access to subscriber data records held by telecommunications firms. We are concerned that the proposed powers are not limited in any fashion. The privacy oversight community in Canada has expressed reservations, in a joint resolution by all of Canada’s privacy commissioners signed after the original tabling of similar bills in 2009. A copy of this resolution is attached.

We are concerned that clause 16 of Bill C-52 would give authorities access to a wide scope of personal information without a warrant; for example, unlisted numbers, email account data and IP addresses. The Government itself took the view that this information was sensitive enough to make trafficking in such ‘identity information’ a Criminal Code offence. Many Canadians consider this information sensitive and worthy of protection, which does not fit with the proposed self-authorized access model.

Currently, under section 487.013 of the Criminal Code, investigators require judicial authorization to seek client information like name, address or account numbers from a financial institution or commercial entity. As you are aware, clauses 16 and 17 of C-52 provide law enforcement, CSIS, and Competition officials with warrantless access to “subscriber information” held by telecommunications companies. In our view, law enforcement and security agency access to information linking subscribers to devices and devices to subscribers should generally be subject to prior judicial scrutiny accompanied by the appropriate checks and balances.

Lack of appropriate oversight

We are also concerned by the oversight model. Clause 20(4) sets out audit powers for the federal Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) which already exists in section 18 of the Privacy Act. Without additional resources to the OPC, however, this additional statutory provision does not augment existing oversight.

In addition, we believe the auditing and reporting safeguards should be strengthened. In relation to internal audits required under clause 20 (2), the requirement that law enforcement and security agencies report to “the responsible minister of anything arising out of the audit that in their opinion should be brought to the attention of the minister” should be subject to an objective standard. Agencies should be expressly required to report any collection, use or retention practices that do not appear to be necessary to the duty or function for which they were originally obtained.

Respective roles of the federal, provincial and territorial privacy offices

From our perspective, in relation to oversight, perhaps even more problematic is clause 20(6) which creates an obligation for the federal Office of the Privacy Commissioner to “report on the powers that they [public officers] have to conduct audits similar to those referred to in subject clause 20(4) with respect to police services constituted under the laws of their province.” While the OPC has jurisdiction over the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, this provision does not adequately address the issue of those municipal or provincial police services that are not subject to the jurisdiction of a provincial or territorial privacy office or the OPC.

Nor does the Bill resolve the legislative gap in jurisdictions where privacy officers do not have the powers necessary to audit compliance by provincial and municipal police forces. These gaps are evident in many jurisdictions. While recognizing that the federal Office of the Privacy Commissioner could exercise its audit provisions over the RCMP, this issue still strikes the provincial and territorial commissioners as a significant concern at the local level. Certainly it raises risks for privacy and diminishes the value of meaningful, timely review.

We are also concerned that very few of our organizations have been consulted in this process, particularly given the review role we are being asked to perform, flowing from clause 20 (3)(c). To this end, we would insist that the relevant federal officials reengage with provincial Offices of the Attorney-General or territorial equivalents. This should lead to a more open dialogue with the provincial commissioners on these issues.

Conclusion

We have collectively made a number of recommendations in our 2009 resolution for legislators to consider as they approach the individual pieces of legislation involved in the initiative. We believe that there is insufficient justification for the new powers, that other, less intrusive alternatives can be explored and that a focussed, tailored approach is vital. In our view, this balance has not been achieved.

To remedy these shortcomings, we suggest certain gaps need to be addressed. Provincial and territorial privacy officers would ask that the federal Privacy Commissioner, in reporting to Parliament on the adequacy of audit and investigation powers, should also be expressly authorized to report on whether privacy officers consider themselves to have adequate resources to conduct the necessary audits and reviews. As above, the federal government must commit to working with provincial and territorial governments to ensure that all of the relevant privacy officers have sufficient powers and resources.

It is our intention to provide Parliament and the public with further analysis and assistance with respect to the global privacy effect of proposed lawful access legislation. We also believe that the regulatory and reporting aspects of the initiative need to be as open and transparent as possible.

We appreciate your consideration of these concerns.

Sincerely,

Original signed by

Jennifer Stoddart,
Privacy Commissioner of Canada

signed by M. Munn (for F. Work)

Frank Work, Q.C.,
Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta

signed by E. Denham

Elizabeth Denham,
Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia

signed by I. Hamilton

Irene Hamilton,
Ombudsman for Manitoba

signed by A. Bertrand

Anne E. Bertrand, Q.C.,
Access to Information and Privacy Commissioner of New Brunswick

signed by E. Ring

Ed Ring,
Information and Privacy Commissioner for Newfoundland and Labrador

signed by E. Keenan Bengts

Elaine Keenan Bengts,
Information and Privacy Commissioner for the Northwest Territories and
Information and Privacy Commissioner for Nunavut

signed by D. McCallum

Dulcie McCallum,
Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Review Officer for the Province of
Nova Scotia

signed by A. Cavoukian

Ann Cavoukian, Ph.D,
Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario

signed by M. MacDonald

Maria C. MacDonald,
Information and Privacy Commissioner of Prince Edward Island

signed by J. Chartier

Me Jean Chartier,
Président de la Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec

signed by R.G. Dickson

R. Gary Dickson, Q.C.,
Information and Privacy Commissioner of Saskatchewan

signed by T.A. McPhee

Tracy-Anne McPhee,
Ombudsman and Information and Privacy Commissioner of Yukon

c.c.: Chair, House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights (JUST)
Chair, House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (SECU)

__________________________________________________________

 

 

—– Original Message —–

From: vic.toews.c1@parl.gc.ca

To: ges2@accesscomm.ca

Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2012 7:41 PM

Subject: RE: Stop Online Spying

 

Thank you for contacting my office regarding Bill C-30, the Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act.

 

Canada’s laws currently do not adequately protect Canadians from online exploitation and we think there is widespread agreement that this is a problem.

 

We want to update our laws while striking the right balance between combating crime and protecting privacy.

 

Let me be very clear: the police will not be able to read emails or view web activity unless they obtain a warrant issued by a judge and we have constructed safeguards to protect the privacy of Canadians, including audits by privacy commissioners.

 

What’s needed most is an open discussion about how to better protect Canadians from online crime. We will therefore send this legislation directly to Parliamentary Committee for a full examination of the best ways to protect Canadians while respecting their privacy.

 

For your information, I have included some myths and facts below regarding Bill C-30 in its current state.

 

Sincerely,

 

Vic Toews

Member of Parliament for Provencher

 

 

Myth: Lawful Access legislation infringes on the privacy of Canadians.

 

Fact: Our Government puts a high priority on protecting the privacy of law-abiding Canadians. Current practices of accessing the actual content of communications with a legal authorization will not change.

 

Myth: Having access to basic subscriber information means that authorities can monitor personal communications and activities.

 

Fact: This has nothing to do with monitoring emails or web browsing.  Basic subscriber information would be limited to a customer’s name, address, telephone number, email address, Internet Protocol (IP) address, and the name of the telecommunications service provider. It absolutely does not include the content of emails, phones calls or online activities.

 

Myth: This legislation does not benefit average Canadians and only gives authorities more power.

 

Fact:  As a result of technological innovations, criminals and terrorists have found ways to hide their illegal activities. This legislation will keep Canadians safer by putting police on the same footing as those who seek to harm us.

 

Myth: Basic subscriber information is way beyond “phone book information”.

 

Fact: The basic subscriber information described in the proposed legislation is the modern day equivalent of information that is in the phone book. Individuals frequently freely share this information online and in many cases it is searchable and quite public.

 

Myth: Police and telecommunications service providers will now be required to maintain databases with information collected on Canadians.

 

Fact: This proposed legislation will not require either police or telecommunications service providers to create databases with information collected on Canadians.

 

Myth: “Warrantless access” to customer information will give police and government unregulated access to our personal information.

 

Fact: Federal legislation already allows telecommunications service providers to voluntarily release basic subscriber information to authorities without a warrant. This Bill acts as a counterbalance by adding a number of checks and balances which do not exist today, and clearly lists which basic subscriber identifiers authorities can access.

Dynamic systems, how they work. Our body.

 Health  No Responses »
Feb 202012
 

Instead of repeating the information on dynamic systems in different contexts,  I will place it in one place – here.  For now, all I have time to do is copy and paste, as I come across the info.

1.   Immune system as a dynamic system, from   http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=1118 2011-01-28 Rebuttal: Slow poisoning by mercury (dental amalgams & vaccinations). Immune system. Corrupt Big Pharma.

I am like a fish; I store mercury in my body.

They say that the mercury that has been in my mouth for 50 years  (in my dental amalgams)  is fine.  It “off-gases” into my body.   But don’t eat those fish.  They have mercrury in them! There is  mercury in a tetanus or a flu shot.   But don’t eat those fish.  They have mercury in them!

Like the fish, I die if I do not have water.  Like the fish, I die if my immune system is overwhelmed.  There is no “me” without my immune system.

A discussion on a causal relationship between mercury poisoning and health is without value if it doesn’t incorporate knowledge of how the immune system works.  The immune system is a “dynamic system”.  The rules of dynamic systems apply.

(INSERT:  Dynamic systems briefly:  feedback loops, appropriate corrective action has to be taken in time, appropriate action is directed at removal of cause of the problem, otherwise the system will continue to decline, once you are past the tipping point decay gathers momentum,  and past the tipping point it is not possible to reverse the downward spiral.  Damage is permanent and irreversible.  The system does not have sufficient resources to repair itself and return to healthy equilibrium.)

2012-02-19 Tuberculosis. Request for info. Input for people in Guatemala.

 Tuberculosis  No Responses »
Feb 192012
 

(NOTE:  “Tuberculosis” is now a heading under “Categories” (Health) in the right-hand sidebar of this blog.  Click on it to generate a list of the postings on TB.)

Hi Sandra;   . . .   A friend of mine is working with people in Guatemala and they are experiencing possibly an outbreak of Tuberculosis. I thought that you told me that you had TB once in your lungs and had treated it herbally? If so, can you tell me what you used? My friend would be very interested in this, as sometimes the people don’t use the medication properly and then the disease is drug resistant.

Thanks for your help!

= = =  = = = = = = = = = = == =

Hi Pam,

IMPORTANT:  I am not a medical doctor.  Most allopathic doctors will disagree with me.  I am providing to you my own personal experience.  No doctor can argue with that.

ALSO IMPORTANT:  my case was diagnosed early in its development, before it became contagious.

There wasn’t a single herbal remedy that brought my TB under control.    “The cure” was:

  1. Dealing with things that, unbeknownst to me, were weakening my immune system.
  2. Taking/doing things to boost my immune system.

I’ll get that written down and send it to you separately.
Below you will find links to information I have already documented about TB.

A quick message on “the cure”

–         The community should not let itself get afraid and panicked.    Fear is a great stressor that will weaken their ability to regain health.  Everyone in their community will be healthier if they deal with this together.

FROM MY POINT-OF-VIEW, your friend is on the right path (resistant organisms).   But the non-drug approach is not straight-forward and not without pitfalls.

The community has alternatives:

  1. Use the drug protocols
  2. Be mindful of resistant organisms which means trying some non-drug approaches with some people
  3. Other ideas they may figure out themselves

In order for a non-drug approach to work – if it can work – –  there has to be a buy-in from the community – – for example, people need to agree to be quarantined if their case is contagious.

If the community chooses a non-drug approach,  they should know why they are NOT choosing the drug approach.

I would recommend that, as a first step, the community discuss the drug approach in detail – what they know.   Add to it the following which is what I know.

The second step would be to consider the non-drug approach – – what they already know, coupled with what worked for me, which I will  write-up and send to you as soon as I can.

= = = = = = = == = = = =  = = = = = = =

I had an active case of TB, diagnosed before it became contagious.  I overcame it without using the drugs.  The old doctor who was head of TB Control in Saskatchewan at the time was agreeable (gave his encouragement) to trying a non-drug approach because the TB wasn’t yet contagious.  He understands the issue of resistant organisms and the need for experimentation.   We had time.  If it didn’t work, I could still go on the drugs.

I worked with both him (regular check-ups) and a Naturopathic doctor.

(Note:  The woman who is head of TB Control here now would not have let me do this.    I had to report to her for follow-up after the old doctor retired.    I was in full and vigorous health, and had been for a year, maybe two.  She read in my chart that I hadn’t taken the drugs;  she is absolute black-and-white,  if you have TB you take the drugs.  She is power-and-control and was about to force me to take them (in spite of my obvious healthfulness) –  it could have come to fisticuffs.   Fortunately I have learned a bit about assertiveness.)

For the reason you cite (development of resistant organisms) the drug approach to TB is not the best approach, the way I see things.  It assumes that we are incapable of developing some other way to combat the organism.  I also believe it does not serve the patient because the drugs do not address what is at the root of the health problem.  The drugs might provide a fix.  But in time, whatever is underlying (causing weakened immunity) is likely to manifest in some other form of ill health.  There is a good chance that the TB patient will have continuing health problems.  Keep in mind that a significant percentage (30% is the number I’ve seen) of people walk around with the TB organism;  it is not a problem for them because their  immune system keeps it in check.  Our insides are full of little creatures, some good, some not-so-good.

My case of TB demonstrates:  if we neglect poverty (where TB resides) we do it at our own peril.  TB is on the rise, it will spread to the not-poor.

Also, the drug-company efforts to find the “next cure” are immoral.  They use people in 3rd world countries to test their new concoctions.  The Government of Nigeria brought criminal charges against Pfizer for killing Nigerians who were used for drug testing.  The case was settled out of court.

Here is the information I have circulated regarding tuberculosis.

2005-06-02 Health,  Follow-up on:  I have tuberculosis.  Includes incidence and history.

2005-06-23 Tuberculosis  –  TB patient jailed (Toronto) and other articles

2005-10-28 Related: pharmaceuticals in h2o supply, resistant organisms, myco toxins, Tuberculosis

2007-06-01 Tuberculosis story improbable ??  Same day, Nigerian Government brings criminal charges against Pfizer.

2009-04-06 $75 million.  Pfizer settles Nigerian drug case out of court  (criminal charges for death of children)

(The next 3 postings from the Winnipeg Free Press, by journalist Jen Skerritt, are excellent.)

2009-10-31 Tuberculosis explodes on northern reserves

2009-11-03 ‘Things are falling apart’, number of TB cases in Manitoba is on the rise, . . .

2009-11-07 Tuberculosis The Forgotten Disease – Part 6 – Winnipeg Free Press

2009-11-19 H1N1  (or nukes or gmo’s or energy) in the context of “Selling Out”: the larger issue. Immune systems. TB. Constant Gardener.

(For the last posting, see item #5.   Also  #6, the Nigerian case.   It includes reference to the book/movie “The Constant Gardener” which is all about Big Pharma’s interest in tuberculosis.)

 

WHAT TREATMENT DID I USE?

The approach used was:  why didn’t my immune system deal with the TB organism?   (many healthy people carry the organism, it doesn’t become active)

Details in another email (posting)

Cheers!

2012-02-24 Tuberculosis. What treatment did I use?

 Tuberculosis  No Responses »
Feb 182012
 

Maria seeks information;  people are worried there might be tuberculosis in the community.   See  http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=4401 2012-02-19  Tuberculosis. Request for info. Input for people in Guatemala.

TUBERCULOSIS,  WHAT TREATMENT DID I USE?

I had an active, but not-yet-contagious case of TB, six years ago (2005).  I did not use the drugs used to treat TB.  The following discussion of my “treatment” should be used IN CONJUNCTION WITH the information in http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=4401.  PLEASE, do not take it in isolation.  Tuberculosis can kill people.

I can only tell you my story.

I’ll weave in some of the experience of Lac Brochet, MB, as recorded in the Winnipeg Free Press  (see http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=4401)

MY STORY IS INSENSITIVE TO TUBERCULOSIS IN POOR COMMUNITIES.  “REMOVE THE CAUSE” IS AN EASY-ENOUGH MANTRA FOR ME.  I HOPE THE DOCUMENTATION MAKES CLEAR:  IT IS AT OUR OWN PERIL THAT WE DO NOT HELP, HOWEVER WE CAN, TO ADDRESS THE CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH TUBERCULOSIS FLOURISHES.  THROWING DRUGS AT DISEASE ORGANISMS MAKES NO SENSE WHATSOEVER.  WE WILL NEVER WIN AGAINST NATURE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF RESISTANT AND MORE DEADLY ORGANISMS.  ANY EDUCATED PERSON WHO THINKS WE CAN, HAS DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR.

(1)    First, excerpts from http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=4401 :

IMPORTANT:  my case was diagnosed early in its development, before it became contagious.
IMPORTANT:  I am not a medical doctor.  Most allopathic doctors will disagree with what I did.

The approach used:  why didn’t my immune system deal with the TB organism?   Many healthy people carry the organism, in whom it never becomes active.

There wasn’t a single herbal remedy that brought my TB under control.    “The cure” was:

  • Dealing with things that, unbeknownst to me, were weakening my immune system.
  • Taking/doing things to boost my immune system.

A quick message on “the cure”:

The community should not let itself get afraid and panicked.    Fear is a great stressor that will weaken their ability to regain health.  Everyone in their community will be healthier if they deal with this together.

FROM MY POINT-OF-VIEW, Maria is raising the right issue:  the development of drug-resistant organisms  ( http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=4401).   But the non-drug approach is not straight-forward and not without its own pitfalls.

– – – – – – — – – – – – – – –

(2)   MY APPROACH TO “CURE” IS BASED ON PREMISES.  IF YOU DISAGREE WITH THE PREMISES, THIS IS NOT FOR YOU.

PREMISE:  OUR BODIES ARE A DYNAMIC SYSTEM AND FOLLOW THE RULES OF DYNAMIC SYSTEMS.

The system, our body, provides feedback to the conscious part of our being.  Our body tells our self when something is wrong so we can fix it.  If we take the appropriate steps, in a timely fashion, we can bring the self back into health (equilibrium).

More information, dynamic systems:  http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=4457.

PREMISE (DYNAMIC SYSTEM):   WITH DISEASE (feedback in a dynamic system), IF YOU ADDRESS AN “EFFECT” AND NOT THE “CAUSE”,  RECOVERED HEALTH WILL NOT LIKELY LAST.    THE PATIENT OR COMMUNITY WILL EVENTUALLY SUCCUMB TO OTHER FORMS OF ILLNESS OR DIE, UNLESS THE CAUSE IS ADDRESSED.

The cause of tuberculosis is not the TB organism; many people carry the organism and never develop the disease.  Tuberculosis is the consequence of an overloaded or a weak  immune system under attack.  Things come together at the wrong time;  the immune system has inadequate resources;   the TB organism is opportunistic;  it multiplies and overcomes.   Then you have TB as a disease.

3. FIND “THE ROOT” CAUSE. DON’T MISTAKE EFFECT FOR CAUSE.  EASIER SAID THAN DONE!  WE DO IT ALL THE TIME.

THE DISEASE SEQUENCE, as it happened to me:  (more elaboration on treatment later)

NOTE:  this addresses the most startling and recent disease outcomes.  It does not record other and earlier conditions that were, most likely, part of the sequence.

  • April 1, 2005:  diagnosed with active but not-yet-contagious case of TB.

* Treated for internal fungal overload (fungi produce myco-toxins that are poisonous to the body in too great a dose).  I also worked to strengthen my immune system (more later).

(Note in retrospect, a problem not addressed:  why wasn’t my immune system handling the overgrowth of fungus?  More on that later)

I got the fungus under control and

  • September 2005:  returned to health.
  • Fall 2009:  pins and needles in upper right arm, chronic pain in back of neck.  Think I have a pinched nerve?
  • Massage, application of heat so I could sleep, and chiropracty but no relief.
  • Fall 2010:  I heard a radio interview regarding MS.  Further research, MS symptoms match mine. That lit a fire under my butt.
  • Treated for mercury poisoning, dental amalgams removed (“silver” fillings are half mercury).
  • Immediate cessation of the pins and needles.  Immediate reduction in the neck pain, but it took several months and a heavy-metal de-tox programme before the neck pain was fully relieved.

*A review of the literature around slow, low-level mercury poisoning from dental amalgams (“silver fillings”), over decades in most cases,  shows a definite relationship between mercury poisoning and yeast (candida / fungal) infections:

A few excerpts just from my blog:

  • “There are many thousands of clinical cases of cure or significant improvement in these conditions after proper amalgam replacement and treatment, as followed and documented by doctors. Some of the conditions that mercury has been documented to cause and which people have been documented to recover from after proper amalgam replacement or treatment include: . . .  candida “
  • Mercury causes a change in the normal bacterial inhabitants in the gut which explains why . . .
  • http://www.yeastinfectionadvisor.com/mercurypoisoning.html Mercury Poisoning, Candida Yeast, Or Is It Both?

IN SUMMARY OF MY CASE:

The disease sequence shows EFFECTS:

  • Tuberculosis (2005)
  • Symptoms of MS  (2009)

TREATMENT of the effects:

  • 2005 Treated for fungal overgrowth (myco-toxins)
  • restores health temporarily

REMOVAL OF CAUSE:

  • 2010  removal of the source of mercury poisoning (mercury in dental amalgam) and de-tox.

RESTORATION OF HEALTH:

  • Health recovered.
  • No magic pills;  it takes time.
  • With CAUSE addressed, I expect health to be stable.

IF THE CAUSE IS NOT REMOVED:

  • I would be a chronically ill person, on drugs, for the rest of my life.
  • Nothing new (truly “innovative”) will have happened.

4. WHAT ABOUT THE TUBERCULOSIS IN FIRST NATION COMMUNITIES?  CAN THEIR EXPERIENCE HELP THE  COMMUNITY IN GUATEMALA?

My experience says:
look for low-level sources of slow poisoning.  And look for combinations of assaults on the immune system. (High-level sources of fast poisoning are usually apparent and therefore removed.)

Many First Nations communities may have:

  • mercury in their mouths, but also
  • in their water supply, as is the case in Grassy Narrows, Ontario from upstream industrial effluent (pulp and paper in their example).
  • some vaccinations that contain mercury

Rest assured that with this combo, there will be serious mercury poisoning that contributes to the development of diseases like TB.

(The way in which mercury poisoning manifests itself is different in different people.  Our immune systems are not all the same.)

What about the moulds (fungus), as mentioned in the excellent articles by Jen Skerritt about TB in Lac Brochet?  ( http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=4401).
In my own experience, a heavy load of myco-toxins from too much internal fungal growth contributes to a stressed immune system sending feedback in the form of disease symptoms.

Myco-toxins can be deadly.   But there will always be fungal spores (the source) in the air we breathe.  In moderation, our immune systems routinely handle them.  Get rid of the moulds – – always and absolutely.  But be aware, the moulds may or may not be the only contributor to immune system overload.  Look for combinations.  Also, internal fungal overgrowth can be a direct consequence of mercury in the body.

I’d love to do some sleuthing with people from Lac Brochet.  Perhaps their experience can help the people in Guatemala.  The ROOT cause of the TB is perhaps poverty.  Not to downplay the seriousness, but I don’t think that being poor NECESSARILY means TB.  Poisons mean disease, definitely.  Disempowerment, the inability to stop other people from poisoning your environment means disease, definitely.  Poverty creates large stresses on the immune system.  Foods that are not health-giving undermine the immune system.  Jen (the journalist writing about TB)  identified the problem with mould (the creator of myco-toxins)  in the housing in Lac Brochet.  An update on the situation with TB in Lac Brochet is desirable.   I’ll see what I can find out.

5.  I  STILL HAVEN’T ANSWERED THE QUESTION:  WHAT TREATMENT DID I USE?!

Stay tuned,   I’ll get it written!

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