Sandra Finley

2009-11-04 EXTRAORDINARY, JK Rowling. Howard Woodhouse. Jane Jacobs. Universities & Values.

 Culture and Ethics, Take back the University, Why we flounder or do not flounder  No Responses »
Nov 042009
 

CONTENTS

1.  JK ROWLING’S ADDRESS TO HARVARD UNIVERSITY GRADUATING CLASS.  THE VERY BEST GIFT I (SANDRA) CAN GIVE TO YOU.

2.  HOWARD WOODHOUSE’S NEW BOOK RE UNIVERSITIES: “SELLING OUT”.

3.  UNIVERSITIES AND VALUES, AN URGENT PROBLEM FOR US ALL.  WHAT TO DO.

4.  COMMENTARY (BACKGROUND FOR NEWCOMERS)

5.  TWO DIFFERENT SETS OF ETHICS, APPROPRIATE TO THEIR FUNCTION:  GUARDIANSHIP, COMMERCE (from “SYSTEMS OF SURVIVAL”)

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1.  JK ROWLING’S ADDRESS TO HARVARD UNIVERSITY GRADUATING CLASS. THE VERY BEST GIFT I (SANDRA) CAN GIVE TO YOU.  EXTRAORDINARY.

JK Rowling – author of the Harry Potter series.  

Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkREt4ZB-ck    

Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kh_tSiqL1U&feature=related    

Part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqGotirF20w&NR=1  

(Note:  Harvard University is now the “Harvard Corporation”.)  

= = = = = = = = = == = = = = = 

2. HOWARD WOODHOUSE’S NEW BOOK RE UNIVERSITIES: “SELLING OUT” 

VALUES are a major theme in Rowling’s address to the University graduates.  VALUES at universities are the major theme of Howard Woodhouse’s new book:  “Selling Out: Academic Freedom and the Corporate Market”.  The book has been nominated for a Saskatchewan Book Award. 

” “Selling Out” demonstrates that the logics of value of the market place and of universities are not only different but opposed to one another.  Woodhouse explains how academic freedom and university autonomy are being subordinated to corporate demands and how faculty have attempted to resist this subjugation.  Howard Woodhouse is a professor of educational foundations and co-director of the University of Saskatchewan Process Philosophy Research Unit.”  

You are fortunate if you live in Saskatoon.   You can meet Howard in person at the book launch!  You are invited:  Thursday, November 5th, 7:30, McNally Robinson Bookstore on 8th Street. 

= = = = = = = = = = = = =  = = 

3. UNIVERSITIES AND VALUES, AN URGENT PROBLEM FOR US ALL.  WHAT TO DO. 

Know what our own values are.

And then fight for them. 

What value system does our educational system promote to our young people?  What are the consequences for us, as a society, of the dominant value system? 

Will it be:

(a) JK Rowling’s set of values, or will be it be

(b) the values of the corporations (Howard’s book)?  Nothing matters but making money to send to shareholders.  

We had best know the answer to the question and set things right if there are problems.  Howard’s book makes the case. We will find the ways. 

= = = = = = = = = = = = =  = = 

4.  COMMENTARY (BACKGROUND FOR NEWCOMERS) 

Corporation (noun) – an ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility. 

But the commerce function in our society is valuable. 

What has happened? … Always, the world changes. Sometimes not for the good. 

Jane Jacobs’ book “Systems of Survival, A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics” tells us that there are two separately evolved codes of ethics for the commerce and for the guardianship (governance, public) functions in a society. The ethics in the two spheres are different because the two spheres serve different purposes.  

When we fail to know and uphold the difference, when we start to use business ethics in the guardianship role and vice versa, guardianship ethics in the business role, there is serious corruption.  Service to the public good is lost. Exactly where we are today – all you have to do is to look at various African countries to see the future of the corruption.  The wealth flows to small numbers of very rich people who have power and control; there are large numbers of impoverished people.

Will it be: 

(1) JK Rowling’s set of values, 

Or will it be 

(2) A takeover of the critical guardianship function by the values of the corporations?  Nothing matters but making money to send to shareholders.  

OR  will it be 

(3) re-drawing the separation between the commercial and guardianship functions in our society? 

We had best know the answer to the question.  

Earlier emails have discussed the opposition between the public good and the corporate good.  An economy is based upon a resource.  If you can own the resource, you get to make all the money.  And if you can pass responsibility for the costs of your operations on to the public purse (the timid and scared little people who work dutifully to pay taxes), you can make exorbitant profits. 

We talked about the profit potential in a “knowledge economy” if the corporations get to own the knowledge resource.  Just like they own oil and gas. And the other energy resources. And just like they would like to own the water resource. 

Commerce can be kept in check only if there is a strong guardianship (government regulatory) function.  We know that from the economic crisis.  Self-regulation absolutely does not work.  

We are taught that in a democracy there must be a separation of powers, checks and balances.  The judicial function must be independent of the political, for obvious safeguard reasons.    

The research and insights of Jane Jacobs take it a step further: the political and governance function must also be independent of the commercial function.  

“Systems of Survival”, a telling title for her book, documents the historical evolution of the different ethics for the two functions.  

The road back to a situation where corporations have respect, is to remove them from government and from the universities.  The government must fund the universities (public interest, guardianship). They must not fund the corporations (private interest, commerce). 

Government and universities overtaken by corporate interests – a loss of the guardianship function – is a form of government known as fascist. 

Imposition of the ethics of commerce on our educational institutions, making them the training grounds for corporations … if you need a reminder about the evils of that, watch “The Sound of Music”.  And note that it is another way (in addition to pollution) of passing the cost of operations (in this case, training) onto the public purse.  Howard’s book, “Selling Out” makes this clear. 

This is our society, our responsibility.  It is our choice to participate in it or not. WE will decide the outcome, through action or through inaction.  It is our choice to be “victims” or not. 

The lessons are all there in the histories of what happened in the lead-up to World War Two.  It is interesting how much of it comes down to people knowing and LIVING their values, being willing to stand up and speak up loud and clear for those values, not only for ourselves but for others, BEFORE it is too late.  If we wait until the assault is directed at us personally, it will be too late.  

Some faculty at the University of Saskatchewan and other Universities are intimidated.  The Department of Agriculture is run by Monsanto, Bayer Crop Science, and other chemical-biotech corporations.  Professors and researchers with an alternate view of agriculture are marginalized and not funded. The corporate good trumps the public good AND the search for truth. 

The uranium and nuclear industry is moving onto the U of S campus big-time now. The petroleum industry is already well established at the University of Regina.  If the corporations have their way, the “small” reactors for tar sands expansion will be developed at the University with disastrous consequences for climate change, for water resources, and for the death by acidification of northern Saskatchewan. The public interest is subverted, no different from what is on-going in the College of Agriculture. 

Students in Veterinary Medicine tell of their repugnance for the biased teachings of a professor who advocates (“sells”) intensive livestock operations.  He receives money from the industry.  His job is to create unquestioning loyalty, not critical thinking or research in the public interest. 

The professors in the university who dissent find themselves in trouble with the administration. Their public-interest work is jeopardized. The knowledge resource of the society is jeopardized.  It will be commodified and “owned” if the corporations and their collaborators have their way.  Education becomes less and less “public” as it evolves to conform with models of profit centres. 

Fascist control with a ruling elite is more easily achieved in a population that is taught not to question.  Howard Woodhouse’s book, “Selling Out” is a gift to us in the effort to take back our universities.  

There is a guarantee that we will not follow the descent into fascism: as always, it is the formation of a critical mass of informed people. All you have to do is to talk with your friends – – introduce the topic into conversations.  

I have great faith that when people have the information, they will have the conversations and when they have the conversations, they will find the remedies.  It will take a while but that’s okay.  

Thank-you Howard Woodhouse, and thank-you JK Rowling.  Ordinary people doing extraordinary things.  We stand behind you. 

= = = = == == = == = = = = = = = 

5.  TWO DIFFERENT SETS OF ETHICS, APPROPRIATE TO THEIR FUNCTION.   (from SYSTEMS OF SURVIVAL) 

GUARDIANSHIP                                      COMMERCE

shun force                                                        shun trading

voluntary agreement                                  exert prowess

be honest                                                          be obedient and disciplined

collaborate                                                      adhere to tradition

compete                                                           respect hierarchy

respect contracts                                        be loyal

use initiative and enterprise                  take vengeance

open to inventiveness and novelty    deceive for the sake of the task

be efficient                                                     make rich use of leisure

promote comfort and convenience    be ostentatious

dissent for the sake of the task              dispense largesse

invest for productive purposes            be exclusive

be industrious                                              show fortitude

be thrifty                                                         be fatalistic

be optimistic                                                 treasure honor

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

 Tuberculosis  No Responses »
Nov 032009
 

Winnipeg Free Press – PRINT EDITION

The number of TB cases in Manitoba is on the rise, and the doctor who used to be responsible for keeping the disease in check says the system has developed cracks and people are falling through

By: Jen Skerritt

It’s just six years since Hershfield retired as the longtime director of Manitoba’s tuberculosis-control program, but he’s already watched the system he worked for 37 years to build break down and lose track of patients.

He recently saw a woman in his downtown cityplace medical clinic who’d been prescribed enough TB medication to kill her.

Another woman who came for a checkup had been exposed to infectious TB, but no one did a skin test, chest X-ray or referred her for followup.

He was infuriated when a man with infectious TB recently came to see him — the man hadn’t filled his prescription for TB drugs and was walking around, spreading the disease.

Hershfield has phoned, written and met with some of Manitoba’s most senior medical officials to tell them the province needs what he calls a TB czar, someone to take charge and ensure no cases go undetected.  The 74-year-old offered to re-organize the TB program himself.

So far, he hasn’t received a response.

“You can’t convince them. People who control the money are more interested in West Nile virus that’s going to affect 10 people and kill one out of 3,000,” Hershfield said. “Without a co-ordinated system, without people going out and getting the entire population, you can’t win. “I see that things are falling apart.”

The number of TB cases reported across the province and in Winnipeg is on the rise, yet cases are being missed, health officials admit. The latest provincial disease statistics show the number of TB cases between January and August 2009 increased nearly 25 per cent over the same period last year. Manitoba used to record about 100 cases of TB a year, but the province hit 113 in August and the numbers are still climbing.

Most TB cases are reported in the north and Winnipeg.  Northern health officials in Thompson blame the increase on poor living conditions on many northern reserves. Winnipeg health officials say the numbers are up because they’re doing a better job of finding people with the disease.

Hershfield suspects the reason is cut and dried: The system doesn’t work anymore. TB is out of control. Things have changed since he was at the helm, and privacy laws now ban some of Hershfield’s past unorthodox ways of ensuring his patients took their medication — including training Main Street bartenders to dispense drugs to regulars.

The system to track and treat TB was handed over to regional health authorities, and Hershfield thinks that shift left no one in charge of making sure things work properly.

“Now, there are too many cases,” Hershfield said. “The public health system broke down. It’s now fragmented. Patients are less visible. There isn’t what I call a czar.”

Hershfield’s no-nonsense approach to TB was simple — find cases of TB, put the patients on drugs, watch them take those drugs, track down everyone else they exposed to the airborne bacteria and put them on drugs, too.

He and nurse Joann MacMorran co-ordinated the Manitoba Lung Association’s TB program out of a small office at Health Sciences Centre for more than three decades. Their program kept the number of TB cases relatively stable. Doctors and nurses across the province and on reserves knew
Hershfield was the TB point man and would send him patients with symptoms. New immigrants under surveillance for TB were referred to  Hershfield for followup after they entered the country.

Contacts across Manitoba alerted him when patients didn’t show up to take their pills, and Hershfield had a way to keep track and ensure people took their medication — what is called “directly observed therapy.” Nurses on reserves and in the city met with patients and watched them ingest their pills. The nurses went looking for missing patients when they didn’t show up. Infectious patients who refused to take their medication were
arrested and put in isolation in hospital.

The number of cases a year hovered around 100 from the late 1980s right up until Hershfield’s departure in 2003. His system worked so well that the Canadian Society for International Health asked Hershfield to set up the same program in Guyana.

Hershfield took a tough and sometimes unorthodox approach to finding his patients and getting the job done. He often trained people in the community — including staff in Main Street hotels — to dispense TB drugs to patients. If patients didn’t show up to take their pills, staff would phone Hershfield and MacMorran would scour watering holes in search of the missing patient. Sometimes Hershfield would even troll the  downtown bars himself to hunt for patients.

“We trained the bartender to do it, so the bartender would give him his medication,” he said. “We were concerned about getting the medication into the patient. I didn’t care whether you’re drunk or not, take your medication.”

Things didn’t always go Hershfield’s way.

The outspoken physician wanted better housing for his patients and more money to bolster TB prevention. As far back as 1987, Hershfield warned that treaty natives had a high rate of TB because of poor living conditions. He hit bureaucratic roadblocks and became increasingly frustrated.

“The problem with these kinds of situations is health is a department. Housing is a department. Everybody has their own budget. If I was to say I need more housing on this reserve because of tuberculosis they’d say, ‘meh, we don’t need it there,’ ” Hershfield said.

“Those are the realities. I see patients today who are still in overcrowded houses that 10 years ago I wrote letters about.”

The TB-control program changed when Hershfield retired in 2003.

The program was shuffled to an interim director who resigned a year later. No one was in charge for months until the province took over TB care in April 2006. Several months after that, the province handed the responsibility of finding, diagnosing and treating TB patients to regional health authorities.

Because most TB cases in Manitoba are reported in Thompson and Winnipeg, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and Burntwood Regional Health Authority took lead roles in some of the most difficult and time-consuming aspects of TB care — the medical sleuthing in the community to
find patients, getting them to take drugs and rounding up people they’d exposed to TB and putting them on drugs, too.

Dr. Sande Harlos, a WRHA medical officer, remembers the days when the front-desk clerk at Main Street hotels would help administer TB medication, but said the revamped system is more efficient and ensures no one falls through the cracks.

And yet, the TB numbers reported in Winnipeg nearly tripled between 2007 and 2008.

Harlos said there are more public health nurses, and the system no longer relies on proxies — such as bartenders — to keep an eye on TB patients.

Public health nurses now make a point of meeting TB  patients when they are still quarantined on HSC’s sixth-floor isolation unit.  Patients with infectious TB are usually required to stay in the isolation unit for two weeks until drug therapy has kicked in to be sure they can’t spread the
disease to others through coughing or sneezing.

Harlos said the nurse starts building a relationship with the patient early, to make it easier to get the patient to follow through with the entire nine-month drug treatment. Nurses make arrangements and find out the best place for patients to receive their drugs, whether that’s in their homes or a spot in Central Park. The WRHA offers incentives for patients to show up, including sandwiches, bus fare, sometimes even cash.

Even on the isolation ward, infectious patients are given incentives to stay — their TV and phone is paid for and they’re often offered favourite meals. While other jurisdictions have offered cigarettes to TB patients in isolation, medical officer Dr. William Libich said they’ve decided against offering tobacco or alcohol. The idea, he said, is to encourage patients to take a stake in their own health and recovery, although some patients are allowed to go outside to smoke.

“If they’ve rejected offers of nicotine replacement therapy, and they insist on going out (for a smoke) we have to be careful about that,” Libich said. “We don’t want folks leaving isolation and not coming back.”

Some patients slip through the cracks.  Months before double-amputee Brian Sinclair was found dead in a Health Sciences Centre waiting room, the WRHA investigated another critical incident — this time a homeless man with a history of substance abuse who told emergency room staff he believed he “had TB.”  A July 2008 summary of the incident reveals the man initially came to the ER with an unrelated complaint, and a chest X-ray
indicated fluid in the lining of his lung — something that could indicate TB or lung cancer. A follow-up CT scan was done, then the patient was discharged and told he needed a followup appointment. He didn’t go to any of the scheduled appointments.

Three months later, the man showed up at the ER drunk, complaining of shortness of breath, a cough and weight loss. Again, he told ER staff he believed he “had TB.”   ER staff did not heed his concerns, and six months later the patient was admitted with advanced TB and told that his prognosis was “poor.” The report doesn’t say what happened to him.

“I don’t think we’re doing well enough,” said Dr. Joel Kettner, Manitoba’s chief medical officer.

Kettner said he believes doctors initially miss some TB cases because the symptoms — including coughing and night sweats — are similar to other respiratory diseases. Although Manitoba has one of the highest TB rates in the country, Kettner said it is not a mainstream disease and many
doctors would see only a few cases throughout their careers.

“For a well-trained doctor, an experienced doctor, this is a challenge to pick out amongst all those reasons that people come and see a doctor,” Kettner said. “There’s a lot of diseases that have those symptoms. The key (with TB) is those symptoms usually don’t get better.”

Wayne Harper knows what can happen when TB is missed.  He buried his 28-year-old brother, Herman Joseph, two years ago. Wayne, a band
councillor at Garden Hill First Nation, said his brother was living in Winnipeg with his girlfriend when he started getting sick. Wayne said his brother went to HSC’s ER many times, but staff there said he had a bad cold and sent him home repeatedly.

Months later, Herman was so sick his lungs were failing, and there was little doctors could do. Harper said TB “got him” when Herman succumbed to the disease after four days of drug treatment in hospital.

“He lay there, and they just took the (life-support) machine out. Shut it off. Just gone,” Harper said.  “Probably he had that TB maybe for months, and they didn’t treat him. They couldn’t do anything because it was too late.”

jen.skerritt  AT  freepress.mb.ca

Free Press reporter Jen Skerritt received a $20,000 Journalism Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to investigate tuberculosis in Manitoba. The stories, photos, videos and interactive website are the result of months of research and collaboration with the Free Press TB
team.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 3, 2009 A10

2009-10-31 Tuberculosis explodes on northern reserves

 Tuberculosis  No Responses »
Oct 312009
 

Jen Skerrit, Winnipeg Free Press

October 31, 2009

LAC BROCHET, Man. — It’s minutes before 10 a.m., and Alphonse Denechezhe has just finished his morning spit into a plastic cup.  He puts it next to the others on a wooden shelf in the living room, near where his young son and daughter are sleeping on mattresses.  Denechezhe, 42, will take the samples to the nurse, but it could be weeks before anyone knows whether his recent coughing fits and night sweats are what he fears.

Denechezhe calls it “the sickness,” the disease that just won’t go away.   He’s watched tuberculosis devastate his family and plague his community for years.

Northlands First Nation in Lac Brochet, one of Manitoba’s most remote communities, has earned a dubious distinction as a global TB hot spot. It and another Manitoba community health officials will not name recorded the highest rates of TB in the world for two decades. Until 2004, Lac Brochet remained one of the world’s worst-affected communities.

More than a decade ago, Denechezhe watched his ex-wife nearly die of TB of the brain in a Winnipeg hospital isolation room. He and all 18 people who lived in the same three-bedroom house tested positive for TB, too. He was supposed to wear a mask and take medication for nine months to cure his “sleeping TB.”

But Denechezhe doesn’t trust medication, not even Tylenol. He stopped taking the TB pills when he couldn’t handle the intense side effects of nausea and fatigue. He failed to finish his medication again two years ago, after a nurse warned him the disease could strike at any time.

Now, he’s been coughing for weeks and worries he’s already infected his young son who started coughing days go.

“Maybe it’ll kill me. I don’t know,” said Denechezhe. “But this sickness seems to be carrying on. We get rid of it for a little while, but it seems to pop up left and right.”

It’s been more than three decades since the last sanatorium in Manitoba shut its doors and tuberculosis faded in the minds of most of the public.

But TB never went away. It is still rampant in First Nation communities in northern Manitoba. It’s a medical illness propagated by non-medical factors, tangled in a historical and political web that has long neglected the poverty that helps TB survive.

TB is a barometer for overall health: where there is poverty and suffering, there is TB. Plain and simple, it is a symptom of poverty, a byproduct of overcrowded homes, malnutrition and poor overall health.

That same deadly mix let H1N1 flourish in the north this summer and made TB a scourge on Manitoba reserves for a century.

Medical experts warned for years that a major problem would arise in the North if TB outbreaks and the living conditions that contribute to them were not addressed. The warning went unheeded, and the disease exploded in places such as Lac Brochet five years ago. Now, Manitoba has one of the highest TB rates in the country.

In northern Manitoba, living conditions on some reserves are often described as Third World – many houses are decrepit, some don’t have toilets or running water, and multiple families are crammed under one roof.   Inadequate hygiene, rotting walls and close quarters make reserves ripe for the
spread of an airborne disease. When one person gets sick, everybody gets sick.

In 1937, TB officials noted that overcrowded homes and poor living conditions on reserves contributed to the high rate of disease among First Nations. In 2009, as many as 18 people are crammed into three-bedroom houses at Lac Brochet.

The community recorded some of the highest TB rates in the world – more than 600 cases per 100,000, more than 100 times what it should be. By comparison, the national rate in Canada is five cases per 100,000. In developing countries such as Bangladesh, the rate is slightly below 400 cases
per 100,000.

Last year, the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs petitioned Canada’s auditor general to investigate what federal health officials are doing to control the rising rates of infectious diseases such as TB on reserves. Grand Chief Ron Evans hasn’t heard back. He has no idea how many cases of TB surface on reserves because federal and provincial health officials refuse to divulge that information, citing privacy reasons. Evans said they can’t solve
the problem until they have all the facts.

“My suspicions are if they provide that information, it will be so alarming they would have to put resources toward the root causes, which is of course overcrowding, issues of poverty, the lack of proper running water and sewage,” he said.

Manitoba officials refused to disclose the number of cases on reserves, saying to do so would “harm relations” with the federal government.

“It’s an excuse they’re using to cover up inadequacies,” said Dr. Earl Hershfield, former director of the province’s TB control program.

Lac Brochet’s Dene community lives in one of the most remote places in Manitoba – the northwestern corner of the province. A group of families broke away from Brochet to settle in Lac Brochet in the early 1970s.   Northlands First Nation was to be a remote haven where the Dene could hunt caribou, fish and live off the land. The isolation was supposed to preserve their traditional ways of life. Instead, it exacerbated a flurry of health and social problems in recent years.

Few people have jobs, and there’s no way off the reserve except to fly out for a medical appointment or brave the 13-hour, white-knuckle ride on the winter road to Thompson, Man.

Denechezhe said people are cooped up in cramped quarters during the long winter, an invitation for TB to spread.

“It’s just frustrating sometimes to even talk about it, and the more you talk about it the angrier you get,” he said.

In 2001, Indian and Northern Affairs estimated there was a shortfall of 8,500 houses on northern reserves such as Denechezhe’s and close to half of existing homes required renovations. Since then, the shortage has worsened, largely due to limited construction and a birthrate twice the Canadian average.

The reserve baby boom has left many young families homeless. In Lac Brochet, close to 1,000 residents live in 135 houses. People such as Denechezhe are among the hidden homeless who crowd into relatives’ homes because they have nowhere else to stay.

He and two of his children live in his mother’s two-bedroom house with five other family members. The grey house looks nearly identical to the other dozen sandwiched close together in “central” Lac Brochet on a slope near the lake. The two bedrooms and one bathroom are the only divided rooms in the house, and there is little room left for people and furniture in the small space.

“I’m 42 years old, and I’m still living with my mom. It’s not supposed to be like that,” said Denechezhe, who works in the band office.

Half of Lac Brochet houses were included in a recent study and nearly half of those housed at least one person who had contracted TB.  Most of the houses are overcrowded, with an average of eight people per household – four times the Canadian average.

“Size matters,” said Linda Larcombe, an anthropologist and disease researcher with the University of Manitoba who studies the spread of diseases in First Nations.

“It makes sense that (in) a smaller home with more people in it, your risk of contracting airborne and aerosolized disease is going to increase.”

More than half the houses studied had visible mould.  Medical experts say it takes a strong immune response to ward off TB germs, so an individual whose immune system is busy battling the effects of mould may not be able to fight off TB as well.

According to a 2003 auditor general report, many on-reserves houses have mould problems due to improper maintenance, poor ventilation and construction and overcrowding. Some Lac Brochet houses have so much mould they are literally decaying from the inside.

Indian Affairs did not respond to repeated requests for an interview, but sent an e-mail statement saying it will spend about $75 million to improve on-reserve housing in the next two years, part of the economic stimulus package.

Northlands First Nation Chief Joe Dantouze said the problem hasn’t been solved and the community doesn’t have enough money to build new houses or repair others also rotten with mould. That draws criticism from some residents who claim houses are allotted based entirely on a social pecking order.

In Lac Brochet, residents refer to the area where the chief and a lucky few live as Beverly Hills, a row of bi-level houses atop a ridge overlooking the centre of town. Everywhere else, families crowd into small houses with two or three bedrooms and no basements.

Martin St. Pierre shines a flashlight in the crawl space under Stephen Tssessaze’s house to illuminate a black wall so corroded by mould it’s soft to the touch. The beam of light uncovers a patch of long, white mushrooms growing from a crack in the foundation. Thin strips of last year’s withered, slimy mushrooms appear to drip down the putrid wall.

St. Pierre does plumbing work for the band in Lac Brochet. He said he sees too many houses that should be condemned – including others just like this one on the west side of town. Here, St. Pierre said, houses are in a low-lying area where spring run-off drains into the crawl space where moisture gets trapped.

The gag-inducing sight of patches of fungi and pervasive rot is overwhelming, even for St. Pierre.

“When I come through a house like this and there’s kids in there, you feel bad, you know?” St. Pierre said.

Tssessaze lives with his two young boys and his girlfriend. The pungent stench of damp decay is unmistakable. It fills your nostrils when you walk through the front door. Tssessaze said his kids get sick a lot and he often has trouble breathing. He peers at the white fungi in the underbelly of his house, before a solemn look envelops his face.

“It’s too much, right?”

jen.skerritt  AT  freepress.mb.ca

© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service

2009-10-21 Uranium mining moratorium B.C. The result of one man’s efforts, Dr. Bob Woollard.

 Health, Nuclear  No Responses »
Oct 212009
 

Dr. Woollard sometimes visits Saskatoon because he is on the accreditation committee for University Medical Schools.  I had a conversation with him about adding his weight to the nuclear battle in Saskatchewan.  He was willing.  Unfortunately I never followed through on coordinating his efforts with ours.  There is a link to a recommended document …   /Sandra

Fri, 16 Oct 2009

Dear Dr Woollard, 

Is it possible to obtain from you the critical pieces of documentation that were used to establish the moratorium on uranium mining in B.C.? 

I am from Saskatoon.  

We are fighting to stop the uranium/nuclear industry / Government of Saskatchewan agenda for:

– expansion of uranium mining & exploration

– nuclear power production

– the siting of radioactive waste disposal in Saskatchewan (for the whole continent I would say)

– the entrenchment of the “Canadian Nuclear Studies Centre” at the U of Sask. 

Last evening (in Vancouver) I gave a talk on the “Canada – U.S. Western Energy Corridor”, tar sands expansion, nuclear energy development and the privatization and export of Canadian energy resources. 

The host was the World Federalist Movement monthly meeting.  

An older woman told me about your work.  As I understand you were almost single-handedly responsible for getting the moratorium on uranium mining in B.C. , the moratorium is significantly based on health effects and that the evidence you used was largely from the uranium mining in Saskatchewan. 

I will be back in Saskatoon in a week or so. 

Thank-you for your consideration. 

Best wishes,

Sandra Finley 

REPLY FROM DR. WOOLLARD

10/21/2009     Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding. I have been travelling to get to work here in Nepal and have been challenged with connections. This is likely to get worse again in the next few days so let me propose a plan.

Thank you for your interest and for your willingness to fight on behalf of your  communities. At present I am working in Nepal and will be back in Vancouver at the end of the month. I wonder if the best plan might be to link up by phone when I get back so we could talk for a half hour or so and delineate the material that would be of greatest value to you. I am copying my assistant Paul Kendal and if this plan works for you perhaps you can let him know and we can arrange a time at your convenience. From there we can see how I can best be of assistance-the intervening 30 years have not diminished my concerns about the potential impact of this industry, nor does it seem there have been significant technologic or regulatory changes sufficient to make it any safer.
I look forward to talking to you on my return to Canada.
Cheers,
Bob Woollard
—

Robert F Woollard, MD, CCFP, FCFP
Professor
UBC Department of Family Practice
Suite 300, 5950 University Boulevard
Vancouver, BC Canada V6T 1Z3
Tel: 604  827  4753
= = = = = = = =

EMAIL THREAD, DR DALE DEWAR AND MYSELF:

Thanks for your input Dale.   I had a long telephone conversation with Bob.  Need to get back to him with update.  He comes to Saskatoon periodically becuz he is on accreditation body for med school.  He has some good ideas for how to go about “creating waves”.   Bit I am short of time on my end of things! 

I hope you are enjoying holiday rest and re-generation.

Sandra

From: Dale Dewar    Sent: November 11, 2009 2:26 PM
To: Sandra Finley
Cc: JimX Harding; Karen. Weingeist; Cathy. NUKES Holtslander; ValNUKE Drummond; MichelleNUKE Blanchette; MarkNuke Bigland-Pritchard; KarenNUKE Pedersen; JudyNUKE Schachtel; VirginiaNUKE Scissons; Larissa. NUKETOrgFVCExec Shasko; Jim. S & Marion Penna; StefaniaNLS Fortugno; EleanorNUKE Knight; Elaine. FVCExecTOrg Hughes; DarcyNUKE Hande
Subject: Re: Uranium mining, the fellow behind the B.C. moratorium 

Sandra, 

I trust that someone has been able to take you up on this.  Bob Woollard is a marvelous guy – besides haven written the policy piece for nuclear power and uranium mining in the 1980’s for the British Columbia Medical Association – which has “stuck” all these years AND also behind the BC moratorium, he was a founding board member of Canadian Doctors for Medicare, former head of the Department of Family Practice.  He was in Nepal as part of his commitment to education for health care.  He’s a guy who knows when to make small waves that magnify as they move. 

Best wishes 

Dale Dewar, MD, FCFP

Executive Director, 

Physicians for Global Survival

www.pgs.ca 

– – – – – – – – – – – 

On 5-Nov-09, at 4:30 PM, Sandra Finley wrote: 

Oh goodness – I am in over my head.   Maybe I should learn to keep my mouth shut.  I need your input (aside from ”close your mouth”): 

While in B.C. I asked who was behind the B.C. uranium moratorium? 

The answer is  Dr. Bob Woollard, Professor UBC Department of Family Practice. 

I was told that the data he used to get the moratorium was Saskatchewan based. 

I googled and then sent an email to Bob  – he was in Nepal.  He is more than willing to help  and  “From there we can see how I can best be of assistance”  

 Bob’s assistant, Paul Kendal, is in contact to set up the telephone call.

Which is lovely except that I know VERY LITTLE about uranium mining, health and moratoriums, and what we want to do on this front.  I am a little panicked! 

They supplied a link (below) to the document that was a major factor in getting the moratorium, as I understand.  But I haven’t read it. 

I don’t think we have a specific group in Clean Green that is focused on a moratorium on expanded mining of uranium? 

I don’t think we have an actual strategy on this?   

How do you want to move forward on this one? 

Sandra 

YOU MIGHT WANT TO READ FROM BOTTOM UP 

From: Kendal, Paul    Sent: Thu Nov 05, 2009
To: Woollard, Robert; Finley, Sandra
Subject: RE: Uranium mining moratorium 

Good morning Sandra,

I’m writing to see if you’re back yet so we can schedule a call with you and Bob.  Please let me know either by email or at 604  827  4753.

Thanks,   Paul 

FIRST EMAIL FROM PAUL:

If you could please let me know what time of day is best for a phone call, we can work to set aside some time for the two of you to speak.  For now, in case you have not yet seen it, a summary of the BCMA report is available here  (http://www.ccnr.org/bcma.html).

Thanks,

Paul

……………………………………………………….
Paul Kendal
Administrative Coordinator
Rural Coordination Centre of BC (RCCbc)
David Strangway Building, UBC
#300 – 5950 University Blvd
Vancouver BC  V6T 1Z3
 
t:  604 827  4753

2009-10-13 Addendum sent to Attorney General: you DO have responsibility to arrest Bush, the Law of Complementarity

 George Bush war criminal  No Responses »
Oct 132009
 

October 13, 2009

TO: Don Morgan, MLA
Saskatoon Southeast
Address: Minister of Justice and Attorney General

109 – 3502 Taylor Street East
Saskatoon, SK
S7H 5H9
Details: Constituency Assistant: Rita Flaman Jarrett

306.955.4755 (Tel)
morgan@donmorgan.ca (Email)

Dear Honourable Don Morgan, Attorney General for Saskatchewan,  

George W Bush is scheduled to be in Saskatoon on October 21, 2009. 

Please see the enclosed letters to the Attorney General of Canada and to the RCMP, Division F Commander.   They request that the responsible persons carry out their duties under the law to arrest and prosecute George Bush. 

The laws that apply and the evidence against Bush are included in the letter to the RCMP. 

“If the most powerful among us are not accountable to the law, our justice system fails.” 

I thought you would like to be advised of the steps taken in relation to George Bush, in your role of responsibility for the administration of justice in Saskatchewan. 

I am confident that the responsible persons in Canada will see that justice prevails.  

Best wishes,

Sandra Finley  (contact info)

ADDENDUM SENT,  THE LAW OF COMPLEMENTARITY MAKES RESPONSIBILITY CLEAR  

Dear Honourable Don Morgan, 

In your position of responsibility for the administration of justice in Saskatchewan, I would appreciate if you could relay to the Police, the Principle of Complementarity under International Law which places the onus on domestic jurisdictions to arrest and prosecute persons such as Bush.  Also Canada’s adoption and enlargement of the International Laws in the year 2000.  Please see the following text. 

Thank-you. 

Best wishes,

Sandra Finley 

= = = = = = = =

Persons responsible for arresting or prosecuting George Bush when he comes to Canada Oct 20 – 22  say “not my responsibility.  I don’t have jurisdiction.  It’s International Law (or whatever)”.

 These officials in Canada DO have jurisdiction and responsibility for the arrest and prosecution of George W Bush under the Principle in International Law called Complementarity.  The explanation of the Principle is simple.     /Sandra

COMPLEMENTARITY

 Michael Byers holds the Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

 From his book,  “Intent for a Nation”  (2007)

 Page 111:

 “Countries that ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court take on certain obligations.  Prominent among these is the obligation to investigate and prosecute, under their domestic criminal laws, any individual located on their territory who is accused of any crime prohibited by the statute.  This is because the International Criminal Court operates on the basis of a principle called “complementarity,” whereby most prosecutions are supposed to take place in domestic courts.  The International Criminal Court steps in only when it deems that the relevant domestic court is unable or unwilling to fulfill that role, or when the UN Security Council refers a situation directly to it.  

In 2000, the Canadian Parliament adopted legislation implementing the Rome Statute into Canadian law.  The Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act provides Canadian domestic courts with jurisdiction over a wide range of international crimes, regardless of the nationality of the alleged perpetrator or the location where he or she allegedly committed the crime.  The act also goes further than the Rome Statute by providing jurisdiction retroactively over crimes.”

2009-10-13 Bush: important simple legal principle, “Complementarity” (International Law)

 George Bush war criminal  No Responses »
Oct 132009
 

Persons responsible for arresting or prosecuting George Bush when he comes to Canada Oct 20 – 22  say “not my responsibility.  I don’t have jurisdiction.  It’s International Law (or whatever)”. 

I am annoyed at myself for forgetting this which I read when first getting into the question of Lockheed Martin’s involvement in the Canadian census.   They were manufacturers of land mines and cluster munitions, in contravention of International conventions that Canada has signed onto.   There should be economic sanctions against them, not the awarding of Government contracts.   (Lockheed Martin also has a long, long list of court convictions.  They break the law all the time.) 

But back to Bush:   these officials in Canada DO have jurisdiction and responsibility for the arrest and prosecution of George W Bush under the Principle in International Law called Complementarity.  The explanation of the Principle is simple.  Please spread it around,  especially to people in the justice system, including the police.  Thanks.  

COMPLEMENTARITY 

Michael Byers holds the Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law, University of British Columbia, Vancouver 

From his book,  “Intent for a Nation”  (2007) 

Page 111: 

“Countries that ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court take on certain obligations.  Prominent among these is the obligation to investigate and prosecute, under their domestic criminal laws, any individual located on their territory who is accused of any crime prohibited by the statute.  This is because the International Criminal Court operates on the basis of a principle called “complementarity,” whereby most prosecutions are supposed to take place in domestic courts.  The International Criminal Court steps in only when it deems that the relevant domestic court is unable or unwilling to fulfill that role, or when the UN Security Council refers a situation directly to it. 

In 2000, the Canadian Parliament adopted legislation implementing the Rome Statute into Canadian law.  The Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act provides Canadian domestic courts with jurisdiction over a wide range of international crimes, regardless of the nationality of the alleged perpetrator or the location where he or she allegedly committed the crime.  The act also goes further than the Rome Statute by providing jurisdiction retroactively over crimes.”

2009-10-10 Corporations at the Universities. Selling Out. Richard Florizone and UDP. Nuclear at the University.

 Take back the University  No Responses »
Oct 102009
 

The corporations corrupt science and our knowledge base.  We lose necessary research that serves the public interest.  It is past time to take back what is ours.

CONTENTS

(1)    NEW BOOK “SELLING OUT: ACADEMIC FREEDOM & THE CORPORATE MARKET” BY HOWARD WOODHOUSE

(2)    THE NUCLEAR INDUSTRY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SASKATCHEWAN, AN END-RUN AROUND THE PUBLIC INTEREST

(3)    REGARDING MY PRESENTATION ON ENERGY TO STANDING COMMITTEE, OCT  9TH

(4)    CORPORATIONS APPROPRIATING THE KNOWLEDGE RESOURCE OF OUR ECONOMY (INCLUDES FLORIZONE)

(5)    THE PATTERN IS ALWAYS THE SAME. LEARN TO RECOGNIZE IT.

(6)    FIRST THEY CAME FOR

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(1)   “SELLING OUT: ACADEMIC FREEDOM & THE CORPORATE MARKET”

Howard Woodhouse wrote a book on 6 case studies of corporate involvement at the University of Saskatchewan.

Canadians should know about this book. The other items in this email make it clear why.

–   – – – – – – – – – –

Selling Out: Academic Freedom and the Corporate Market http://www.amazon.ca/Selling-Out-Academic-Freedom-Corporate/dp/0773535802

In a powerful defense of the values that define education, Howard Woodhouse uses concrete and vivid examples to show how universities in Canada have been engulfed by the market model of education and how administrators have done little to resist this trend. “Selling Out” demonstrates that the logics of value of the market and of universities are not only different but opposed to one another. By introducing the reader to a variety of cases, some well known and others not, Woodhouse explains how academic freedom and university autonomy are being subordinated to corporate demands and how faculty have attempted to resist this subjugation. He argues that the mechanistic discourse of corporate culture has replaced the language of education – subject-based disciplines and the professors who teach them have become ‘resource units’, students have become ‘educational consumers’, and curricula have become ‘program packages’. Graduates are now ‘products’ and ‘competing in the global economy’ has replaced the search for truth. Challenging the current orthodoxy that the market model is the only way forward, Woodhouse argues that governments have a responsibility to fund universities, recognizing that they are the only places in society where the critical search for knowledge takes precedence.

About the Author

Howard Woodhouse is professor of educational foundations and co-director of the University of Saskatchewan Process Philosophy Research Unit.

Book Launch . .  October, 2009

Selling Out: Academic Freedom and the Corporate Market

(McGill-Queen’s University Press)

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(2)  THE NUCLEAR INDUSTRY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SASKATCHEWAN, AN END-RUN AROUND THE PUBLIC INTEREST

I remain greatly concerned about the role of the Universities in Saskatchewan, in the promotion of the nuclear and tar sands industries.

(To say nothing of their service to Monsanto (ownership of seeds) and other of the biotech corporations, the GMO’s and biotech pharmaceuticals.)

We citizens are paying for the research for the nuke and tar sands industries, through the:

  • Canadian Nuclear Studies Centre at the University of Saskatchewan and the
  • Petroleum Technology Research Centre (PTRC) at the University of Regina.

This is in direct opposition to what the public wants.

The public has made a clear statement through the Perrins’ Report in September that we do not want nuclear.  We want to transition to a path that is truly clean, green and based on renewable energy sources.

In spite of the Perrins’ Report on the public consultations this past summer (the people of Saskatchewan say “no” to nuclear) and this new round of “Standing Committee” meetings on Energy, the nuclear ship has set sail at the University.  They are established at the University, how do we get them un-established?

If we don’t, the research

  • to develop the “small” reactors for tar sands production, and
  • for radioactive waste disposal

is going to move straight ahead.  The Cdn Nuclear Studies Centre at the U of S  has been in operation for more than a year.  They are on their way.

The oil and gas (tar sands) people and the nuclear industry need the money to flow to the Universities in Saskatchewan. It’s an end-run around the public interest. Makes it look as though the Government is not funding and is not taking a position that will get them booted out of power. They are the discrete pimps for the industry, wittingly or unwittingly – – if only because they do not step back and re-assess the situation.

The Federal money Brad Wall applied for at the end of July 2009, for research on “small” reactor technology at the University of Saskatchewan, will be decided in November.

We need to determine what interests are represented by the 4 people on the panel that will make the decision as to where the Federal money for nuclear will go.   http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS147689+19-Jun-2009+MW20090619

Between the Administration at the University, the Government and the two Industries, the players are in place to carry the ball – at the University.

It is no surprise that the mandate of the Cdn Nuclear Studies Centre at the U of S includes radioactive waste disposal.

The Nuclear Waste Management Organization met in Saskatoon in mid-September, in a meeting closed to the public. We know that the industry has targeted Saskatchewan as a place to dump the radioactive waste.  We know that the industry has no place to get rid of the radioactive spent fuel bundles from the more than a hundred nuclear reactors in the U.S. that have been accumulating for decades. Not to mention a site for disposal of all the other radioactive waste there and in Canada.

Richard Florizone, Vice-President of Finance, University of Saskatchewan, did not disclose that the Canadian Nuclear Studies Centre was already up and running in his statements to the public consultation process.  He lied about acid rain. His video-taped presentation for the Saskatchewan public contained misleading and half-truths.  (see itme #4 below)

= = = = = = = = = = =

(3)  REGARDING MY PRESENTATION ON ENERGY TO STANDING COMMITTEE, OCT 9T

The theme of my verbal presentation was that the economics of resource depletion dictate that we transition to renewable energy sources.  We don’t have a choice, unless we want collapse of the economy.

The economy is built upon non-renewable energy sources.  If we don’t transition off them, we’ll hit the wall hard when the depletion is complete (I used the cod fishery example).

Nuclear electricity in Saskatchewan is for 2 things:  tar sands production and export to the U.S.

It will only accelerate the depletion of already-dwindling supplies of fossil fuels (tar sands) and water (hydro-electricity) in the U.S. The U.S. resource-depletion problem will be transferred to Canada.  (It already is with tar sands and water.)

I emphasized that the Nuclear Studies Centre at the University of Saskatchewan has been in operation for more than a year.  The public consultations therefore lacked integrity:  we were providing input on something that has already been decided.

The university is serving the interests of the industry and not the public interest.

The Committee asked their standard question about what I’d do regarding the implementation of renewables.  I responded by saying that it is only through research and experimentation that we will find out how to make the transition to renewables.

It is the role of the University in our society to serve that research and learning function.  Instead the University is studying nuclear power production and radioactive waste disposal.

During the questions I was able to bring in the acid rain that is destroying northern Saskatchewan, thanks to the tar sands.

When the resource depletion is complete the oil and gas companies will pick up and leave, exactly as they have done everywhere else in the world.  We will be left with a destroyed environment, just like the tar sands in Alberta.  People will not be able to support themselves.

The following might make it seem as though the exchange was heated.  It wasn’t.  I feel a little sorry for the SaskParty (Conservative) guys.  They are the back-benchers.  They aren’t bad people.

The Sask Party MLA Randy Weekes denied the relationship between expanding electricity needs in the province and tar sands production.  I said that the Petroleum Technology Research Center at the University of Regina is working on the large electrical diodes that will be used and that will require vast amounts of electricity.

When asked about how we in Saskatchewan are viewed by the rest of Canada and the world, I said we are looked upon with pity. (I should have said loathing.)

The rest of the world is moving ahead.  We are pursuing a path (nuclear & tar sands) that not only will make us offensive to the rest of the world in terms of GHG emissions and climate change.  But also, we will be pitied because we will have impoverished our environment which in turn will impoverish us, eventually.  You cannot have prosperity in an impoverished environment.

The Sask Party MLA Randy Weekes denied that a decision has been made on nuclear power.  I responded with the information about the Cdn Nuclear Studies Centre that has been in operation for more than a year.  If there has been no decision, then why is their mandate both nuclear power production and radioactive waste storage?

It was my impression that the Sask Party MLA’s might not have known that the Centre is already up and running.

I was able to get in a word about the Canada-U.S. Western Energy Corridor. It is further evidence that the decision has been made,  in spite of their assertions that it hasn’t.

And so on.

When the Committee broke after my presentation, a committee member told me that his Father’s life was saved in the 1950s by nuclear medicine.

He said that I (Sandra) don’t favour nuclear studies at the University but without it, his Father would have been dead.  I mentioned that the issue we are grappling with is about energy and not medicine and suggested that, regardless, we are moving to less harmful ways of treating disease.

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.  The courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.  There are a number of men on the committee who are simply tuned in to the nuclear frequency.

It is possible (ha!) that some of them privately dismissed what I had to say about resource depletion – they don’t believe it, or don’t want to.

The good thing is that the meetings are recorded and we can file our information. Leave no doubt that we will tread a green path and not a scorched one (as Winona LaDuke describes it).

The deadline for submissions is Oct 16th.  Details in another email.

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

(4)    CORPORATIONS APPROPRIATING THE KNOWLEDGE RESOURCE OF OUR ECONOMY  (INCLUDES FLORIZONE)

An economy is based upon a resource. The people who gain ownership of the resource make very large profits (think oil and gas, potash, etc. – public resources that corporations have been given a right to develop or exploit).

The profits are enlarged by crying that the royalties are too high (they’ll take their business to another jurisdiction – ha!). Direct the money to the corporate coffer and out of  the public purse.

And simultaneously, transfer costs to the public purse by crying about too much “government regulation”.  Which is simply a way of transferring all of the environmental and health costs of their operations to us to pay for, through taxation.  Another form of “bail-out” or transfer of wealth from the public to the large transnational corps.

We are repeatedly told that the new economy is a “knowledge economy”.  It is not surprising that the corporations are taking over the universities.

Starting with the work on GMOs I repeatedly run into professors, students and staff at the University who are not free to speak their minds.  Honest discourse has been replaced by subservience to corporate agendas.

I would like to collectively give us a big shake.  If you cannot speak freely at the University, what comes next? … maybe the young people among us do not know the poem “First they came . . . “. I appended it as a reminder, item #6.

I observed the loss of integrity again, repeatedly, through the Uranium Partnership Development (UDP or “NUKE”) Panel struck by the Government of Saskatchewan and chaired by Richard Florizone, Vice-President of Finance of the University of Saskatchewan.

More than 2,000 citizens heard the lie from Florizone that the acid rain problem in Canada has been solved.

The public meetings were about nuclear reactors.  Why was Florizone even mentioning acid rain?

Understand the relationship between the tar sands (acid rain production) and “small” nuclear reactors which are to be developed under the “Uranium Development Partnership”.  (Actually, the “small” reactors have already been developed in the U.S., in Japan and elsewhere.  Whatever is done in Saskatchewan will build on that. The University is a vehicle through which to get the “small” reactors up and running.)

Huge amounts of electricity are needed for the large electrical diodes that will heat the far underground to get the tar to the point where it will flow.  It is projected to take more than 3 years of 24-hour heating just to get the first tar on the Saskatchewan side of the border flowing.

Imagine the vast quantities of electricity (heat) needed by the tar sands producers.

The increase in acid rain from tar sands processing continues , and will continue, unabated.  Since it was first identified that some areas  of northern Saskatchewan (downwind) are already past critical load limits (CCME Report, 2003) there has only been EXPANSION of the tar sands.  The Government is sitting on the updates on how bad the acid rain problem now is.

It is very convenient for the industry to have the Vice-President of the University tell us all that the acid rain problem in Canada is no longer a problem because we are so smart we fixed it.  It’s about the use of lies (propaganda)to remove obstacles. to tar sands expansion.

Further, Florizone led the public to believe that we were being consulted about the whole uranium/nuclear question, including whether or not there would be a nuclear studies centre of excellence at the U of S.

While he was doing that, he had to know that the Canadian Centre of Nuclear Studies at the University was already  established.  In the “On Campus News”, July 17, 2009 the Vice-President of Research, Karen Chad was interviewed.  She said that the Centre has been in operation for more than a year.  (Link no longer valid http://www.usask.ca/communications/ocn/09-july-17/2.php.)  The decision had been made and implemented.

The mandate of the Canadian Centre of Nuclear Studies at the U of S includes research into “power production” and radioactive waste disposal (“safe storage” as she calls it).

Call a spade a spade.  Richard Florizone is not the kind of role model acceptable at the University.  We pay his salary so that our children have a centre of learning, where people search for truth.  They should not be taught that lies and deception are just part of the way we do business.

We are being sold out by people in Government who are facilitating the transfer of ownership of the University to the transnational corporations.

The rumbling started a while back.  Howard Woodhouse has now given us a vehicle (his book “Selling Out: Academic Freedom and the Corporate Market”) – the train is moving out of the station.  I invite you to jump on board.  Good times are a-comin’!  We are well on our way to taking back what is ours.  It may take a while but we’ll do it.

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

(5)    THE PATTERN IS ALWAYS THE SAME.  LEARN TO RECOGNIZE IT.

The pattern is always the same.  Resources – Fish, Crops, Animals, and now Knowledge.

With the cod fishery:  what you had was concentration into fewer and fewer hands, and then into corporate-ownership.  Even big fishermen can’t afford refrigerated factory trawler ships.  They killed a renewable resource that once made it possible for local people to provide for themselves.

The public money “invested” in the depleting resource (cod) ended up benefitting very few people, a characteristic of the “public-private-partnerships” (Big Business – Big Government collaborations) that we now recognize.

The fight is still on to stop and reverse the takeover of the food supply.  I’ll send out an email about the documentary movie I recently saw at the Broadway Theatre, “Food, Inc.”.   It would be excellent if everyone could see it.  It reminds me of our never-ending fight over GMO Wheat.

Here is another characteristic I have noticed:  relatively weak people who are manipulable are moved into strategic positions in the University, in Government, and in the bureaucracy.  Often they are people who go back-and-forth between those 3 institutions and carry their connections with them.   More Money and rubbing shoulders with people who are perceived to be influential are sufficient to give a person who is basically insecure the illusion that they have power and importance.  They are not, in the words of Einstein, people “who see with their own eyes and feel with their own heart.”

If you look at the characteristics of the corporate takeover of the food supply, you can see PRECISELY the same process now underway at the University in relation to our energy sources and knowledge base.

I have explained in other emails:  control of the knowledge base is a critical component of a fascist and militaristic state.

These developments are dangerous and we need to succeed in putting a stop to them.

Lordy – how is it that we got born into this particular time in history and in this place?!  Do we rise to the occasion or not?  And what are the consequences if we don’t?

I can see why people choose to be ignorant!   The line from the song by Canadian Neil Young written in response to the National Guard gunning down students who were protesting the Viet Nam War at Kent State University in Ohio, “How can you run if you know?”.   It’s easier if you use the “Don’t know” model!

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(6)     FIRST THEY CAME FOR

NOTE:  we are perverse!  When we are threatened our natural reaction is to clam up.  That is EXACTLY what we should NOT do.  You are vulnerable if people do not know your situation.  You isolate yourself by not speaking.

Choose who you will speak to.  People have an innate desire to be helpful, to be useful.  If you speak to the right people, you begin to create a mass.  A mass is needed.  If the threat is real, the mass will form to give you support.

Thank-you to Howard for speaking up and drawing attention to the need for the citizen-owners of the University to rally behind him to take back our resource.   Mount the steeds!

First they came for the university professors, and I did not speak out – because I was not a university professor.  (Ha!  I just added my own line.)  The rest is real:

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me.

2009-10-08 Arrest Bush: Letters to RCMP and Chief of Police. COMPREHENSIVE argument.

 Baltasar Garzon, Freedom of Speech. (Remove some wrong postings from category), George Bush war criminal  No Responses »
Oct 082009
 

Related to the Bush visit (Oct 20-21-22 Edmonton-Saskatoon-Montreal).

Letters (below) to:

  • RCMP F Division (Sask) Commander  (arrest)
  •  Chief of Police   (arrest)
  • Letter to the Attorney General of Canada (prosecution)

 

Interesting update, item 15 in the letters:

“LAW & ORDER” TV PROGRAMME MAKES CASE FOR PROSECUTION OF BUSH ADMINISTRATION TORTURERS, OCTOBER 2, 2009

I almost feel guilty putting my name to the attached two letters because they are a collaborative creation.

But never mind – please feel free to cut, copy and paste to send your own letter to members of the justice system.

“Peace will not come out of a clash of arms but out of justice lived and done by unarmed nations in the face of odds.” Gandhi

 

I included a copy of the letter to the RCMP in the letter to the Attorney General of Canada.

For you, much of it is a repeat of information in previous emails.

The first item, SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RULE OF LAW,  is to me the most important part. We are in big trouble if the laws do not apply to those who govern.

I think we can and will and must win this one. A mass of informed people will do it – please forward this to others.

 

UPDATE (Sept 2014):

George Bush and his cohorts were not arrested, but they seem to have stopped coming to Canada.    They may have stopped travelling – – they are at risk of being arrested.

See the  international efforts  Arrest George Bush. Rule of Law essential to democracy.

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

October 8, 2009

FROM:   Sandra Finley  (address and contact information)

TO:   RCMP

Commander Division F

Bag 2500

6101 Dewdney Avenue

Regina, SK  S4P 3K7

Dear Commander of F Division,

RE:  George Bush in Saskatoon, October 21.  Duty to arrest under the Rule of Law.

Please review the enclosed information regarding the laws as they apply to George W. Bush.

I request that you carry out your duties under the law and arrest Bush when he comes to Saskatchewan.

I know this is a touchy issue.  It is not a political one.  It is not a question of whether it may or may not be popular with some people or organizations.

It is a question of whether people are equal before the law.

The substantial information appended is more than sufficient ground upon which to arrest George Bush.

I have written to the Attorney General of Canada, Robert Nicholson.  He must carry out his duty which is to prosecute after Bush has been arrested.

Thank-you.

Best wishes,

Sandra Finley

 

CONTENTS

(1)  SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RULE OF LAW:   GEORGE BUSH’S VISIT IS AN EXTREMELY SERIOUS MATTER

(2)  LETTER TO THE CHIEF OF POLICE

(3)  INTERNATIONAL AND CANADIAN LAWS, AS THEY APPLY TO BUSH

(4)  G.W. BUSH SHOULD BE BARRED ENTRY UNDER INADMISSIBILITY PROVISIONS OF THE IMMIGRATION AND REFUGEE PROTECTION ACT (IRPA)

(5)  CANADIAN LAW OBLIGES THE POLICE IN SASKATCHEWAN TO ARREST BUSH

(6)  DUTY TO BAR ENTRY TO CANADA

(7)  DUTY TO INVESTIGATE ALLEGATIONS OF TORTURE

(8)  DUTY TO PROSECUTE

(9)  VINCE BUGLIOSI’S BOOK, “THE PROSECUTION OF GEORGE W. BUSH FOR MURDER” AND TESTIMONY AT THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE HEARINGS (YOUTUBE)

(10)  MESSAGE FROM RAMSAY CLARK, FORMER UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL

(11)  SPANISH JUDGE RESUMES TORTURE CASE AGAINST SIX SENIOR BUSH LAWYERS,  8.9.09   

(12)  UPDATE ON THE SPANISH PROSECUTION, OCTOBER 7.  LEGAL COMPLAINT FILED AGAINST BUSH, BLAIR AND OTHERS

(13)  BOOK, THE GUANTANAMO FILES, THE  STORIES OF THE 774 DETAINEES IN AMERICAN’S ILLEGAL PRISON

(14)  TORTURED LAW, VIDEO FOOTAGE

(15)  TV PROGRAMME  “LAW & ORDER” MAKES CASE FOR PROSECUTION OF BUSH ADMINISTRATION TORTURERS, OCTOBER 2, 2009

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(1)  SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RULE OF LAW:   GEORGE BUSH’S VISIT IS AN EXTREMELY SERIOUS MATTER

(UPDATE, June 2016:  I excerpted this to create its own posting:  Democracy: Significance of the Rule of Law )

We are in big trouble if the laws do not apply to those who govern.

Many of us do not appreciate the significance of  The Rule of Law.  We take it for granted.

We don’t stop to think what it would be like if we DO NOT HAVE the rule of law.

We don’t stop to think about WHAT UNDERMINES the rule of law? . . .  If people see that the law applies to them, but not to rich people, they grow to hold the law in disdain.

Unequal application of the law breaks down the rule of law.  The response then, of those who govern, is to invoke martial law, a police state, because people become unruly.

People comply with the law if they see that is it fair and equally applied.  You can have a measure of PEACE in the community if the Rule of Law is upheld.

Many of us do not appreciate that it is the CITIZENS in a democracy who have responsibility for ensuring that the rule of law is upheld.

We don’t bother to understand that World War Two happened because the PEOPLE in Germany, the influential, the educated, the police, the lawyers, and judges DID NOT stand up and speak up when they saw things that were wrong in the application of the laws.

Citizens have to stop things BEFORE they get out of hand. The German people did not do that.  After a certain point, bad actors cannot be stopped, except through the extreme measures of (World) war.

IF YOU BELIEVE that young lives were expended for a good cause in World War Two, then get the hell off your butts and do something to preserve what they fought and died for.

In pre-war Germany, people did not stand up and insist that law-breakers be arrested and tried in courts of true justice.

As bad actors amassed power, they were allowed to break the laws with no fear of prosecution.

“All persons, regardless of wealth, social status, or the political power wielded by them, are to be treated the same before the law.

“The rule of law means that the law is above everyone and it applies to everyone. Whether governors or governed, rulers or ruled, no one is above the law, no one is exempted from the law, and no one can grant exemption to the application of the law.

“The rules must apply to those who lay them down and those who apply them – that is, to the government as well as the governed.  Nobody has the power to grant exceptions.”

People must, of course, KNOW WHAT THE LAW IS, if the rule of law is to be upheld.

We are in big trouble if we are ignorant, because then we are disempowered and at the mercy of bad actors.

The laws as they apply to George Bush for crimes against humanity are spelt out in the letter below to the Chief of Police.

We do not have the luxery of being ignorant, and we do not have the luxery of being complacent.

/Sandra

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(2)  LETTER TO THE CHIEF OF POLICE

September 10, 2009

Sandra Finley  (address and contact info)

 

TO:   Saskatoon City Police

Chief Clive Weighill

 

HAND DELIVERED

 

Dear Chief Weighill,

 

CONCERNING:    G.W. Bush visit to Saskatoon, October 21, 2009

 

George W. Bush is responsible for an illegal war on Iraq.  I ask people how they would like it if he had done to Canada what he did to Iraq.

G.W. Bush authorized the use of treatment prohibited by the Convention against Torture and Canadian law.  His coming to Canada will trigger Canada’s jurisdiction and duty to prosecute him.

What can the Saskatoon City Police do?  Can you start an investigation perhaps?  There is lots of information already collected.  I think it would mostly be a matter of using existing documents.  Please see appended information.  I would be happy to obtain more, if that would be helpful.

You may know that there are many lawyers and organizations around the world who are working on the legal case against Bush, in order to bring him before the International Criminal Court.

If he was the president of an African country (e.g. Al Bashir of Sudan, Darfur notoriety) who is responsible for similar but lesser deeds, he would be tried by the International Criminal Court.

It may take some time, but in the end G.W. Bush will be tried for his crimes against humanity – – worse than those of any criminal you have in your custody today.

There is more than a month’s time for the justice community in Saskatchewan to figure out how to deal with the entry into our City of a most likely war criminal.

Please see the appended legal duties of Canada in this situation.

I have left a message for:

  • Karl Bazin in his role of President of the Law Society of SK   (Swift Current  778-3632 home)
  • Terry Kimpinski, President of the SK branch of the Canadian Bar Association   Saskatoon  (306-244-6686.)
  • I phoned Bedford Biofuels in Calgary (a sponsor of the Bush visit) and then sent them the legal case against Bush.  Maybe they are unaware.

This is so offensive that they would bring Bush here.  I have a sick feeling when I think that we would in any way celebrate the perpetrators of illegal war and torture, and worse yet, do nothing to see that justice is applied equally.  Mr. Bush is not above the law.

The Star Phoenix sent out a full colour advertisement by email for the event.  The names across the bottom of the ad indicate that the sponsors here are the Greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce, The Saskatoon Star Phoenix, TCU Place, and American Express.

I will contact others and encourage my friends to circulate the information.  I am sure that working together, citizens and law enforcement, we can find a way out of this dilemma.

You are in a very difficult position vis-à-vis law enforcement.  I would not wish to be in your boots.

 

(INSERT:  Sept 12th.  When I think of it, the Chief of Police is not in a difficult situation, especially if citizens rally behind him.  If the rule of law is to prevail, the laws MUST apply equally to everyone, regardless of their perceived stature. It is the job of the Chief of Police – he would understand this better than anyone.)

 

Please contact me if I can be of further assistance.

 

Best wishes,

Sandra Finley

(THE FOLLOWING Items 3 & 4 are THE LEGAL  ARGUMENT INCLUDED IN THE COMMUNICATION TO CHIEF WEIGHILL.)

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(3)  INTERNATIONAL AND CANADIAN LAWS, AS THEY APPLY TO BUSH

Canada’s legal duties

By ratifying the Convention against Torture and the Rome Statute for an International Court, Canada agreed not only to make the torture and other war crimes and crimes against humanity crimes under Canadian law but also to participate in acting effectively to prevent and punish these crimes wherever they occur. To ensure Canada’s ability to fulfill these duties, Parliament has:

o       Passed laws enabling Canada to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity wherever the crimes occurred and whatever the nationality of the suspected perpetrators and the victims. (e.g. Criminal Code, torture provisions and the Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes Act.)  Under the Convention against Torture , when a person suspected of any involvement in torture enters Canada, Canada has a duty to either prosecute that person or extradite him to a state that is willing and able to prosecute.

o       Passed laws to ensure that Canada will not allow people suspected of war crimes and/or crimes against humanity and/or gross human rights abuses to enter Canada or otherwise provide a safe haven, even temporarily, for people suspected of any involvement in carrying out or acquiescing to war crimes, crimes against humanity or other gross human rights abuses. (e.g. Immigration and Refugee Protection Act)

The Canadian Ministers responsible are not enforcing these laws.  In spite of significant intelligent, peaceful protests, G.W. Bush was allowed entry into Canada in March and May 2009 and Colin Powell was allowed entry in June 2008.

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(4)  G.W. BUSH SHOULD BE BARRED ENTRY UNDER INADMISSIBILITY PROVISIONS OF THE IMMIGRATION AND REFUGEE PROTECTION ACT (IRPA) 

G. W. Bush should be barred from entering Canada in accordance with the inadmissibility provisions of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA).

Foreign nationals suspected of human or international rights violations are not allowed into Canada.

George W. Bush has been accused by knowledgeable groups and individuals throughout the world of complicity in war crimes, crimes against humanity and other gross human rights abuses.

Bush (and Dick Cheney) are known to have authorized and directed the torture of prisoners in Guantánamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, Bagram and other U.S. controlled prisons.

A Canadian citizen, Omar Khadr has been subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment prohibited by international law—treatment and interrogation techniques approved by Bush and Cheney.

States are responsible for enforcing international humanitarian law (the laws of war) by ensuring that violators are prosecuted and held accountable.

As a signatory to the Convention against Torture, the Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute Canada has a duty to take effective measures to prevent and punish torture and other war crimes and crimes against humanity wherever such crimes occur, no matter what the nationality of perpetrators or victims.

War crimes and crimes against humanity carried out by the Bush administration under the supervision and direction of G.W. Bush as President and Commander in Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces and Dick Cheney as Vice-President are very well documented.  Evidence that is part of the public record far exceeds the ‘reasonable grounds’ required by the IRPA.

Michael Haas (his book, George W. Bush, War Criminal?  The Bush Administration’s Liability for 269 War Crimes) identifies and documents evidence of 269 war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the U.S. under the direction and supervison of Bush and Cheney.

(INSERT, Sandra Finley:  There is also the work of Vince Bugliosi in the U.S. in relation to Bush (testimony before the House Judicial Committee (on Youtube) and his book “The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder”.  I didn’t mention those to Chief Weighill, but should have.  Please see Item #9 for more information.)

Courts in Canada and the U.S. have confirmed the involvement of G.W. Bush, as president and other members of the Bush administration in war crimes.  The U.S. Supreme Court in Rasul v. Bush 542 U.S. 455 (2004) ruled that Bush’s order  depriving Guantánamo Bay prisoners of habeas corpus was unlawful under U.S. and international law. Again in 2006 the U.S. Supreme Court in Hamdan v Rumsfeld, 126 S,Ct. 2749 (2006) ruled that the Guantánamo Bay regime created by Bush’s 13/Nov/01 order violated Geneva Convention fair trial rights.   Under international (Geneva Conventions) and Canadian (Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes Act) depriving a prisoner of a fair trial is a war crime.

The Supreme Court of Canada in Canada (Justice) v. Khadr, 2008 SCC 28 confirmed that the Bush administration’s treatment of prisoners in Guantánamo Bay violated the Geneva Conventions and both Canada’s domestic law and international law obligations.  The Federal Court of Canada in Khadr v. the Prime Minister et al 2009 FC 405, found that the U.S. treatment, including of Omar Khadr in Guantanamo Bay and the use of sleep deprivation (moving Khadr every three hours for a period of three weeks to ‘soften’ him up for interrogation by Canadian officials) violated the Convention against Torture (CAT) and that Khadr’s detention was illegal under international law.

If the law is applied equally, if citizens are to have confidence that the laws apply equally, G.W. Bush will be denied entry to Canada, in accordance with the IRPA.  I think we have to work together to see that he is somehow stopped from coming to Saskatoon.  We can do what is within our control, at the least.

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(5)  CANADIAN LAW OBLIGES THE POLICE IN SASKATCHEWAN TO ARREST BUSH

Canadian law obliges the Police in Saskatchewan to arrest G.W. Bush for torture when he arrives in Saskatchewan. To investigate allegations that G.W. Bush, while President of the United States of America and Commander in Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces counseled, aided and abetted torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, Bagram detention centre in Afghanistan, the Police must review the extensive investigations and conclusions of the reports already conducted by experts around the world including. On the basis of those reports the Police are bound to recommend to the Attorney General of Canada that torture charge be laid against G.W. Bush unless there is another jurisdiction ready and able to prosecute him for torture. In the latter event, Canada’s duty would be to extradite Bush to that jurisdiction for trial.

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(6)  DUTY TO BAR ENTRY TO CANADA

An essential component of Canada’s duty to prevent and punish torture and other war crimes and crimes against humanity–wherever they occur–is to ensure that people suspected on reasonable grounds of involvement (e.g. authorizing, directing, executing, failing, as a person in charge, to stop) in such crimes don’t find a safe haven from prosecution in Canada. There is no exception that allows entry to suspects for short periods of time. By failing to enforce the relevant sections of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act that bar people suspected of involvement in such crimes in the case of Bush, Cheney and Blair from Canada, the government of Canada is effectively granting domestic immunity to each of them. By granting immunity to Bush, Blair and Cheney, Canada also encourages and gives license to other leaders to engage in these horrific crimes with impunity–at least from Canada.

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(7)  DUTY TO INVESTIGATE ALLEGATIONS OF TORTURE

Under CAT, Art. 12, Canada has also an urgent duty to investigate allegations of torture and of other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment as part of its duty to prevent such crimes. CAT Committee rulings establish that delay by a state to investigate allegations of torture or inhumane or degrading treatment is itself a violation of CAT.  Canada’s duty to investigate became imperative, at the latest, in March 2004 when Canada received notice that the US had subjected Canadian citizen Omar Khadr to prolonged sleep deprivation and isolation to prepare him for questioning by Canadian officials.

Canada has enacted the jurisdiction to prosecute grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and war crimes as defined by the Rome Statute for an International Criminal Court, wherever they occur and whatever the nationality when the victim is a Canadian citizen. The Criminal Code of Canada (CC) s. 269.1 & 7(3.7) establishes jurisdiction to prosecute torture committed outside Canada when the victim is a Canadian citizen.  The Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes Act (CAHWCA) and the Geneva Conventions Act make grave breaches of the GCs, including unlawful confinement and deportation and denial of a fair trial, war crimes and establish Canada’s jurisdiction to prosecute such crimes wherever they occur when the victim is a Canadian citizen.

The common law duty of the RCMP, Canada’s national police force, to investigate and prevent such crimes, has been enacted by statute and recognized by Canadian courts.  To meet the challenge of investigating crimes committed outside Canadian territory, Canada has also established the Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes Program (War Crimes Program).

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(8)  DUTY TO PROSECUTE 

The mandate of the War Crimes Program is to “…ensure that the Government of Canada has properly addressed all allegations of war crimes…against Canadian citizens…[and]…to ensure that Canada complies with its international obligations…In order to meet this objective, the RCMP, with the support of DOJ [Department of Justice], investigates allegations involving reprehensible acts that could lead to a possible criminal prosecution.”

References

15 See Halimi-Nedzibi v. Australia in which a 15-month delay was adjudged a breach of Article 12 and Blanco Abad v. Spain where a delay of 32 days was held by the CAT Committee to be a breach of CAT Article 12.

16 Criminal Code of Canada, ss. 269, 7(3.7); Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes Act, (2000, c.24) ss. 6(1) (3)

& 8(a) (iii), Geneva Conventions Act, R.S. 1985 c. G-3.

17 RCMP Act, R.S. 1985, c. R-10, s. 18 and Royal Canadian Mounted Police Regulations, 1988, SOR/88-361, s. 17.

18 “[common law] recognizes the existence of a broad conventional or customary duty in the established constabulary as an arm of the State to protect the life, limb and property of the subject.” Shacht v. R. [1973] 1 O.R. 221 at pp. 231-32.

19 Overview of Operations, mandates and Structure, Canada’s Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Program:

http://www.justice.gc.ca/en/ps/wc/oms-ams.html.

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(9)  VINCE BUGLIOSI’S BOOK, “THE PROSECUTION OF GEORGE W. BUSH FOR MURDER”  AND TESTIMONY AT THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE HEARINGS (YOUTUBE)

Excerpt from 28/07/2008:

Vince Bugliosi’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, on YouTube video.   http://watsupjb75.blogspot.com/2008/07/bugliosi.html

Other testimony is available by clicking on the caption under the video:  “For a cross section of the testimonies at the Judiciary Committee Hearings”

Baby boomers will remember Bugliosi’s prosecution of Charles Manson.  I read his book “Helter Skelter” way back then, about the Manson “family” and the murders.

Bugliosi’s testimony before the Judiciary Committee is based on his most recent book, “The Prosecution of George W Bush for Murder”.

Excerpt from the book:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vincent-bugliosi/the-prosecution-of-george_b_102427.html

“Perhaps the most amazing thing to me about the belief of many that George Bush lied to the American public in starting his war with Iraq is that the liberal columnists who have accused him of doing this merely make this point, and then go on to the next paragraph in their columns. Only very infrequently does a columnist add that because of it Bush should be impeached. If the charges are true, of course Bush should have been impeached, convicted, and removed from office. That’s almost too self-evident to state. But he deserves much more than impeachment. I mean, in America, we apparently impeach presidents for having consensual sex outside of marriage and trying to cover it up. If we impeach presidents for that, then if the president takes the country to war on a lie where thousands of American soldiers die horrible, violent deaths and over 100,000 innocent Iraqi civilians, including women and children, even babies are killed, the punishment obviously has to be much, much more severe. That’s just common sense. If Bush were impeached, convicted in the Senate, and removed from office, he’d still be a free man, still be able to wake up in the morning with his cup of coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice and read the morning paper, still travel widely and lead a life of privilege, still belong to his country club and get standing ovations whenever he chose to speak to the Republican faithful. This, for being responsible for over 100,000 horrible deaths?* For anyone interested in true justice, impeachment alone would be a joke for what Bush did.”

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(10)  MESSAGE FROM RAMSAY CLARK, FORMER UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL

I urge you to read the complete text of the MESSAGE FROM RAMSEY CLARK to the protestors of the Bush visit to Calgary.  He is a former United States Attorney General:

Ramsay Clark starts:  “My congratulations and gratitude to Canada’s peace movement and its many organizations and individuals protesting the March 17th, 2009 appearance of former US President George W. Bush for a speech at a private lunch in Calgary.  .

We dare not blink at the magnitude, diversity and pervasive impact of the known crimes committed by the Bush administration.  With unity, cooperation and perseverance, We Shall Overcome, or be undone, together. We dare not fail. … “

(Sept 10, 2009 – unfortunately, the blog is no longer there and I didn’t copy the whole text.)

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(11)  SPANISH JUDGE RESUMES TORTURE CASE AGAINST SIX SENIOR BUSH LAWYERS,  8.9.09

http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2009/09/08/spanish-judge-resumes-torture-case-against-six-senior-bush-lawyers/

Spanish judge resumes torture case against six senior Bush lawyers

8.9.09

 The Spanish newspaper Público reported exclusively on Saturday that Judge Baltasar Garzón is pressing ahead with a case against six senior Bush administration lawyers for implementing torture at Guantánamo.

Back in March, Judge Garzón announced that he was planning to investigate the six prime architects of the Bush administration’s torture policies — former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales; John Yoo, a former lawyer in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, who played a major role in the preparation of the OLC’s notorious “torture memos”; Douglas Feith, the former undersecretary of defense for policy; William J. Haynes II, the Defense Department’s former general counsel; Jay S. Bybee, Yoo’s superior in the OLC, who signed off on the August 2002 “torture memos”; and David Addington, former Vice President Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff.

In April, on the advice of the Spanish Attorney General Cándido Conde-Pumpido, who believes that an American tribunal should judge the case (or dismiss it) before a Spanish court even thinks about becoming involved, prosecutors recommended that Judge Garzón should drop his investigation. As CNN reported, Mr. Conde-Pumpido told reporters that Judge Garzón’s plans threatened to turn the court “into a toy in the hands of people who are trying to do a political action.”

On Saturday, however, Público reported that Judge Garzón had accepted a lawsuit presented by a number of Spanish organizations — the Asociación Pro Dignidad de los Presos y Presas de España (Organization for the Dignity of Spanish Prisoners), Asociación Libre de Abogados (Free Lawyers Association), the Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos de España (Association for Human Rights in Spain) and Izquierda Unida (a left-wing political party) — and three former Guantánamo prisoners (the British residents Jamil El-Banna and Omar Deghayes, and (Link no longer valid) Sami El-Laithi, an Egyptian freed in 2005, who was paralyzed during an incident involving guards at Guantánamo).

The newspaper reported that all these groups and individuals would take part in any trial, which is somewhat ironic, as, although Judge Garzón has been involved in high-profile cases that have delighted human rights advocates — his pursuit of General Pinochet, for example — he has been severely criticized for his heavy-handed approach to terrorism-related cases in Spain (as in the cases of Mohammed Farsi and Farid Hilali, amongst others), and, in fact, aggressively pursued an extradition request for both Jamil El-Banna and Omar Deghayes on their return from Guantánamo to the UK in December 2007, in connection with spurious and long-refuted claims about activities related to terrorism, which he was only persuaded to drop in March 2008.

It is, at present, uncertain whether another attempt to stifle Judge Garzón will derail him from his pursuit of the Bush administration’s lawyers, as he is not known for letting adversaries stand in his way. At the end of June, the Spanish Parliament pointedly passed legislation aimed at “ending the practice of letting its magistrates seek war-crime indictments against officials from any foreign country, including the United States,” on the basis that no Spanish Court should be able to judge officials of foreign countries except when the victims are Spanish or the crimes were committed in Spain.

However, on Sunday, when Público spoke to Philippe Sands, the British lawyer, and author of Torture Team, which provided much of the first-hand evidence for Garzón’s case, Sands explicitly stated that there was “no legal barrier” to prevent Judge Garzón’s prosecution from proceeding. He explained that he believed the recent decision by US Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special investigator to investigate cases of torture by the CIA is related to the Spanish lawsuit and the importance it has acquired because of its instigation by Judge Garzón. Sands told Público, “The recent decision by Eric Holder emphasizes how appropriate the Spanish investigation is. Many commentators believe that this decision has had a significant and direct impact in the United States, reminding people that there is an obligation to investigate torture.”

He added, “Judge Garzón’s actions have acted like a catalyst, and are supported by many people in the United States, including some members of Congress. He has reminded everybody that a blind eye cannot be turned to these actions and that there are people who are not going to let that happen.” He also explained that Eric Holder’s gesture is only a first step, “limited to cases in which interrogators may have exceeded the limits formally approved by lawyers in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel,” that the architects of the “legal decisions that purported to justify the use of torture are not in immediate danger in the United States,” and that there is, therefore, “no legal barrier to the continuation of the Spanish investigation.”

He concluded by stating that it was “important” that Judge Garzón proceeds with the case in Spain, because, although Eric Holder “has confirmed the importance of the Convention Against Torture, he has taken only a first step that “does not really address the actions of those who were truly responsible for its violation.”

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(12)  UPDATE ON THE SPANISH PROSECUTION, OCTOBER 7:  LEGAL COMPLAINT FILED AGAINST BUSH, BLAIR AND OTHERS

Prosecution News

A legal complaint was filed in Spain, October 7, 2009 against Bush, Blair and others for commissioning, condoning and/or perpetuating multiple war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Iraq. http://brusselstribunal.org/

The next step: This complaint will be assigned to one of six investigative judges and that judge will decide whether to “admit” the case for investigation or not.

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(13)  BOOK, THE GUANTANAMO FILES, THE  STORIES OF THE 774 DETAINEES IN AMERICAN’S ILLEGAL PRISON

 Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK).

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(14)  TORTURED LAW, VIDEO FOOTAGE 

To view 10 minute documentary http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJnQbPtgMAU

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(15)  TV PROGRAMME  “LAW & ORDER” MAKES CASE FOR PROSECUTION OF BUSH ADMINISTRATION TORTURERS, OCTOBER 2, 2009

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/oct2009/lawo-o02.shtml

By Patrick Martin
2 October 2009

Last Friday’s season premiere of NBC’s crime drama “Law & Order” was a rarity for American television: an unsparing and essentially honest examination of the crimes being committed by the American government, in the name of the “war on terror.”

The episode is entitled “Memos from the Dark Side,” a reference to Vice President Dick Cheney’s phrase describing US tactics in the “war on terror.” It has the familiar structure of the long-running program: the first half-hour focuses on the police investigation of a murder, the second half-hour on the outcome of the case in court.

The murder victim is an Iraq war veteran, a former guard at the Abu Ghraib prison who participated in the torture-killing of a prisoner and is haunted by it. In a moving video “diary,” not discovered until after his death, he avows, “I didn’t join the service to murder people.”

The veteran is shot down after he confronts a professor at a New York City law school over the professor’s role in drafting the legal memoranda spelling out permissible methods of interrogating prisoners. The professor ultimately confesses to the shooting, claiming self-defense, and a grand jury refuses to indict him.

Sam Waterston in Law & Order: Memos from the Dark Side

It is here that the program takes a sharp political turn. The district attorney, Jack McCoy, played by Sam Waterston, intervenes to propose that the law professor (clearly modeled on former Justice Department attorney John Yoo) be prosecuted on charges of conspiracy, using the fact that the torture memoranda were drafted at the office of the US Attorney in Manhattan to assert local jurisdiction.

“You want to prosecute a member of the Bush administration for assaulting suspected terrorists?” his top assistant district attorney, Michael Cutter (played by Linus Roache), asks incredulously. “The word is torturing,” McCoy replies, “and yes, it’s about time somebody did it.”

When the law professor objects that he can’t be charged with conspiracy without co-conspirators, McCoy extends the case, bringing indictments against the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the former secretary of defense, former vice president Cheney, and others in the chain of command (whether this includes former president Bush is left unstated).

These indictments touch off a political and legal uproar, with countermotions by a battery of lawyers for the prominent defendants and threats to McCoy’s political career, culminating in the intervention of the Obama administration to head off the prosecution of its predecessors.

There are several points at which the executive assistant DA Cutter expresses doubts about the prosecution case, voicing both some sympathy for the right-wing justifications for torture and concern over the political repercussions for McCoy. But he is eventually convinced of the legal basis of the case and serves as lead trial attorney.

At several points during the latter half of the program, the script makes use of verbatim sections of actual documents written by Yoo and other Justice Department torture apologists, including one where the lawyer upholds the right of the president to order a child’s testicles to be crushed to force his parent to talk.

In perhaps the most striking sequence, the author of the torture memos is confronted on the stand with photographs of other famous examples of the brutal treatment of “illegal enemy combatants”—the summary execution of a Vietnamese prisoner on the streets of Saigon by the chief of the US-controlled secret police, and the hanging of Polish resistance fighters by the Nazis during World War II.

The comparison between the methods of the Nazis and the methods of American imperialism does not faze the former Bush aide. He defends not only these atrocities, but even the right of King George III to treat American militiamen in a similar fashion during the Revolutionary War.

The most politically important aspect of the program is not merely its hostility to the Bush administration, however justified, but its portrayal of the Obama administration (although the new president is never mentioned by name).

A Justice Department official and former colleague approaches McCoy to pressure him to abandon the prosecution, pointing out that the attorney general has already begun such an investigation. When McCoy dismisses this—correctly—as targeting only “small fry,” while the decision makers go scot free, the official tells him cynically that it’s all “just politics.”

Later, the same official uses Obama’s own words, declaring, “We’re looking forward, not backward.” When McCoy refuses to cave in, the Justice Department goes to federal court seeking an injunction to suppress the case under the “supremacy clause” of the Constitution. At the end of one hearing, the official sneers at McCoy that he should be careful not to provide “aid and comfort to the enemy.”

This allegation is the staple of all defenders and apologists for the crimes of American imperialism. It is rebutted effectively by the former doubter, Cutter, in his closing argument to the jury. He declares that it is not “treasonable” to question the actions of the government. On the contrary, he tells the jurors, they need to decide what they want the government to be able to do “in your name.”

Whatever the conscious intentions of those who created the program, they have given voice to the growing suspicion and hostility towards the new administration felt by millions of people, many of whom voted for Obama in the hope that the installation of a Democrat in the White House would mean an end to the Bush policies of war and attacks on democratic rights, only to see these policies continued with slightly altered rhetoric.

There has been little notice taken in the American media about the unusually pointed political exposure in the “Law & Order” season premiere. In liberal quarters on the Internet, such as Huffington Post and Salon magazine, the program was highly praised, but with a significant silence on its criticism of the Obama administration.

Salon featured a 10-minute audio interview with head scriptwriter Rene Balcer by Glenn Greenwald, in which not a single question touched on the portrayal of the Obama Justice Department official. While noting Balcer’s use of comments by Cheney, Yoo and other Bush administration officials, Greenwald made no mention of the citation of Obama’s “looking forward, not backward” apologia for allowing Bush administration officials to escape prosecution for ordering and condoning torture and other violations of international law.

Balcer told Greenwald that he was in part motivated to write the episode by anger over the role of some of his Hollywood counterparts at program’s like Fox Television’s “24,” which regularly glorifies torture.

“I was embarrassed by how some in my community of writers and producers on television had irresponsibly embraced torture by having their heroes use it as a supposedly effective means of getting information,” Balcer said, “and how these same writers and producers were peddling lies even in the face of the Defense Department sending experts to talk to them and enlighten them on the realities of torture.”

Perhaps the most politically duplicitous response to the “Law & Order” broadcast came from Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, who posted an extended commentary on Huffington Post hailing the NBC program. “What McCoy understands is that in America, the rule of law applies to everyone. No one is above the law, not even (and some might say especially) the most powerful,” Romero wrote. “In real life, there has yet to be an investigation into the high-level authorization of torture, a crime that has stained the reputation of our nation at home and abroad.”

Romero described the appointment of a special prosecutor by Attorney General Eric Holder as “a good first step and a positive sign,” suggesting that prosecution of higher-level officials could ensue. He then concludes his post by asking, “Now the question is, in real life, will Attorney General Holder rise to the occasion?”

This rhetorical question falsifies the actual position of the Obama administration, since both Holder and Obama have flatly rejected the prosecution of those who authorized torture and wrote the legal apologetics. Only those CIA agents whose abuse of prisoners went beyond the letter of the authorized torture methods face any investigations, and even those are unlikely to face legal sanctions.

Romero made no reference to the broadcast’s actual criticism of the Obama administration, which is portrayed, quite correctly, as opposing prosecution of the Bush administration for fear that its own crimes could be prosecuted by a successor. In context, this is nothing more than an ACLU cover-up for Obama’s right-wing policies. Protecting torturers is fine as long as it is done by a Democratic administration.

)

2009-10-08 Arrest Bush: Letter to Attorney General of Canada

 Freedom of Speech. (Remove some wrong postings from category), George Bush war criminal  No Responses »
Oct 082009
 

(More info at  http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=664 )

 

October 8, 2009

 

FROM:

Sandra Finley

(contact information)

 

TO:

Honourable Robert Nicholson

Attorney General of Canada

Member of Parliament

House of Commons

Parliament Buildings

Ottawa ON

Canada K1A 0A6

 

 

Dear Attorney General Nicholson,

 

 

RE: George Bush in Saskatoon, October 21. Duty to prosecute.

 

 

I request that you will carry out your duty under the rule of law to prosecute George W Bush.

 

Enclosed please find a copy of the letter I have sent to the Commander of Division F of the RCMP (Saskatchewan).

(INSERT:  see http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=664  )

 

I request of him that he carries out his duties under the law to arrest Bush when he comes to Saskatchewan.

 

This is not a political issue, nor a question of whether some people or organizations have an “opinion”.

 

It is a simple matter of whether people are equal before the law.   Do we actually have the rule of law in Canada?

 

Please review the information enclosed. You will find therein sufficient legal grounds to support the arrest and prosecution of George W Bush.  Indeed, given the superiority of the law it is dictated that Bush be arrested, charged and prosecuted.

 

Thank-you.

 

Best wishes,

Sandra Finley

2009-10-07 I want parents to know this about vaccinations, mercury, Rumsfeld, and money devoid of conscience. (Rumsfeld’s connection to Tamiflu)

 Vaccinations (incl corruption of science & govt)  No Responses »
Oct 072009
 

NOTE:   The issue is slow poisoning by mercury that we are putting straight into our bodies; the issue is  not vaccinations and not dental fillings that contain mercury.

2009-07-25 “Vaccinations: Deadly Immunity” by Robert F Kennedy Jr  (Autism)  precedes this posting.  It documents the role of Big Pharma.

The youtube video below shows what happens to neural pathways in the brain when mercury is introduced.    There is also more information on the BigPharma connection and Rumsfeld.

Mercury (ethyl mercury) is introduced when it is used as a preservative in vaccinations.   Mercury from dental amalgams is discussed further in later postings.

The  connection between death and disease caused by mercury in various forms, and other heavy metals, has been known for a very long time.  Mercury is one of the worst.

I am extremely concerned (actually I wonder at some people who knowingly promote vaccinations that contain mercury in any form).

Parents of young children especially should receive the information, for them to make their own assessment about the safety of various vaccinations.   It seems to me that if you do not receive a written guarantee that a vaccine does not contain thimerasol (any kind of mercury) you should not touch it with a ten-foot pole.

Your very best protection against flu viruses is:

– strengthen the immune system.

– be Women Who Run with the Wolves. Don’t be naïve about the money of Big Pharma and its influence in the not-health system.   The ones who thrive and survive are the wary ones.  Gullible ones do not.

I am forwarding this to everyone I know who is associated with the medical profession.  Their only source of information should not be Big Pharma or the government.  Too many of the government regulatory agencies, American and Canadian, serve the interests of the biotech ag and pharmaceutical corporations.

Yesterday there was a report on Fox News, of all places.  See item #1.

I think the cat is out of the bag on the connection between Bush Administration official Donald Rumsfeld, the corporate profits behind the flu vaccine (Big Pharma) and what high-level government officials and biotech pharmaceutical corporations know.  They are afraid of liability lawsuits and so they have tried to keep a lid on the information.

Big Pharma creates fear or a “condition” and then spends millions of dollars on product propaganda.  The following is related to the flu vaccination.   Thank-you for the information on the vaccination against cervical cancer.  I am not going to circulate it.  In my estimation, it is the same story as the flu vaccination.

Many thanks to Gare, to Al and to others for their input.

= = =  = == = = = = = = ==  = =

CONTENTS

(1)  FOX NEWS OCT 6TH, WHY YOU SHOULD NOT VACCINATE YOUR CHILDREN AGAINST THE FLU

(2)  UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY, DEPT OF MEDICINE,  HOW MERCURY CAUSES BRAIN NEURON DEGENERATION

(3)  ROBERT F KENNEDY JR ON LINK BETWEEN VACCINATIONS (THIMERASOL, MERCURY) AND AUTISM.  WHAT THE PHARMACEUTICAL CORPORATIONS AND AMERICAN OFFICIALS KNOW

(4)  PERSPECTIVE ON SWINE FLU, LIKELIHOOD OF DEATH

(5)  DONALD RUMSFIELD’S (BUSH ADMINISTRATION)   FINANCIAL LINK TO THE FLU VACCINE

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

(1)   (Jan 2011:  recommend skip this and go to #2)    FOX NEWS OCT 6TH, WHY YOU SHOULD NOT VACCINATE YOUR CHILDREN AGAINST THE FLU  http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/10/06/Why-You-Should-NOT-Vaccinate-Your-Children-Against-the-Flu-This-Season.aspx

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

(2)  UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY, DEPT OF MEDICINE,  HOW MERCURY CAUSES BRAIN NEURON DEGENERATION

A google of “mercury brain” comes up with this excellent youtube video:    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VImCpWzXJ_w

One of the researchers from the University of Calgary who participated in the research is Dr. Naweed Syed.  I phoned his office in the Departments of Cell Biology / Physiology (Medicine) 403-220-5479, to confirm the authenticity of the video.  His assistant said that he usually gives permission for the video to be used.   Permission received.

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

(3)  ROBERT F KENNEDY JR ON LINK BETWEEN VACCINATIONS (THIMERASOL, MERCURY) AND AUTISM.  WHAT THE PHARMACEUTICAL CORPORATIONS AND AMERICAN OFFICIALS KNOW

Read at  2009-07-25 Originally discussed in email sent 20/04/2005.

If you’ve already read it, skip to (4)  PERSPECTIVE ON SWINE FLU, LIKELIHOOD OF DEATH

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

(4)  PERSPECTIVE ON SWINE FLU, LIKELIHOOD OF DEATH

Hi;

An interesting slant on H1N1.

Take care.

Al

– – – – – – – –

Hi Al,

I did a bit of googling to ensure the Rumsfeld connection.   (See #5)

/Sandra

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VImCpWzXJ_w

perspective on Swine Flu

Who is benefiting from Swine flu?

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

(5)  DONALD RUMSFIELD’S FINANCIAL LINK TO THE FLU VACCINE (BUSH ADMINISTRATION).

http://www.gilead.com/pr_933190157 �

Donald H. Rumsfeld Named Chairman of Gilead Sciences

Foster City, CA — January 3, 1997

Gilead Sciences Inc. (Nasdaq: GILD) today announced that board member Donald H. Rumsfeld will assume the position of Chairman, effective immediately. Mr. Rumsfeld succeeds Michael L. Riordan, M.D., who founded Gilead in 1987 and has served as Chairman since 1993. Dr. Riordan will continue to serve as a director on the board.

“Gilead is fortunate to have had Don Rumsfeld as a stalwart board member since the company’s earliest days, and we are very pleased that he has accepted the Chairmanship,” Dr. Riordan said. “He has played an important role in helping to build and steer the company. His broad experience in leadership positions in both industry and government will serve us well as Gilead continues to build its commercial presence.”

“In my years with Gilead, I have witnessed the evolution of one of the industry’s premier biotechnology companies,” Mr. Rumsfeld said. “Michael Riordan’s founding vision and enormous accomplishments are evident in the VISTIDE® product approval, deep pipeline and talented team that will continue to move Gilead to develop novel treatments for viral diseases.”

Mr. Rumsfeld, who joined Gilead as a director in 1988, is currently in private business and is distinguished for his accomplishments in both industry and government. Mr. Rumsfeld served as chief executive officer of G.D. Searle, a worldwide pharmaceutical company, from 1977 to 1985. During this time, his stewardship of Searle earned him awards as the Outstanding Chief Executive Officer in the pharmaceutical industry in 1980 and 1981. He also served as chairman and chief executive of General Instrument Corporation, a diversified electronics company and world leader in broadband and all digital high definition television technology.

A graduate of Princeton University, Mr. Rumsfeld has served in numerous positions of public service, including four terms in the U.S. Congress, U.S. Ambassador to NATO, White House Chief of Staff and as the 13th Secretary of Defense. In 1977, Mr. Rumsfeld was awarded the nation’s highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In addition to Gilead, Mr. Rumsfeld presently serves as an advisor to several companies and as a member of the board of directors of ABB AB; Gulfstream Aerospace Corp.; Kellogg; Metricom, Inc.; Sears, Roebuck and Co. and Tribune Company. Mr. Rumsfeld’s current civic activities include service on the board of trustees of the Eisenhower Exchange Fellowship, Freedom House and the RAND Corporation.

– – – – – – – —

http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/31/news/newsmakers/fortune_rumsfeld/

Rumsfeld’s growing stake in Tamiflu

Defense Secretary, ex-chairman of flu treatment rights holder, sees portfolio value growing.

October 31, 2005: 10:55 AM EST

By Nelson D. Schwartz, Fortune senior writer

NEW YORK (Fortune) – The prospect of a bird flu outbreak may be panicking people around the globe, but it’s proving to be very good news for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other politically connected investors in Gilead Sciences, the California biotech company that owns the rights to Tamiflu, the influenza remedy that’s now the most-sought after drug in the world.

Rumsfeld served as Gilead (Research)’s chairman from 1997 until he joined the Bush administration in 2001, and he still holds a Gilead stake valued at between $5 million and $25 million, according to federal financial disclosures filed by Rumsfeld.

The forms don’t reveal the exact number of shares Rumsfeld owns, but in the past six months fears of a pandemic and the ensuing scramble for Tamiflu have sent Gilead’s stock from $35 to $47. That’s made the Pentagon chief, already one of the wealthiest members of the Bush cabinet, at least $1 million richer.

Rumsfeld isn’t the only political heavyweight benefiting from demand for Tamiflu, which is manufactured and marketed by Swiss pharma giant Roche. (Gilead receives a royalty from Roche equaling about 10% of sales.) Former Secretary of State George Shultz, who is on Gilead’s board, has sold more than $7 million worth of Gilead since the beginning of 2005.

Another board member is the wife of former California Gov. Pete Wilson.

“I don’t know of any biotech company that’s so politically well-connected,” says analyst Andrew McDonald of Think Equity Partners in San Francisco.

What’s more, the federal government is emerging as one of the world’s biggest customers for Tamiflu. In July, the Pentagon ordered $58 million worth of the treatment for U.S. troops around the world, and Congress is considering a multi-billion dollar purchase. Roche expects 2005 sales for Tamiflu to be about $1 billion, compared with $258 million in 2004.

Rumsfeld recused himself from any decisions involving Gilead when he left Gilead and became Secretary of Defense in early 2001. And late last month, notes a senior Pentagon official, Rumsfeld went even further and had the Pentagon’s general counsel issue additional instructions outlining what he could and could not be involved in if there were an avian flu pandemic and the Pentagon had to respond.

As the flu issue heated up early this year, according to the Pentagon official, Rumsfeld considered unloading his entire Gilead stake and sought the advice of the Department of Justice, the SEC and the federal Office of Government Ethics.

Those agencies didn’t offer an opinion so Rumsfeld consulted a private securities lawyer, who advised him that it was safer to hold on to the stock and be quite public about his recusal rather than sell and run the risk of being accused of trading on insider information, something Rumsfeld doesn’t believe he possesses. So he’s keeping his shares for the time being.

http://www.nowpublic.com/world/tamiflu-scandal-gilead-sciences-donald-rumsfeld-connection

Tamiflu Scandal: Gilead Sciences’ Donald Rumsfeld Connection

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by Tina Kells | May 1, 2009 at 02:02 pm

Tamiflu is being touted as the best way to combat the H1N1 Swine Flu virus which has communities around the world in a pandemic panic, but is there a hidden agenda behind the push?  Tamiflu is only one of two readily available anti-viral medications, yet Relenza isn’t getting the same cure-it attention.

Could the fact that former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has substantial interest in Gilead Sciences, the company that exclusively produces Tamiflu, be part of the reason that Relenza is taking a back seat in the H1N1 Swine Flu treatment plan?

The suggestion of a US government/Tamiflu conflict of interest is not new.  It first surfaced in 2005 when then President George W. Bush pushed for and won $7.1 billion in emergency funding to prepare for an influenza pandemic that was not even yet on the horizon.

George W. Bush pushed for the emergency funding to develop a strategy against a Bird Flu type pandemic in the US, more than 14% of which went to one company, Gilead Sciences, producer of Tamiflu.  Not so scandalous in and of itself until you learn that prior to becoming Defense Secretary Donald Rumsleld was Chairman of the Board of Gilead Sciences, a post he held from 1997 to 2001.

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