The Dominion - diplomacy

Canada's International Cop Out

dawn — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 19:28:20 +0000

Former head of Ontario Provincial Police named Minister of International Co-operation

MONTREAL—On July 4, Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed Julian Fantino, the former head of the Ontario Provincial Police, as his new Minister of International Cooperation. The arrival of an ex-cop at the top of Canada's international development portfolio seems like a fitting symbol for the overall direction of Canadian foreign policy during the Harper government's reign.

A policeman for more than 40 years, Fantino rose steadily through the ranks, serving first as chief of police in London, Ontario, then the former York Region, and later Toronto, before being named as the Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner in 2006. Fantino's career then went political, and he was elected the Member of Parliament for Vaughn in November, 2010, and was re-elected in May, 2011.

Throughout his career, Fantino has been involved in a considerable number of controversies. Perhaps most famously, Fantino oversaw the harsh repression of Toronto residents and anti-G20 protesters in the Ontario capital city in June of 2010.

Enzo DiMatteo, associate news editor at Now Magazine, covered Fantino's career for over more than 20 years, and coined the term "the OPP's top dick" to describe the province's former head cop.

"When you think of Julian Fantino you have to understand that there wasn't a microphone that he didn't like. He was constantly in the spotlight," DiMatteo told The Dominion. "He was very much his own man, very much did his own thing, very much didn't really care about civilian oversight… He was viewed as a bit of a cop's cop, but I think he was just a stubborn fellow who really didn't have much time for anybody's point of view, other than his own, quite frankly."

The new International Cooperation minister hasn't always placed cooperation at the forefront, especially when it pertains to cops killing civilians. Fantino's name is on the docket of a case expected to appear before the Supreme Court of Canada in 2013, regarding how police take notes at crime scenes. The families of Levi Shaeffer and Douglas Minty, both of whom were killed by officers during Fantino's days as top dick at the OPP, have used the courts to try and prevent police from having their crime scene notes vetted by lawyers before they're written.

Rachelle Sauve, from the Coalition Justice for Levi campaign, agrees with DiMatteo's description.

"The modus operandi of a man who is very much a police officer, and who...has gotten very comfortable with a certain level of impunity that he still gets to act out [in] moving away from that old role, leaves me in a very uncomfortable feeling position regarding what sort of aid and development we are going to bring through CIDA while he is in office," Sauve told The Dominion.

Nation-to-nation relations have not been Fantino's strongest suit. Fantino's fame as a bully exploded with the release of wiretapped conversations between himself and Mohawk activist Shawn Brant in 2007.

In the spring and summer of that year, when Mohawks at Tyendinaga repeatedly blocked CN Rail lines, Fantino called Brant to let him know what his future would hold if he continued to work with his community to defend the land.

"And you know what I don’t wanna I don’t wanna get on your bad side but you’re gonna force me to do everything I can within your community and everywhere else to destroy your reputation," Fantino told Brant in a phone conversation which was illegally recorded by the OPP. Fantino later claimed he was unaware the line was tapped. Their conversation, which was later published by the CBC, continued:

Julian Fantino: You know if you pull this off I’m liable to say that your your issues are are are are critical and they’re important and and I’ll speak to that but uh if you don’t then I’m gonna go the other way and I’m gonna say that you’re just destroying and you’re abusing you’re using the people and you’re you’re actually being a mercenary about it using the suicide of children and all those those legitimate uh issues and you don’t want that because I think I can I can I can play the media routine like you do

Shawn Brant: Hey Mister Fantino uh

Julian Fantino: Right

Shawn Brant: I I put two of my own babies in the ground um

Julian Fantino: I’m sorry

Far from his checkered past of politicized police raids in poor communities, and threats of ruining the reputation of activists, Fantino's first statement as Minister of International Cooperation aimed for a kinder, gentler message.

"I look forward to continuing the good work already done by CIDA around the world," said the newly-appointed minister. "In particular the efforts to save the lives of mothers, children, and newborns as part of Canada's Muskoka Initiative."

The first male to hold the position since Don Boudria left his post in 1997, Fantino will oversee an international cooperation ministry with a growing emphasis on policing and police training.

"Maybe it's fitting that we have a police officer—a former police officer—running the aid agency now, kind of playing the good cop to the military's bad cop as far as global order is concerned," said Nik Barry-Shaw, who co-authored a recent book on Canadian non-governmental organizations titled Paved with Good Intentions. "One of the kind of rough titles that we had for the book was...Good Cops of Global Capitalism. That's kind of the role, putting the human face on things that are fundamentally pretty ugly."

Canada is deeply involved with police training around the world, but it is the RCMP's ongoing role in training Haitian police forces has come under perhaps the most intense public scrutiny.

"A large part of what was...listed as aid to Haiti was in fact funding for police training in Haiti, and that was done with RCMP officers who were down there to train their Haitian counterparts in the arts of close quarter combats," Barry-Shaw told The Dominion.

RCMP training of Haitian police was happening at a time when there were regular raids of neighbourhoods that supported deposed president Jean Bertrand Aristide. Some of these raids ended in civilian massacres carried out by police. More recently, the RCMP have become involved in training Mexican police.

Fantino's appointment followed the announcement of former Minister of International Cooperation Bev Oda's resignation. Oda will leave her post as MP of Durham, Ontario, on July 31.

Dawn Paley is a freelance journalist. Follow her on Twitter @dawn_.

Fantino

Genetically Modified Diplomacy

Mon, 30 Oct 2006 16:12:52 +0000

Canada's International Biotech Agenda

Critics argue that government is being influenced by large biotech corporations and regulatory norms in the US. photo: Jessica Bray

According to several observers, Canada's diplomatic maneuvers at the UN and WTO could weaken international environmental law and accelerate the spread of unpopular genetically-modified organisms around the world.

In 2003, Canada, along with the US and Argentina, initiated proceedings at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to challenge the European Community's (EC) ban on Genetically-Modified Organisms (GMOs). On September 29 of this year, the WTO declared the EC's GMO regulations illegal and instructed it to modify its laws accordingly.

"Although politicians claim that environmental law and trade law support each other, this ruling demonstrates that in the hands of the WTO, environmental law is in fact made subservient to trade laws," said Duncan Currie, international law expert and author of a Greenpeace assessment of the WTO case. Canada was the first industrialized country to ratify the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity, which was first agreed to at the UN Earth Summit in 1992 and reaffirmed in 2002. The Convention includes the Biosafety Protocol, which regulates the movement of GMOs across borders.

"The ruling contradicts what heads of state agreed at the UN World Summit," said Currie.

The WTO ruled that the precautionary principle, a mainstay of international environmental law, was too controversial and unsettled a concept to be a general principle of law. The precautionary principle states that if the potential consequences of an action are severe or irreversible, in the absence of full scientific certainty, the burden of proof falls on those who would advocate taking the action.

"If taken as precedent," writes Canadian law firm McCarthy Tétrault, "this position could affect the regulation of many other industries." McCarthy Tétrault gives the example of the EC's draft rules for testing the effects of certain industrial chemicals for public health consequences. "If those rules incorporate the precautionary principle, any resulting restrictions could be challenged for not being based on hard scientific evidence."

"This ruling is important," says Howard Minigh, former vice-president of DuPont and [current?] president of Brussels-based CropLife International, which represents biotech companies. "Regulations based on political expediency and excessive precaution encouraged by propaganda from anti-biotech groups" put producers of farm goods at a disadvantage, he says.

The Canadian government claims that its domestic GMO testing system is foolproof and that Canadian-approved GMO products are safe. A review of decisions by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency shows that all 61 applications for GMO animal-feed products were approved. Agriculture Canada has also approved 89 GMO food products for human consumption.

Are Canada's regulations for GMOs safe? GMOs are not labeled, and thus difficult to test, but according to Dr. Joe Cummins, "there has been a large increase in food allergy and food-related illness after the GM foods were spread around North American markets."

"In Canada," said Cummins, who is a member of the UK-based Independent Science Panel and an emeritus professor of genetics at the University of Western Ontario, "most processed foods contain GM corn, soy or canola products."

"Even though it is not possible to do good science of the unlabelled foods, laboratory animal studies showed a range of adverse effects from allergy, inflammation or pre-cancerous lesion of the digestive system. Such studies are ignored by the Canadian government but they are well documented."

A 2004 report by the Polaris Institute looked at the 58 recommendations to protect public health by the Royal Society's 2001 Expert Panel on the Future of Food Biotechnology. The report found that while some progress has been made, there is still a great deal that needs to be done before Canadians have a precautionary regulatory system to protect their families and the environment from the risks of GMOs.

"It appears to me that the government has been unduly influenced by large biotech corporations and the regulatory norms in place south of the border," said Dr. Peter Andree, author of the Polaris report. "As a result, in general I think it is fair to say that Canadian regulators do not recognize the potential severity of the risks of products of biotechnology, or the value of a more precautionary response to those risks."

In the meantime, the Canadian government is campaigning to open the world market to GMOs, including the 'Terminator' gene. Terminator seeds are genetically engineered to result in crops that don't grow viable seeds. Farmers who use the Terminator seeds cannot save seeds from their crops and are forced to buy new seeds. There is a currently an international moratorium on the use and marketing of Terminator seeds.

"Terminator seeds are a weapon of mass destruction and an assault on our food sovereignty," said Viviana Figueroa of the Ocumazo indigenous community in Argentina on behalf of the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity.

"Terminator [technology] directly threatens our life, our culture and our identity as indigenous peoples."

In 2005, a leaked report obtained by the ETC Group indicated that Canadian diplomats were heading to a Convention on Biodiversity meeting with instruction to "block consensus" in order to help lift the moratorium.

The Canadian government was swamped with letters of protest from around the world and references to the Terminator were deleted in the official text after strong objections from other countries.

"This is a momentous day for the 1.4 billion poor people worldwide, who depend on farmer-saved seeds," Francisca Rodriguez of La Via Campesina, a global network of peasant farmers, said of the decision.

In spite of the international outcry, Pat Mooney of ETC Group noted that Canada continued to support Terminator technology at the last Biodiversity Convention meeting in Curitiba, Brazil, in 2006, but in a "low-key way."

"In the end," continues Mooney, "efforts by Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the USA were blocked by the EU and developing countries and the Convention on Biodiversity ultimately strengthened its moratorium against Terminator."

"We nevertheless have the impression that Canada will continue to push for Terminator both in trees and crops."

Canada is also using its international aid program to spread biotech.

Through the Canadian International Development Agency, Canada is developing a biosciences centre for East and Central Africa, as one of four "agricultural centres of excellence" being developed around Africa, with an estimated cost of over $30 million. The United States is expected to build a centre in North Africa; the UK will build one in South Africa, and France; one in West Africa.

"It is clear from the information we have gathered," said Mooney, "that BECA is being built to promote agricultural biotechnology."

The WTO decision will open up new markets for Canadian biotech, an industry with annual revenues of $5 billion and an annual research expenditure of $3 billion.

Yuill Herbert examines Canada's international biotech agenda and the government's most recent GM 'victory.'

Recognition and little else

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 10:27:46 +0000

Canada's Anti-Venezuela Diplomacy

Venezuela is vying for a seat on the UN Security Council. photo: UN

Since Venezuela elected a government led by Hugo Chavez in 1998, the South American country has frequently been on the receiving end of US-backed attempts to destabilize its government. Some say Canada has tacitly or openly supported the US campaign to replace the government of Venezuela.

In January of 2005, Foreign Affairs officials invited Maria Corina Machado to Ottawa. "While the Government of Canada recognizes the legitimacy of the democratically elected government of Venezuela," the invitation explained, "Súmate's visit to Canada will provide a useful opportunity to hear about the human rights situation in Venezuela from a different perspective."

Why was it necessary to note Canada's recognition of Venezuela's government? Machado is the head of Súmate, an organization that is nominally an NGO, but has been at the forefront of anti-Chavez political campaigns. The NDP has called on the government to invite Chavez for an official visit, but the president was passed over in favour of the leader of the US-funded opposition group.

Súmate was most recently at the head of an unsuccessful campaign to recall Chavez through a referendum. Before that, however, Machado's name appeared on a list of people endorsing a 2002 military coup that took Chavez prisoner and imposed a new, unelected government in Venezuela. The coup only lasted two days, before popular demonstrations and a split within the army forced the return of the elected government. But, that proved time enough to incur strong condemnation of the coup frommost Latin American and Caribbean countries -- and for the US to announce its recognition of the short-lived government. Canadian diplomats were silent.

Now, Machado faces charges of treason; if convicted, she could spend as long as 28 years in prison for her involvement in the coup. She denies signing the now-infamous Carmona Decree, which suspended the elected government, and annulled land reforms and increases in royalties paid by oil companies passed by the Chavez-led government. Machado now claims she only visited the presidential palace during the coup and entered her name on a sign-in sheet.

Súmate receives as much as six per cent of its funding from the National Endowment for Democracy, an arm's-length satellite of the US State Department and USAID.

Canada has also supported Súmate.

According to disclosures made in response to a question by NDP Foreign Affairs critic Alexa Mcdonnough, Canada gave Súmate $22,000 in 2005-06. Minister of International Co-operation Jose Verner explained that "Canada considered Súmate to be an experienced NGO with the capability to promote respect for democracy, particularly a free and fair electoral process in Venezuela."

After meeting with NGOs, officials and members of Parliament in Canada, Machado went south, where she was granted an hour-long meeting with George W. Bush and met with other officials and NGOs.

Canada has also taken sides in the diplomatic row between the US and Venezuela over the Western Hemisphere Security Council seat vacated by Argentina. The US is backing Guatemala, while Venezuela is seen as a protest vote by developing countries fed up with US policy.

Some observers have called the US backing of Guatemala a bizarre choice, given the country's dismal human rights record. Before voting began on October 16, 90 NGOs from Guatemala sent a letter to members of the UN General Assembly opposing Guatemala's candidacy.

"Guatemala has allowed, and occasionally has contributed to, the deterioration of the situation of human rights and the proliferation of violence, again making these issues a matter of profound concern for the international community," the letter read.

A second letter, signed by Guatemalan human rights groups and two hundred prominent figures, explained that "little has been done to combat impunity and strengthen the judicial system to prevent the reoccurrence of genocide, crimes against humanity and serious human rights violations carried out during the conflict."

US diplomats have been pushing other countries hard to vote for Guatemala. Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, for example, announced in early October that Chile would vote for Venezuela. After pressure from Washington, Chile backed off, deciding to abstain in the charged Security Council vote. The Los Angeles Times reported that the US had sold fighter jets to Chile, but Chilean pilots "will not be trained to fly them if the government supports Venezuela's bid." Evidence points to similar diplomatic pressure in other countries that might consider voting for Venezuela.

In the face of this pressure, many governments have continued to support Venezuela. The 15-member Caribbean Community, for example, has thrown its support and 14 General Assembly votes to Venezuela.

What would a Venezuelan Security Council seat mean? According to Venezuela's UN ambassador, it would give impoverished nations "an independent voice needed on the Security Council to fight against the power of money."

While Venezuela would not be able to veto any resolutions, it would have an effective platform from which to criticize US interventions in places like Iran, Iraq, Korea and Israel. Given the myriad of double standards enshrined in US foreign policy on human rights standards, war crimes, possession and use of weapons of mass destruction and violations of sovereignty, Venezuelan diplomats would not lack opportunities to embarrass the US.

By contrast, no observers are suggesting that Guatemala would be a critical voice. Given a lack of awareness of Canadian diplomacy inside Canada, and taking into account American pressure, that makes the small Central American country a safer place for Canada to place its support, for the moment.

Critics say Canada has tacitly or openly supported the US campaign to replace the government of Venezuela. Yves Engler asks why.

Canada's Drift on Israel

Tue, 12 Sep 2006 03:49:55 +0000

From abstention to unconditional support

Allan Rock at the United Nations. photo: DFAIR

In December 2004, under the Martin Liberal government, Canada changed its voting pattern at the United Nations. Previously, Canada had abstained from several votes requiring Israel to comply with its obligations under international law and withdraw from the territories it occupied in 1967. The Ambassador at the time, Allan Rock, said that the "value added" of the committees trying to put Palestinian rights on the agenda at the UN was "questionable." Canada began to vote against these resolutions.

Well before this, in October 2003, the UN Special Rapporteur for Food found that 22 per cent of children in Gaza were starving as a direct result of Israel's siege policy: Gaza had long been surrounded by electric fences, its population of 1.25 million imprisoned, and its economy shut down. Unemployment was nearly total; poverty was at 75 per cent. The UN Special Rapporteur's findings were confirmed by the World Bank and by USAID. All understood that the starvation was a direct result of the closures. By 2006, the World Food Program was reporting that 51 per cent of Palestinians – 2 million people – were malnourished.

In addition to the starvation and siege, Israeli warships, snipers, and planes continued to attack Palestinians in Gaza and in the West Bank.

Between the October 2003 report of the UN and the December 2004 decision by the Martin government, there had passed over a year of unabated starvation and siege. According to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society's figures, Israel had killed over 1000 Palestinians in this same period.

Since Canada changed its voting pattern in 2004, three key events occurred that have changed the Canada-Israel relationship even further.

First, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon implemented his 'unilateral disengagement plan'. Under this plan, Israeli settlers who lived in Israeli-only colonies in Gaza were evacuated. Billed as a peace maneuver and a painful sacrifice for the colonists, the "disengagement" did not give the Palestinians of Gaza any freedom of movement, nor did it prevent Israel from continuing its shelling, bombing, siege, and starvation.

Second, the Martin government fell and was replaced by the Harper Tories. Like their counterparts in the US, they sought to distinguish themselves from the Liberals by more aggressively supporting Israel's violence against the Palestinians. Because the Liberals had already come so far so fast in the same direction, the Tories had to shift the spectrum even further.

Third, Palestinians held a democratic election. The result of this fair election was the party that prioritized resistance (Hamas) defeated the party (Fatah) that had been roped into a perpetual "dialogue" with a state that simultaneously starved, bombed, and imprisoned its people. The response of Canada, under Harper, to this democratic result was to cut aid to the starving and besieged Palestinians. Harper was following senior advisor to Ariel Sharon, Dov Weisglass, who announced a plan to "put Palestinians on a diet." In addition to putting Palestinians on a diet, Israel maintained a campaign of escalating massacres, including the major massacre of an entire family of 7 on a beach in Gaza on June 9, another major massacre on June 13 (11 people), another on June 20 (3 children), and yet another on June 21 (a pregnant woman and her brother).

A central issue for Hamas is the Palestinian prisoners. Some 9 000, including 400 children and 100 women, are locked up in Israeli prisons. Among those who have been tried (at least 1 000 have never been charged for any crime), many were convicted on confessions extracted by torture conducted by their Israeli captors. Israel forces periodically kidnap Palestinians in different parts of the Palestinian territory. Such a kidnapping precipitated the ongoing crisis in the region. On June 24, Israeli commandos kidnapped two Palestinian civilians. On June 25, Palestinians attacked a military outpost, killing two soldiers, losing two of their own, and taking a tank gunner prisoner. Hamas said it would release the tank gunner in exchange for the 400 children and 100 women being held in prison.

When Israel instead launched air raids, destroyed Gaza's power plant, and invaded the area with thousands of troops, Harper said he thought Israel's response, "under the circumstances," was "measured."

On July 12, the Lebanese group Hizb'ullah captured several Israeli soldiers on the Israel-Lebanon border. Hizb'ullah, like Hamas, sought a prisoner exchange. Some analysts have said that the operation may have been intended to take some of the military pressure off of Gaza, since the 'international community' had remained silent, called for 'restraint' like Kofi Annan, or, like Harper, endorsed the Gaza invasion.

Israel responded by invading Lebanon, destroying its airports, roads, factories, homes, displacing over a million people, and killing over 1 000, including eight Canadian citizens and a Canadian UN monitor. In the Palestinian territories, Israel killed about 55 Palestinians in June and 162 in July. Hizb'ullah used rockets to attack Israeli military installations and towns, killing dozens of Israeli civilians, though most of the Israeli dead in the war were soldiers. Most of the Lebanese dead, by contrast, were civilians – a high proportion of whom were children. Harper's Foreign Minister, Peter MacKay, assessed this situation as follows: Hizb'ullah were 'cold blooded killers' and a 'cancer on Lebanon.'

A long-standing campaign by groups like the Canadian Council of Chief Executives calling for a Canadian foreign policy more closely aligned with that of the United States began to bear fruit with the Martin Liberal government, and is rapidly finding its completion in Stephen Harper's administration. Canada's continuous drift towards unambiguous support for Israeli actions in the Occupied Territories reflects the pressure put on politicians for a pro-US foreign policy in general and a pro-Israel foreign policy in particular.

This drift in Canada's foreign policy is unlikely to stop, barring the effective mobilization of forces that will oppose it. Recent polls suggest that Canada's "neutrality" in the region is valued by its citizenry; whether a position that actively opposes war crimes and policies of economic strangulation is similarly popular is not known, as the question is usually not asked.

Justin Podur traces the shift of Canada's foreign policy in the Middle East.

Harper congratulates Calderón while election results disputed

Mon, 10 Jul 2006 23:03:05 +0000

Ballots from precincts showing strong support for López Obrador were found in a garbage dump on Tuesday. photo: El Universal

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper called Mexican presidential candidate Felipe Calderón to congratulate him on his victory on Friday. Harper joins George Bush and Spanish Prime Minister Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in recognizing the reported election results, which have been the focus of a major controversy in Mexico.

According to Mexican law, however, Calderón cannot be declared the winner until allegations of election fraud are investigated.

On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated in Mexico City over increasing evidence of election fraud. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a centre-left candidate who was polling a few points ahead of Calderón as Mexico went to the polls, has called for a full recount of votes in 43,000 precincts where his campaign says there has been evidence of fraud.

According to The New York Times, López Obrador has objected to the recognition of Calderón by governments in the US, Spain and Canada.

The Times reported that Obrador said that recognition from Harper and others "is all part of a strategy by Mr. Calderón to end a process that was not yet over."

On Tuesday, reports surfaced that an unknown number of ballots were found in a garbage dump. The Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), the body responsible for counting votes, has changed its story. According to reports in The Narco News Bulletin, the IFE stated that 98.5 per cent of the votes had been counted, when in fact 3.3 million votes had been missing from that tally. When the 3.3 million votes resurfaced, Calderón's lead had diminished from 377,000 votes to 257,000.

Critics have also alleged a pattern of vote shaving across Mexico's 130,000 precincts, and question the status of an estimated 900,000 "nullified" votes, which are counted as spoiled ballots.

Meanwhile, Mexican TV stations have refused to release the results of exit polls taken during the election to the public. Exit polls are frequently used by neutral election observers as a way to judge the accuracy of vote counts.

According to observers across the political spectrum, Mexico's political stability and civil order is hanging in the balance. If the public is not satisfied that the results reflect the vote, many fear widespread rioting, and a shutdown of key infrastructure. Major demonstrations are expected in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, The Narco News reports that, "outraged citizens armed with video cameras have besieged the 300 recount locales demanding an actual ballot-by-ballot recount."

In 1988, the founder of López Obrador's leftist party, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, lost to Carlos Salinas by one per cent of the vote--according to the official results. Thousands of Mexicans saw the result for what history would show it to be: a massive fraud, accomplished by discarding thousands of ballots. The result was enforced violently; armed forces met popular demonstrations in the streets, and 500 supporters of Cárdenas' (now Obrador's) party were killed between 1988 and 1991.

So far, the current government, the IFE and Calderón's supporters have opposed a recount.

Dru Oja Jay

» New York Times: Leftist Candidate of Mexican Elections Claims Fraud

» Narco News: In Mexico, 2.5 Million Missing Votes Reappear: López Obrador Reduces Calderón's Official Margin to 0.6 percent

» Narco News: A Full Recount Would Show that López Obrador Won Mexico's Presidency by More than One Million Votes

» Narco News: The Ominous Shadow of 1988 Hovers Over this July's Mexican Presidential Election

» CBC: Huge crowd protests Mexican election results

» Associated Press: Mexico's Calderon asks for unity while call to protest expands nationwide

» Bloomberg: Calderon Seeks Alliances in Mexico as Opponents Challenge Vote

Canada helps weaken 'Terminator' seed policy

Tue, 21 Feb 2006 19:59:17 +0000

On January 27, at a meeting of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Granada, Spain, the international community agreed to allow experimentation with Genetic Use Restriction Technology (GURT), also known as "Terminator" technology. "GURT" is an umbrella term referring to genetic enhancement technology that produces plant varieties with sterile seeds at harvest. There are two classes of GURT:

1. V-GURT, which are sterile seeds. This technology would oblige farmers to buy seeds from their manufacturer on an annual basis.
2. T-GURT, which are crops modified in such a way that they must be treated with a chemical that is sold by the biotechnology company, in order for them to grow. Farmers can save seeds for use each year, but must buy and use the activator compound annually.

Canada, together with Australia and New Zealand, successfully pushed for the change in international GURT policy. Canada previously attempted to convince the CBD to permit the use of GURTs in February 2005, but failed, partly as the result of a leaked document which mobilized international opposition from civil society.

While the move doesn't lift the current ban on commercial use of Terminator seeds, opponents of Terminator technology see allowing experimentation as a step in that direction. According to a press release jointly written by the Ban Terminator Campaign and the Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration (ETC group), "Not only did the meeting fail to condemn Terminator as immoral and anti-farmer, Australia and the United States falsely claimed that Terminator, which creates sterility, would 'increase productivity.'"

Even under experimental conditions, GURT plant varieties could pass on sterility -- the "Terminator" or "suicide" trait -- to wild plants, or to non-GURT cultivated plants. Tests will take place in large-scale, outdoor agro-laboratories, meaning that surrounding ecosystems will be at risk of contamination.

Used commercially, critics argue that GURTs will imperil the global seed supply, contribute to the homogenization of the food supply, and threaten biodiversity in natural ecosystems. Indigenous peoples' rights to food sovereignty and self-determination are also threatened by GURTs, since socio-economic and cultural welfare is inextricably linked to environmental security. More specifically, as stated in a 2003 study performed by an Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group (AHTEG) assembled by the UN, negative impacts of Terminator technology include: the decimation of local, small-scale, and indigenous farming practices, systems and knowledge, together with their socio-cultural dimensions; seed dependency, crop failure, loss of agro-biodiversity; unpredictable, uncontrollable, irreversible changes in the environment and the devastation of ecosystems.

According to close observers like the ETC group, the Canadian government is bowing to pressure from the powerful biotechnology and agribusiness lobby, which sees GURTs as a way to extract unprecedented profits by completely privatizing plant varieties on which the majority of the world's population depends for survival.

According to ecofeminist biologist Dr. Vandana Shiva, "Termination of germination is a means for capital accumulation and market expansion…abundance in nature and for farmers shrinks as markets grow for Monsanto [a biotechnology corporation notorious for patenting seeds used in the majority world, and the innovator of Terminator technology]…There can be no partnership between a logic of death on which Monsanto bases its expanding empire and the logic of life on which women farmers in the Third World base their partnership with the earth to provide food security to their families and communities."

Canadian Official Told to "Block Consensus" on Terminator Gene Moratorium

Tue, 22 Feb 2005 20:33:03 +0000

According to documents leaked to the press, Canadian officials were instructed to initiate a lift on the de facto international moratorium on "terminator gene" technology and "block consensus" on any other option at a UN meeting on biological diversity earlier this month.

"Genetic Use Restriction Technologies" produce genetically modified crops that are sterile, thus making it impossible for farmers to save any seed.

Opponents call it a "recipe for starvation" and an attempt for corporations to tighten their control over the world's food supply. Supporters say it is a way for corporations to protect their intellectual property.

Canadian observers were surprised by their government's stand. In a letter demanding that Canada support the moratorium, the National Farmers' Union called terminator crops "the most controversial and immoral agricultural application of genetic engineering to date."

"It was a complete surprise to see this coming from Canada," Jim Thomas of the Toronto-based ETC Group was quoted as saying. "Canada's proposal could easily have been mistaken for one written by Monsanto."

Canadian Food Inspection Agency official Stephen Yarrow denied that the government was "pushing the technology," and said they were upset at the characterization. Yarrow explained that the technology needed more testing before an all-out ban could be justified.

In the end, Canada's efforts were unsuccessful, and the moratorium remained in place.

The leaked documents were reported in Europe by the Guardian but were not mentioned the Canadian media. The revelations did raise concerns in internet discussion groups on both sides of the political spectrum, however. One comment on the conservative Free Dominion website said, "We're selling starvation, aren't we?... this is sick." Comments on the left-leaning Rabble.ca chastised the CBC and other media for not covering the scandal.

The leaked documents are available on the ETC Group web site (etcgroup.org).

» Guardian: Canada backs terminator seeds

» Inter Press: Ban Endures On Terminator Seeds

» ETC Group: Canadian Government to Unleash Terminator Bombshell at UN Meeting: All-out push for commercialisation of Sterile Seed Technology

» Scoop (New Zealand): Maori Party Appalled At Support Of Terminator Tech

» Rabble.ca discussion: Topic: Canada to back terminator technology at the UN

» Free Dominion Discussion: Canadian Government to Unleash Terminator Bombshell at UN Meeting: All-out push for commercialisation of Sterile Seed Technology