Letters, soup and bread tomorrow, saturday dec. 2, 6PM; Terminator and UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

[Alon]

Hi folks,

You are invited to come over for a 'citizen saturday' - a chance
to colletively discuss and write letters to elected officials
or media on relevant 'national'issues....

tomorrow, saturday dec. 2, alana & alon's place, 41 Evanson St, main floor. 6PM, potluck. Soup and bread will be provided.

The issues at hand are Canada's support for Terminator seeds and its opposition to the Declaration on the Rights of INdigenous Peoples. Please bring something to share, a pen, some paper, envelopes and stamps, but we will have some of the latter on hand, so don't worry if you don't have any available. There will be a presentation on each issue followed by some time to write. Addresses provided. The issuesin more detail are:

1)This december 7th, the Canadian Agri and Agri food policy House of
Commons committee will be meeting to have a hearing on Terminator
technology.  Terminator is the name
 for transgenic seeds that 
can no longer reproduce after their first year.  This breaks
the cycle of life that has gone on for centuries through
farmers saving their seeds.   Terminator was developed and patented
by the US Dept. of Ag. and a company called Delta & Pine
Land.   This company was just recently bought by Monsanto, world
giant in GMOs and chemicals, suer of farmer Percy Schmeiser,
landlord extraordinaire of the new feudal system.
For some time now there has been a moratorium globally on 
Terminator technology, but now the Canadian government, dating back
to last year,
 has been trying to support its introduction and
end the moratorium.  Let's let the House committee know Canadians
are watching, and not impressed.  See http://www.etcgroup.org/en/issues/terminator_traitor.html
also http://www.banterminator.org/ plus articles below...

2)The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has 
been taken off the agenda at the UN, blocked by countries
like Canada and Russia, who voted against it in the UN Human
Rights Council, which otherwise supported it with some abstentions.
It is too late to affect a vote at the UN, but perhaps some protest
to the foreign minister and the Canadian ambassador to the UN
is in order....see article immediately below.

If you cannot make, please write a letter regardless...
Alon

http://mostlywater.org/inaction_on_declaration_on_the_rights_of_indigenous_peoples_inexcusable

Inaction on Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Inexcusable

2006-11-29 04:39. Indigenous | International

November
 28, 2006

First Nations Leadership Council Troubled By Today's Vote at the United
Nations

Inaction on Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Inexcusable

Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver BC - After two decades of discussion 
and development, the slow pace of approval of the United Nations 
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples came to a halt today at the current 
session of the UN General Assembly in New York. A resolution put forward by the
Namibian delegation - in effect, a non-action motion on the Declaration 
-
was supported by a majority with
82
 Nation States voting in favour, 67 Nation States voting not in 
favour and 25 Nation States abstaining.

Grand Chief Ed John, First Nations Summit Executive member, who is in 
New York on behalf of the Assembly of First Nations and working with the
Indigenous Peoples' Caucus, stated "Today is a very sad day for the 
United Nations and a very
 serious setback for the integrity of the newly 
formed Human Rights Council who urged the General Assembly to formally adopt 
this historic document. It now appears that the most likely outcome will be 
that the United Nations never formally adopts the Declaration. This is a
remarkable and bizarre development."

"Canada was positioned to play a significant role in supporting the
Declaration but Canada chose to actively oppose the Declaration as a 
member of the Human Rights Council and at the General Assembly," commented BC
Assembly of First Nations Regional Chief Shawn Atleo. "We share
 the 
deep frustration of all those who worked long and hard to get the 
Declaration to this point. We sincerely hope that the Declaration is not lost and that 
we can find a way in which to revitalize this important work."

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, President of the Union of BC Indian 
Chiefs, stated "Canada no longer enjoys a 'blue beret'
 reputation at the United
Nations. Canada's disgraceful and disgusting conduct against Indigenous
People at both the national and international levels is being noted. It 
is simply shameful that as a Council member of the Human Rights Council, 
Canada pretends to espouse the highest standards and protection of Human 
Rights. It is those countries who have lived with the ravages of colonialism now 
speak for continuing colonialism for all Indigenous Peoples."

The Declaration was adopted by the UN Human Rights Council this past 
June and was recommended for adoption by the General
 Assembly. Canada was 
one of few countries to vote against the Declaration in June.

- 30 -

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, Union of BC
Indian Chiefs, (250) 490-5314 Colin Braker, First Nations Summit, (604)
926-9903 or (604) 328-4094 Heather Gillies, BC Assembly of First
 
Nations,

*********
CRITICAL UPDATE / ACTION ALERT
Issued: Nov 21, 2006

TAKE ACTION BEFORE DECEMBER 7!

Tell your Member of Parliament to support a Ban on Terminator Seeds in 
Canada!

On December 7th 2006 the House of Commons Agriculture and Agri-Food 
Committee will hold a one-hour hearing on Terminator technology.

WRITE to your Member of Parliament and the Minister of Agriculture 
before Dec 7th.

In March 2006 and February 2005, your letters stopped the Canadian 
government from acting to end the international moratorium on 
Terminator (“suicide seeds”) at the
 United Nations Convention on 
Biological Diversity. In March, the Canadian delegation to the UN 
meeting did not object to the reaffirmation and strengthening of the 
moratorium. Yet, our government supported the moratorium without 
actually stating a position on Terminator. Now we find out that the 
Canadian
 Food Inspection Agency is preparing the road for
 approval of 
Terminator!

DEMAND that the Canadian Government state its unqualified opposition to 
this dangerous technology and take immediate steps to legislate a ban 
on field-testing and commercialization in Canada.

Terminator or Genetic Use Restriction Technology (GURTs) is a 
technology of genetic engineering designed by the multinational seed 
industry to render seeds sterile after first harvest, thus preventing 
farmers from saving and re-using seed, forcing them to return to 
corporations to buy seed every season. This predatory strategy has been
 
widely condemned, in Canada and across the world, because it threatens 
farmer livelihoods, food security, and agricultural biodiversity. And 
yet, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency continues to prepare for the 
potential introduction of Terminator seeds and there is no policy in 
Canada to address the devastating
 impacts Terminator would have on 
farmers’
 livelihoods.

UPDATES:
• In August 2006, Monsanto announced that it will buy US seed company 
Delta & Pine Land. If the deal goes through, Monsanto will own the most 
advanced research on Terminator including the only greenhouse trials of 
Terminator seeds in the world. (Monsanto previously committed not to 
commercialize Terminator but has begun to reword this pledge.)
• In October 2005, the Canadian Patent Office granted the first ever 
Canadian patent on a Terminator technology (owned by Delta & Pine Land 
and the U.S. Department of Agriculture).
•
 Swiss multinational Syngenta has requested a Canadian patent on 
Terminator potatoes.

FOR MORE BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND A SAMPLE LETTER: 
http://www.banterminator.org/p/282 or contact the Canadian 
Biotechnology Action Network at in...@cban.ca

WRITE TO your Member of Parliament (postage is free). Use your postal 
code to search for your MP at http//www.parl.gc.ca

MAKE SURE TO COPY YOUR LETTER TO:

Hon. Chuck Strahl
Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
Telephone: 613 992-2940
Fax: 613 944-9376
E-Mail: Stra...@parl.gc.ca

Right Hon. Stephen Harper
Prime Minister
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
Telephone: 613 992-4211
Fax: 613 941-6900
EMail: Harp...@parl.gc.ca

Wayne Easter,
Liberal
 Agriculture Critic
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
Telephone: 613 992-2406
Fax: 613 995-7408
EMail: East...@parl.gc.ca

André Bellavance
Bloc Québécois Agriculture Critic
House of Commons Ottawa,
Ontario
K1A 0A6
Telephone: 613 995-1554
Fax: 613
 995-2026
EMail: Bellav...@parl.gc.ca

Alex Atamanenko
NDP Agriculture Critic
House of Commons Ottawa,
Ontario K1A 0A6
Telephone: 613 996-8036
Fax: 613 943-0922
E-Mail: Ataman...@parl.gc.ca

This action is organized by the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network 
http://www.cban.ca Please join us in the Campaign against Terminator 
seeds and other forms of corporate control over seeds. Please contact 
us for more information or to donate. in...@cban.ca 613 241
 2267

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=ENG20060827&articleId=3082 Monsanto Buys ‘Terminator’ Seeds Company by F. William Engdahl

Global Research, August 27, 2006

The United States Government has been financing research on a genetic engineering technology which, when commercialized, will give its owners the power to control the food seed of entire nations or regions. The Government has been working quietly on this technology since 1983. Now, the little-known company that has been working in this genetic research with the Government’s US Department of Agriculture-- Delta & Pine Land-- is about to become part of the world’s largest supplier of patented genetically-modified seeds (GMO), Monsanto Corporation of St. Louis, Missouri. Relations between Monsanto, Delta & Pine Land and the USDA, on closer scrutiny, show the deep and dark side of the much-heralded genetic revolution in agriculture. It proves deep-held suspicions that the Gene Revolution is not about ‘solving the world hunger problem’ as its advocates claim. It’s about handing over control of the seeds for mankind’s basic food supply—rice, corn, soybeans, wheat, even fruit, vegetables and cotton—to privately owned corporations. Once the seeds and their use are patented and controlled by one or several private agribusiness multinationals, it will be they who can decide whether or not a particular customer—let’s say for argument, China or Brazil or India or Japan—whether they will or won’t get the patented seeds from Monsanto, or from one of its licensee GMO partners like Bayer Crop Sciences, Syngenta or DuPont’s Pioneer Hi-Bred International. While most of us don’t bother to reflect on where the corn in the box of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes or the rice in a box of Uncle Ben’s Converted Rice come from, when we grab it from the supermarket shelf, they all must originate with seeds. Seeds can either be taken by a farmer from the previous season’ seeds, and planted to produce the next harvest. Or, seeds can be bought new each harvest season, from the companies which sell their seeds. The advent of commercial GMO seeds in the early 1990’s allowed companies like Monsanto, DuPont or Dow Chemicals to go from supplying agriculture chemical herbicides like Roundup, to patenting genetically altered seeds for basic farm crops like corn, rice, soybeans or wheat. For almost a quarter century, since 1983, the US Government has quietly been working to perfect a genetically engineered technique whereby farmers would be forced to turn to their seed supplier each harvest to get new seeds. The seeds would only produce one harvest. After that the seeds from that harvest would commit ‘suicide’ and be unusable. There has been much hue and cry, correctly so, that this process, patented ‘suicide’ seeds, officially termed GURTs (Genetic Use Restriction Technologies), is a threat to poor farmers in developing countries like India or Brazil, who traditionally save their own seeds for the next planting. In fact, GURTs, more popularly referred to as Terminator seeds for the brutal manner in which they kill off plant reproduction possibilities, is a threat to the food security as well of North America, Western Europe, Japan and anywhere Monsanto and its elite cartel of GMO agribusiness partners enters a market.

(604) 837-6908

---

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