Kill Bill … C-51

What a great cover on the May issue. How ironic it is that there was not a word about Bill C-51 in the interview [with Stéphane Dion] and now it turns out that it will be up to Dion to decide whether this outrageous piece of legislation becomes law.

What an opportunity for Jack Layton to be the true defender of Canadian Rights and Freedoms while the mouse squirms to avoid an election! Harper will triple the price of Vitamin C by having us get a prescription from a medical doctor! And what about the Third Reich system of regulation and enforcement?

Everybody wants to be sure their vitamins and other Natural Health products are safe, but C-51 is Trojan Horse Legislation sponsored by Big Pharma to unlawfully suppress Canadian citizens’ rights and freedoms!

Paul Robson, Toronto

[Editor’s note: The interview with Stéphane Dion took place before Bill C-51 was introduced. As well we contacted Jack Layton’s office asking about Bill C-51 but got no reply. So it is up to you readers to educate your MPs and protect your access to natural products.]

Help natural health & healing win

John le Carré once stated the actions of Big Pharma are one of the best examples of the saying “the biggest problem with the end of the World War is the right side lost but the wrong side won.” He pointed out that dumping dubious drugs on Third World countries and donating out-of-date pharmaceuticals – while also getting huge tax breaks – were par for the course for the world’s multinational drug companies.

So it is no surprise that a right-wing government like Stephen Harper’s Conservatives would turn their big guns upon alternative medicine. After all, they’ve got to keep those huge donations from Big Pharma rolling in. It’s also no surprise that a corrupt corporate media would jump on the bandwagon. MacLean’s just published an article about how dangerous vitamins can be!

Of course natural health products can be dangerous if used improperly! But what about those horribly overpriced bitter pills that are foisted onto the public by the drug companies?

Supposedly introduced for the purpose “of increasing health and safety generally for a number of therapeutic products” Bill C-51 “fills the bill.” according to federal health minister Tony Clement.

When The Georgia Straight asked Canada’s Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies, a national association representing more than 50 drug companies, for interviews, no one was available. After all, if one can operate from the shadows with the government’s help, why expose oneself to needless publicity?

Perhaps even at this late hourt we can cast some light upon the dubious actions of Big Pharma.

Dennis Peacock, Clearwater

Librarians ask Canwest to stop suing Briemberg over satirical piece

[Open letter to Leonard Asper, pres. of Canwest Global Communications.]

At its annual general meeting on April 19, 2008, the British Columbia Library Association passed the attached resolution calling for Canwest to withdraw its legal suit against Mordecai Briemberg and the others charged with having produced a parody of The Vancouver Sun in June 2007.

The British Columbia Library Association is a non-profit, independent, voluntary association established in 1911. Our nearly 850 members include librarians, library personnel, trustees and other interested individuals; corporate, government, school and academic libraries; publishers, and library supply companies.

Intellectual freedom is a central tenet of librarianship; librarians have fought for generations for freedom of expression and access to information. Journalism, at its best, shares a commitment to these principles. The role of the media in a democracy is to provide a forum for open discussion and debate, not to stifle dissent. We are therefore especially disappointed that Canwest has sought to use its corporate resources to intimidate its critics and silence those with political positions different from its own.

Satire and parody have important intellectual traditions. Well-known satirists include Aristophanes, Horace, Chaucer, Jonathan Swift, Daniel Defoe, and Mark Twain – all people who were able to use hyperbole and humour to make their points without being sued by the objects of their parodies. Canwest’s suit is an attack on a crucial tool of free expression and threatens to have a chilling effect on public discourse.

We urge Canwest to drop its suit against Mordecai Briemberg and the six Jane and John Does named in your writ. The free exchange of ideas (including ideas with which we may disagree) is a critical component of a democratic society, and ought not to be undermined by the very institutions that make such exchange possible.

Lynne Jordon, President British Columbia Library Association

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