CKNW Editorial
for May 11, 1999

A couple of subjects this morning.The attempted breakup of the anti NDP rally last Thursday by a NDP Cabinet Minister Dale Lovick was disgraceful.There is nothing wrong and indeed a good deal right about opponents to thepoint of view being expressed at a public meeting going to that meeting andheckling speakers. That has a long tradition and in fact for 30 years.Winston Churchill couldn't address a political meeting without hearingshouts "what about Gallipoli?" But that sort of thing is light years awayfrom trying to strong arm a meeting and bust it up by physical means.

What is so astonishing is that a cabinet minister would get directly involved. This must mean that these methods had the approval of the government for it just isn't possible for a minister of the Crown to step out of those shoes into the jack boots of a rabble rouser. If that's so, then Glen Clark has one more reason to be thoroughly ashamed of himself.

If this rough housing was not approved by the government then Glen Clark ought to fire Lovick forthwith. After all, it's not as if the Lovick household would suffer all that much since both Mr and Ms are cabinet ministers.

It seems pretty clear that this government has become desperate and hopelessly out of control. It will be a mercy when they finally give the voters a crack at them which, unhappily, will not likely be until May 2001.

On another unrelated matter, there is quite a fuss about whether or not genetically altered foods ought to be so designated so the consumer can decide whether or not he or she wants to take the risk of eating them.

What risk, you ask? The fact is we don't know what effects these foods will have on people because they have not been tested on people - indeed, all the tests have been conducted by those who will benefit directly, the pharmaceutical companies. You and I, dear friends, are being tested as wespeak ... we are indeed the guinea pigs. If there is any harm at all from any of these scores of genetically altered foods, we will only find out the hard way. Now if that isn't risk, what the hell is?

There is no suggestion that we will all grow an extra ear but there are serious questions about whether or not allergies will be exacerbated - as for example if genes of peanuts are used to alter another food will those with peanut allergies (which can be terrifying and sometimes fatal) be adversely affected?

The trouble is, there is no proper evaluating process. What usually happens is that the Food and Drug Administration in the United States gives its approval - as it has done with breast implants, IUD contraceptives and Thalidomide - based solely on laboratory reports from the manufacturers.Then, as often as not, the federal Health Protection Branch gives its approval.

It's an old argument, I suppose, ands one which is batted out of the park by scientists, but it's just not natural. God did not intend the injection of foreign genes into foodstuffs and I say that not as a religious comment but one of common sense. If you alter something by the use of genes you cannot be sure that just because that tomato or whatever looks like a tomato, tastes like a tomato that it's as safe as the tomatoes you're used to.

Until we know from sources outside the corporations which make these products that they are truly safe, surely the consumer ought to be given the choice.

Strange, isn't it, but one of the arguments against labeling these products might cause panic amongst consumers! Of course ... we're all so dumb out here that some things just must be kept from us for our own good!

I want to know how what I'm eating was made and I daresay many of you do too. And we're entitled to know and are damned fools if we don't make our wishes well known to the government.