CKNW Editorial
for August 16, 2001

Many, many long years ago I became a BC Cabinet Minister in charge of the Consumer Services department. Shortly afterwards, I gave an interview to Mike Grenby, a well known reporter in those days, during the course of which I declared that the government couldn’t do everything and that maybe consumers needed a kick in the ass from time to time so that they would learn to take care of themselves. Wow, did it hit the fan and as a rookie politician,when all hell broke loose, as politicians will do, I backtracked in every direction possible. This incident came to mind recently when I thought of two issues in which I’ve been involved where my kick in the ass statement seems appropriate.

We have, you see, become used to nanny governments looking after us. Most of us assume that everything we consume has been inspected by the big nanny in Ottawa and Victoria so all must be well. It’s only when cases like Walkerton come to the fore that we realize that the big nanny is mostly making believe hoping that nothing will go wrong.

Let me state right now that I don’t know if farmed fish are bad for you and I don’t know if asparatame or nutrasweet, or sweet and low are bad for you. I am not a scientist but a lawyer – and in my latter capacity am accustomed to seeing things proved.

What I do know is that if you’re looking for guidance from the government as to whether or not farmed fish or diet coke are bad for you, look somewhere else.

I first became wary of asparatame when I was diagnosed as diabetic. Like my old colleague, George Garrett, formerly the intrepid reporter now in the pay of the Canadian Diabetes Association, I trusted this organization literally with my life. I went to the Diabetes Clinic in my local hospital and saw that, contrary to my fears, I could still eat ice cream, for which I have had a lifelong passion, and drink pop – provided they were sweetened by asparatame under whatever name it was masquerading. At about the same time I started having ear problems. My ears would run, clog up, itch and require constant cleaning – and I had tinnitis or a constant ringing in my ears. I went to my family doctor and a specialist and got some drops which controlled the problem but after the drops ran out, the problems returned – in spades. Quite by accident I interviewed a well known specialist in the United States, a Dr H Roberts from which you will hear again when I return from vacation. His attack on asparatame bordered on the vicious and he challenged me to test the stuff for myself by drinking three diet cokes and looking at my blood sugar readings before and after. There was nearly a full point difference – I needed no more convincing and I gave up the Canadian Diabetes Association’s recommended ice creams and soft drinks. Not only did my blood sugar improve dramatically but my ear problems vanished. In a later interview and through subsequent investigation I learned that ear infections and tinnitis are common complaints of those being treated for asparatame poisoning.

A couple of years ago I began to wonder about farmed fish. In the beginning I was mainly concerned with their escape and threat to wild stocks. And as events have proved, my concerns were well justified. But as I delved into the matter I began to read of more and more studies calling into question the safety of consuming farmed fish … which, after all, are treated with antibiotics in a big way. I also learned that, because farmed fish had about four times the fat of wild fish, and fat is where the bad things like dioxyns are stored, that the World Health Organization recommended a maximum of one serving a week which is 30 times stricter than Health Canada’s standard.

Now … back to the beginning. Can I, Rafe Mair, lawyer cum broadcaster stand before you and declare that products with aspartame are bad for you or that you shouldn’t eat farmed salmon? On the basis of science no. Because I am no scientist.

On the evidence? Quite another matter. To start with, the evidence supporting the safety of aspartame and farmed fish comes almost exclusively from those who peddle the stuff. But I go further – those scientists opposed, if they said the same thing about, say, apples would have you never eating another apple in your life. The very least they do is raise huge doubts as to the safety of aspartame and farmed fish. Huge doubts. There is no way a caring parent, for example, could ever allow their child to drink diet coke or eat farmed Atlantic salmon. No way. If these warnings were about, say apples, or beef, or eggs the prudent parent would ban them from the table and forbid their kids from ever consuming them.

This isn’t happening. It isn’t happening because we assume – very wrongly – that our government has had independent tests done as to their safety and is constantly inspecting these products to see that they’re OK.

This trust in government is burned into our brains from birth. We, as consumers, trust the government and we trust outfits like the Canadian Diabetes Association – and we trust the people who shill for them. Somehow it doesn’t bother us that these organizations and their mouthpieces have never done five minutes research into the matter and, if they rely on any expertise at all, it’s that of the folks making all the money off the products.

We, having become so accustomed to the nanny state looking after us, we’ve never learned consumerism by having our asses kicked from time to time.

Well, here is my opinion for what it’s worth. If what has been said by independent researchers about asparatame and farmed Atlantic salmon was said about my favourite food I would never touch either again in my life.