from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:

It's been a trying time for civil liberties. Peaceful protests against biotech companies and other dangerous corporations have been suppressed under dubious new laws ("aggravated trespass" and "anti-terror") which we at GM WATCH predicted from the beginning would be used for exactly this purpose (ANTI-GM PROTESTS SUPPRESSED WORLD-WIDE).

And Canada's government appears to be preventing Africa's chief biosafety negotiator, the brilliant Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher, from attending a Cartagena Biosafety Protocol meeting by denying him a visa. Please protest NOW - time is of the essence (CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK).

Claire [email protected]
www.gmwatch.org / www.lobbywatch.org

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CONTENTS
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CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK
ANTI-GM PROTESTS SUPPRESSED WORLD-WIDE
LOBBYWATCH
ASIA
THE AMERICAS
CODEX LABELLING DECISION
EUROPE
AFRICA
AUSTRALASIA
RESOURCES
CORPORATE CRIMES
GM VIRUSES

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CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK
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+ CANADIAN GOVT DENIES VISA FOR CHIEF AFRICAN BIOSAFETY NEGOTIATOR - PROTEST!
The Canadian government has denied a visa to the chief African biosafety negotiator, preventing him from attending a vital Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety meeting in Montreal, 25 -27 May 2005.

Demand that the Canadian Government issue a visa immediately.

The Protocol is the United Nations treaty that governs the international movement of genetically modified (GM) organisms. Dr. Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher, the Ethiopian government's chief expert and its representative to the Montreal-based UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) had his passport returned without the requested Canadian visa yesterday after a long delay, and without explanation.

The renowned scientist submitted his passport to the Canadian embassy on May 5 and had planned to fly to Oslo, Norway for inter-regional negotiations prior to attending the Montreal meetings that begin Wednesday, May 25. Because his passport was returned May 17, Dr. Tewolde was also forced to miss the Oslo meeting.

To demand that the Canadian government issue a visa to Dr. Tewolde immediately, please e-mail, call or fax:

Hon. Pierre Pettigrew, Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Email:[email protected]
Telephone (613) 995-8872
Fax: (613) 995-9926

Hon. Andy Mitchell ,Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food,
[email protected]
Telephone:(613) 996-3434
Fax: (613) 991-2147

Hon. Stéphane Dion, Minister of the Environment,
[email protected]
Telephone: (613) 996-5789
Fax: (613) 996-6562

Hon. Hon. Joseph Volpe, Minister of Citizenship and
Immigration
[email protected]
Telephone: (613) 992-
6361 Fax: (613) 992-9791

Dr. Tewolde is the recipient of a number of awards and honours - in particular, the Right Livelihood Award (also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize). Dr. Tewolde is one of the best known leaders among African diplomats addressing environmental issues. However, his positions have not been popular with the Canadian government.

Tewolde writes: "...now that I have been prevented from coming to Montreal, who knows which ones of you will be prevented next time? ...I protest, and I invite you to join me in the protest, to the Government of Canada. If this act of sieving by Canada continues, I suggest that we either move our Secretariat of the CBD elsewhere, or at least refuse to hold any negotiation sessions in Canada."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5255

Here are a couple of the choice comments we've seen that have been sent to Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs:

"This refusal strikes me as more irrational - more paranoid, and more stupid - than the USA's withholding of [the Nobel prize winning scientist] Linus Pauling's passport." [Pauling was prevented by the U.S. from travelling for 2 years because he hadn't condemned communism withsufficient vigour!]

"Are people not allowed in Canada to listen to or have views about an unethical, ruthless and potentially life-destroying 'science' anymore, and especially not if they are Black?"

+ EXCERPTS FROM INTERVIEW WITH TEWOLDE
Tewolde: "...contrary to the claims of the GM lobby, these crops would not have fed nor freed us by giving us greater control over our production, but rather enslaved Africa once more - particularly because of the patenting aspect. ...our farmers would have beciome serfs to the patent-holding companies overseas. A kind of slavery would have been reintroducded, not as historically [with] our people transported to grow crops in the plantations of America, but rather that we would now be forced to grow US companies' crops in Africa's soil."

Tewolde [is] something of a hate figure to global agribusiness.

Tewolde: "I'll give you one example, which concerns a former US ambassador to the UN, who now runs a company that seeks to increase investment opportunities for commercial companies in Africa. When I was regional representative during the negotiations over the Cartagena Protocol, this person contacted me and said, 'Why have you created this juggernaut, this big organisation that opposes Africa's development...' I presumed he meant the Africa Group so I pointed out to him that my government couldn't even afford to send me to the negotiations. I could only attend thanks to a free ticket from the UN. My African colleagues were only there too thanks to hand outs from the UN... If we did manage to appeal to others, then it must be because there was something in what we had to say."

Taken from an interview with Tewolde in the current Ecologist magazine (May 2005)
http://www.theecologist.org/

+ CANADA'S DOUBLE STANDARDS: TEWOLDE VS CANADA'S PIT BULL
If you think the Canadian government might be prepared to stoop to anything, after delaying and then denying a visa to Africa's chief biosafety negotiator and after leading the industry charge to bring back Terminator, then you're probably right!

Contrast the Canadian government's treatment of Tewolde with its treatment of biotech attack dog, Doug Powell, over the travel issue.

EXCERPT from the GM WATCH profile of Powell:
Powell's notoriety for "aggressive if not vicious attacks" extends beyond his 'attack dog' defence of GMOs. In autumn 2004 he made the front page of Guelph's local paper when he pleaded guilty to assault...

A curious aspect of the case was that the judge was asked to give Powell a discharge. Discharges are normally only granted to first offenders so that they do not acquire a criminal record. Powell, as the judge noted, already had a criminal record as a result of the two prior convictions for serious criminal offences. However, the judge was advised that Powell - "a well-respected consultant, a prolific writer and an expert in his field of food science who travels extensively" - had a travel waiver that allowed him to enter the United States despite his criminal convictions. The judge was persuaded by a joint submission on sentencing from the prosecution and the defence that a criminal conviction for domestic violence might serve to prevent Powell from crossing the border.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5257

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ANTI-GM PROTESTS SUPPRESSED WORLD-WIDE
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It's not exactly hard to spot the pattern.

Students at the Unive