Win on Glyphosate Product Case!
“Trust us, we got it right” isn’t good enough. Safe Food Matters and friends won in the glyphosate product renewal case, when on February 18 the Federal Court uled that the renewal of a pesticide product used in forestry and agriculture was not reasonable because Health Canada’s decision-making was not adequate.
Glyphosate Product: Safe Food Matters back in court
On January 22, 2025, Safe Food Matters will be in court again, fighting over glyphosate. Our original – still ongoing -lawsuit was about Health Canada’s decision to register glyphosate (“Registration Decision”), and this one is about the 5 year renewal of a product that contains the pesticide. Details on how to attend in person or watch are at the end of this piece.
This fight is about the product “Mad Dog Plus”, and the fact that the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) routinely renews products, on a 5 year basis, without looking into new science on risks arising after major registration decisions.
In 2022 a coalition of groups, us included, provided the PMRA with a list of studies on glyphosate showing new risks, and it appears PMRA did not look into them – at least they couldn’t provide any evidence to show they did.
Mad Dog Plus is used on crops, forests, and …Read More
Forest Spraying 1: Based on Faulty Approval
Pesticides are being sprayed on Canadian forests, killing the diversity of forest life. The resulting harms are plant and animal death, destruction of forest foods, and accelerating forest fires.
How is this allowed?
The registration approval for this use of pesticides comes from the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) of Health Canada, the agency responsible for “managing pests”. The licenses to spray are then granted by the provinces. (Quebec has banned forestry spraying since 2001.)
PMRA says that unwanted trees and brush are “pests”. Pests are defined in the “Pest Control” law to include “a plant… that is injurious, noxious or troublesome”.
So trees are a troublesome pest? The forest industry and PMRA think they are. The aim of industry is to “harvest” one type of tree “crop”, usually evergreens (conifers), and get rid of the leafy trees (broadleaf) that get in the way – the pests.
The PMRA Glyphosate Approval
Glyphosate …Read More
A Message of Hope, Light and Love
At this time of reflection and resolution, we offer you a message of Hope, Light and Love. We believe this trinity is quite powerful.
Powerful in the spiritual sense, as in “Hope springs eternal” “Light vanquishes darkness” “… and the greatest of these is Love”.
Also powerful strategically, when viewed in a certain way. Here is our thinking:
Consider Hope as goal-setting. A hope for world peace implies a goal “for something” .
Consider Light as the plan or the truth. It sets out the path for how to best get to the goal.
Consider Love as the power that fuels the work. It provides the energy to keep going.
This trinity works in achieving what you want. Take New Years’ resolutions: 1. set the resolution; 2. figure out how to get there; 3. keep at it.
At Safe Food Matters, we use the trinity in our work:
1. Our goals are safer …Read More
Preliminary Hearing on Oct 24 2023 over Glyphosate Product Renewal
On October 24, 2023, Safe Food Matters is n Federal Court with other groups in the first step of its “product renewal case” over a glyphosate product. We are seeking documents to show what science, if any, PMRA looked at in its renewal.
Safe Food Matters Goes Back to Court June 13 with Health Canada on Glyphosate
On June 13, 2023, Safe Food Matters returns to federal court in its ongoing battle with Health Canada over glyphosate, Canada’s most widely used herbicide.
This is the first step in our second lawsuit against Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) for re-registering this harmful pesticide. We are seeking documents to show what’s really going on behind closed doors at the PMRA.
Why? Because something’s not right. In February, 2022, the Federal Court of Appeal ordered the PMRA to review our “Notice of Objection” for a second time – and the Court even provided “Guidance” to PMRA on how to address the issues. But PMRA did not follow the Guidance.
More than that, PMRA bent over backward to not address the concerns we raised. PMRA rewrote history. PMRA made up totally new legal tests. PMRA defied the rules of procedural fairness. It is clear PMRA does not want a review panel, even though the law allows for it.
So what’s going on?
SAFE FOOD MATTERS SUES AGAIN ON GLYPHOSATE
November 2, 2022. Safe Food Matters Inc. has launched its second lawsuit against Health Canada over its 2017 re-registration of glyphosate. It claims Health Canada, through the Pest Management Regulatory Agency, acted unreasonably and unfairly when on September 29, 2022 it rejected the group’s objections for the second time.
Safe Food Matters initially sued PMRA in 2019, lost in federal court, then appealed. The appeal was successful and on February 2, 2022, the Federal Court of Appeal directed PMRA to reconsider the objections, and to follow the Guidance of the Court when doing so.
The Court issued the Guidance to avoid the ‘endless merry-go-round of judicial reviews and subsequent redeterminatons’. It aims to force PMRA to do its job and protect Canadians from the harms of pesticides.
Mary Lou McDonald, president of Safe Food Matters, commented:
This is EXACTLY what the Court of Appeal didn’t want – PMRA is making us get on the …Read More
It’s Time to Ban Glyphosate!
Glyphosate, the world’s most-used herbicide, is almost impossible to avoid. Glyphosate is in your water, in much of of the food you eat, in the soils growing that food, in forests, rivers and streams, and in wildlife.
The science is clear to us. Glyphosate is harming our health and the environment. Yet pesticide regulators are still “monitoring” the science and refusing to take action.
On September 15, 2022 the courageous film producer, Jennifer Baichwal, filed a citizen’s petition to Parliament to ban glyphosate and to reduce pesticide use. Until January 13, 2023, residents of Canada can take action by signing Petition e-4127. It will be presented to Parliament and the Minister of Health must respond.
The petition is inspired by Baichwals’ award winning documentary, “Into the Weeds”, which opens the fall season of CBC’s Passionate Eye on Friday, September 16. It can be streamed on CBC Gem thereafter. It follows Dewayne “Lee” Johnson, …Read More
Comments on Targeted Review of PCPA
Some types of Foods Affected by Pesticides, Gene-editing
This post provides the detailed comments submitted by Safe Food Matters to the Pest Management Regulatory Agency’s (PMRA’s) consultation on the “Targeted Review” of the Pest Control Products Act (PCPA).
Comments SFM on Dis Dic 2022-01vFinalDownload
By way of background, In Summer, 2021, there was public outcry to proposed increases to “maximum residue limits” of pesticides in food, and this consultation was the result. Discussion Document 2022-01 set out 3 objectives, and asked for answers to questions on each. The list was set out in Annex 3.
We previously wrote about these objectives. The first objective on “Modernized Business Processes” asked questions on setting MRLs and “Continuous Oversight”, and we discussed it in this previous post. We discussed the second objective “Improved Transparency” here, and the third objective “Increased Use of Real-word Data and Independent Advice/Evidence” here.
PMRA also said it would take comments …Read More
Consultation on Targeted Review of Pesticides Act: Real-World Data and Independence
This post is about providing comments on the third objective of the Pest Management Regulatory Agency’s (PMRA’s) consultation on the “Targeted Review” of the Pest Control Products Act (PCPA).In Summer, 2021, there was public outcry to proposed increases to “maximum residue limits” of pesticides in food, and this consultation (set out in Discussion Document 2022-01) is the result. The extended deadline for comments is June 30, 2022.Below at the heading “Objective 3 – Increased Use of Real-word Data and Independent Advice/Evidence” are our comments on the third and last objective. Our thoughts on the first and second objectives were provided in previous posts.
Background: By way of background, Discussion Document 2022-01 sets out 3 objectives, and asks for answers to questions on each. The list is in Annex 3. The first objective on “Modernized Business Processes” asked questions on setting MRLs and “Continuous Oversight”, and we discussed it in this previous …Read More
