SUPPORT THE GLYPHOSATE BAN
Help us build a glyphosate-free future in Canada
We are happy to announce we far surpassed our goal and gathered over 18,000 signatures on our parliamentary e-petition 4127 campaign to Canada's Minister of Health. The e-petition closed for signatures on January 13th. Thanks to everyone who signed and supported this effort. Please check back here for updates on the petition’s upcoming presentation in parliament.
If you missed out on the opportunity to sign our e-petition and would like to circulate a paper petition in your community, please email us at info@intotheweedsimpact.com.
Petition to the Minister of Health
Whereas:
Glyphosate is Canada’s most widely sold pesticide - used in agriculture as an herbicide and to kill crops for harvest, in forestry to kill unwanted target trees and vegetation, and as an herbicide on rights-of-way, commercial and residential grounds, golf courses, schools and other landscapes.
The result is residents of Canada, including infants and children, consume glyphosate residues in their food and water and are exposed to it while outdoors for recreation, occupational activities, hunting and harvesting.
The use of glyphosate harms aquatic and terrestrial species and causes loss of biodiversity thereby making ecosystems more vulnerable to pollution and climate change. It endangers pollinators including wild bees and monarch butterflies and exacerbates wildfires since conifer-only forests burn faster and hotter than mixed forests.
In 2015, the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans”.
Glyphosate has been found to cause injuries to human health including harming cellular function and causing reproductive effects, hormone disruption, microbiome disruption and cancer.
The Pest Control Products Act is referred to Parliament for review and Health Canada is conducting a transformation of the Pest Management Regulatory Agency.
We, the undersigned residents of Canada, call upon the Minister of Health to:
1. Ban the sale and use of glyphosate to protect human health and the environment; and
2. Develop a comprehensive plan to reduce overall pesticide use in Canada.
JENNIFER BAICHWAL, Toronto ON
director of Into The Weeds
NAOMI KLEIN, Sunshine Coast BC
activist and author
RAYMOND OWL, Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation.
TEK Elder
JAMES STEIDLE, Prince George BC
woodworker and Stop the Spray BC advocate
JESSIE MACINNIS, Lunenburg, NS
agroecological farmer
DR. RAQUEL FEROE, Edmonton AB
medical specialist
PARTNER ORGANIZATION STATEMENTS.
"Lee Johnson’s heart wrenching story reminds us that communities and individuals shouldn’t have to worry about whether the chemicals approved for use in Canada are safe. Ecojustice has a long history of working to protect human health and the environment from risky pesticides and the systemic flaws within the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA). Glyphosate has been identified as a potentially dangerous, carcinogenic chemical. The PMRA should be using the best available scientific research to guide decision-making about what we allow to be put in the air, water and land that sustains life on earth. In the absence of sound, science-based decision-making, there is an onus on the Minister of Health to use regulatory powers to act on glyphosate."
~ Melanie Snow, Legislative Affairs Specialist
"This documentary, "Into the Weeds", explodes into our lives just when we need it. It convinces us that we can and must, just like Dewayne "Lee"Johnson, stand up to corporations like Monsanto/Bayer that think they write the rules instead of governments - whether for the world's most used pesticide, glyphosate, or climate destroying gases or fake solutions to biodiversity losses. This documentary inspires us to continue the good fight to protect Mother Earth and her people."
~ Beatrice Olivastri, CEO
"From the point of view of the documented adverse human health outcomes, there is certainty about the justification for a ban on glyphosate. Children born after parental exposure to glyphosate have higher levels of craniofacial defects, small head circumference, more or fewer fingers, cleft palate and congenital heart defects. ADHD is higher in children of glyphosate applicators. Farmers exposed to glyphosate had a 20% decrease in fertility. Breast cancer incidence is increased among women who live or worked on farms where glyphosate has been used. IARC has classified glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic to humans.” For human and environmental health, the time for a ban on glyphosate is now."
~ Dr. Jane McArthur, Toxics Program Director
"We’re falling behind world leaders on protecting human health and biodiversity - we need real leadership from the federal government on reducing pesticides."
~ Cassie Barker, Senior Program Manager
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“Into the Weeds offers a sobering reminder that what we do to nature, we do to ourselves. It’s both sad and fitting that this film is launching on the 60th anniversary of Silent Spring, Rachel Carson’s ground-breaking exposé of the environmental impacts of pesticides. How many more people will get sick – how many more ecosystems will be harmed – before governments reduce the use of pesticides like glyphosate? It’s time we reoriented pesticide regulation to protect human health and biodiversity.”
~ -Lisa Gue, Manager, National Policy, David Suzuki Foundation.
"Lee Johnson and his lawyers are true heros - they told the truth and shifted the narrative on glyphosate. A big thanks to Jennifer for sharing their story. The free pass given to industry for pesticides is shameful, and needs to be rescinded."
~ Mary Lou McDonald, President
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"Vigilance OGM is a non-profit organization that works on the impact of genetically modified crops (and their associated pesticides) on human and environmental health. The manifesto #sortirduglyphosate is a roadmap for Vigilance OGM's work on the broad issue of pesticides. It brings together the demands that the organization is monitoring, mobilizing and acting on - at the municipal, provincial and federal levels."
~ Laure Mabileau, Responsable des Communications
"In New Brunswick 15,000 hectares of public (crown) forest land are sprayed annually. In Ontario 33,400 hectares and British Colombia 15,000 hectares.
In 2001, Quebec banned spraying Chemical Herbicides in Forestry, due to Human & Environmental Health concerns.
The film "Into the Weeds" also points to glyphosate use in forestry, which is devastating to the habitat and biodiversity required by wildlife, birds and insects. SSNB supported this federal petition, because in New Brunswick 61% of all glyphosate used lands on our forests by aerial spraying. Another 27% is used by industry. A large number of New Brunswickers oppose herbicide use in forestry, and 36,000 NBers have signed a provincial paper petition to stop this practice on public (crown) land."
~Caroline Lubbe-D'Arcy, Chair, Stop the Spray New Brunswick
"This documentary is a stark reminder of the cruel consequences of the lack of robust regulation and provision of health information regarding the risks of hazardous chemical use to unwitting users. There is powerful evidence of multiple serious health consequences linked to glyphosate exposure, and in particular Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Dewayne Lee Johnson, whose own health and appearance were ruined by exposure to this commonly used weedkiller in the course of his work as a school groundskeeper, tells a remarkable story of courage in his attempts to reveal the facts about this toxic herbicide, and force more stringent regulation in its use.
The film illustrates the ongoing subversion of science, the deliberate obfuscation of facts, and repeated attempts to discredit the science and scientific bodies such as the IARC concerning the carcinogenicity of glyphosate for corporate gain by Monsanto, and in so doing, denying the very real evidence of carcinogenic effects from a product that continues even now to destroy health, lives, families, livelihoods, as well as entire ecosystems.
There is no time to lose in banning glyphosate use in Canada to protect human health and the natural world with which we are intricately connected, and upon which we depend for all that makes life worthwhile."
~ Fiona Hanley on behalf of the Canadian Association of Nurses for the Environment
"Lee Johnson's lawyers laid bare corporate influence in glyphosate registration, side-lining evidence that the world's most-used herbicide causes cancer. This well-worn playbook keeps too many toxic pesticides on the market, and distracts from real, least-toxic solutions. Kudos to Jennifer Baichwal for bringing this to the public eye!"
~ Meg Sears, PhD, Chairperson
