Methinks
after 10 days its obvious that PM Trudeau the Younger is willing to
ignore his old turncoat buddy Big Bad Billy Casey as well But everybody
knows why I am not surprised N'esy Pas?
This will acknowledge receipt of a copy of your e-mail of December 29,
2006 to Corporal Warren McBeath of the RCMP.
Because of the nature of the allegations made in your message,
I have
taken the measure of forwarding a copy to Assistant Commissioner Steve
Graham of the RCMP °J" Division in Fredericton.
Sincerely,
Honourable Michael B. Murphy
Minister of Health
CM/cb
CLEARLY THE RCMP/GRC AND THE KPMG PALS DO NOT KNOW
HOW TO READ LET ALONE COUNT BEANS EH?
Subject: Re: Remember me Kilgour? Landslide Annie McLellan has
forgotten me but the crooks within the RCMP have n
Dear Mr. Amos,
Thank you for your follow up e-mail to me today. I was on days off
over the holidays and returned to work this evening. Rest assured I
was not ignoring or procrastinating to respond to your concerns.
As your attachment sent today refers from Premier Graham, our position
is clear on your dead calf issue: Our forensic labs do not process
testing on animals in cases such as yours, they are referred to the
Atlantic Veterinary College in Charlottetown who can provide these
services. If you do not choose to utilize their expertise in this
instance, then that is your decision and nothing more can be done.
As for your other concerns regarding the US Government, false
imprisonment and Federal Court Dates in the US, etc... it is clear
that Federal authorities are aware of your concerns both in Canada and
the US. These issues do not fall into the purvue of Detachment
policing in Petitcodiac, NB.
It was indeed an interesting and informative conversation we had on
December 23rd, and I wish you well in all of your future endeavors.
Retired Cumberland-Colchester Liberal MP Bill Casey says rigid
eligibility requirements for the 2019 compensation program for
thalidomide victims are not what the House of Commons health committee
recommended. (Tom Hanson/Canadian Press)
Retired MP Bill Casey is hoping his former colleagues in
government will change the rigid rules that people must meet to qualify
for a compensation program for thalidomide survivors.
Casey
chaired the House of Commons standing committee on health in 2017
when, after hearing from thalidomide victims and experts, it recommended
government "err on the side of compassion" with its new 2019
compensation program.
"Canada should own up to the mistake," he said of Ottawa's decision to approve the dangerous drug between 1959 and 1962.
"You
cannot have a strict set of rules that you have to meet on something
that happened 60 years ago … the government has to be flexible on this."
New program excludes many
Introduced
in 2019, the Canadian Thalidomide Survivors Support Program was
designed in part to help the 167 Canadians who were rejected from a 2015
program because they didn't have the medical records to prove their
mothers took the drug.
Noëlla Hébert of Saint-Louis de Kent is one of three New
Brunswickers who have been excluded from government compensation for
thalidomide victims. (Vanessa Blanch/CBC)
Many of those who were turned down, including Noëlla Hébert of
Saint-Louis de Kent, have sworn affidavits from their mothers, along
with medical reports that all point to the drug as the cause of their
malformed and missing limbs.
Hébert was born in 1968 without a left arm and with severe malformations to her right arm and both of her legs.
The
strict rules of the 2015 program only allowed written prescriptions or a
doctor's report as adequate proof of thalidomide exposure.
Hébert
was initially hopeful when the new program was announced in 2019 but
devastated when she read step one of the eligibility requirements.
This
time in order to qualify, you must have been born between Dec. 3, 1957,
and Dec. 21, 1967. At least 40 people from across the country were born
outside those dates. Hébert was born five weeks too late. Hébert has a prosthetic leg and has undergone several
surgeries on both legs to allow her to walk. She has no hips and
explains her legs are held in place with muscles. (Pierre Fournier/CBC)
To Casey, that rigid date range is not in the spirit of what his committee recommended.
"Each
time the government tries to come up with a program, they come up with a
very specific list of criteria you must meet and that does not work,"
he said.
'Just playing with time'
Hébert called the
date range "ridiculous," and told CBC she feels like the government is
"just playing with time" and hoping victims will die before they get
paid.
Casey said he understands why Hébert and other claimants
feel that way, but he doesn't think that government is "waiting them
out."
"I don't
believe that for a second. But I do believe that it's a mistake not to
pay more attention to the situation and address it in a more
compassionate way."
Minister of Health Patty Hajdu was not available for an
interview to discuss the eligibility requirements of the 2019 Canadian
Thalidomide Survivors Support Program. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
Casey promised to contact Health Minister Patty Hadju and ask
that a committee be set up to meet with Hébert and others who don't
qualify under the birth date framework.
As his committee
recommended in 2017, he wants a "qualitative assessment" completed of
each applicant that would allow for a judgment based on a balance of
probabilities.
"The balance of probabilities that Noëlla Hébert
is a victim of thalidomide — from what I know of her story — I think on
balance that should be enough," Casey said.
Time to move on
When asked what it would take to change Ottawa's mind on the birth date requirement, Casey replied, "A decision by cabinet."
CBC
News requested an interview with Minister Hajdu but she was not
available. A spokesperson promised a written response but that also was
not provided.
If the cabinet ministers could have sat in on the parliamentary committee, we wouldn't be having this discussion today.
- Retired MP Bill Casey
The
2019 compensation program provides qualifying survivors with a lump sum
of $250,000, an annual payment based on their level of disability and
access to a medical fund.
Casey wants to see thalidomide victims, who are now in their 50s and 60s and in need of increasing assistance, paid.
"It's
a lot of money to an individual but in the grand scheme of things, if
you look at the $250 billion deficit we're going to have this year, it
isn't."
He said he wishes every cabinet minister had sat in on
the health committee meetings he chaired in 2017, when thalidomide
survivors described their lives and the discrimination and disability
they had lived through.
"If the cabinet ministers could have sat in on the parliamentary committee, we wouldn't be having this discussion today."
Information Morning - Moncton
Retired MP Bill Casey calls for better compensation for victims of thalidomide
Retired
MP Bill Casey chaired the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health
in 2017 and heard from many thalidomide victims, doctors and experts. 13:33
Vanessa
Blanch is a reporter based in Moncton. She has worked across the
country for CBC for 20 years. If you have story ideas to share please
email: vanessa.blanch@cbc.ca
Methinks
before I publish another blog about Trudeau The Younger ignoring the plight of fellow Canadians sneaky Billy Casey should review his records or check some of mine going back to 2004 N'esy Pas?
May 10th, 2006
Prime Minister Stephen Harper,
Minister of Public Safety, Stockwell Day,
President of the Treasury Board, John Baird,
Ministers James Flaherty, and Vic Toews
C/o Bill Casey MP
103 Albion Street South,
Amherst, NS, B4H 2X2
Franky Boy McKenna, Deputy Chair,
John Bragg and John Thompson, Directors
Chris Montague Legal Counsel
C/o Jill Crosby, Bank Manager
TD Financial Group
620 Main Street
Sussex, NB, E4E 5L4
W. Geoffrey Beattie, Director
David Allgood, Legal Counsel,
C/o Sharon Armstrong, Bank Manager
Royal Bank of Canada
644 Main Street
Sussex, NB, E4E 7H9
John Manley PC, Director and
E. Jennifer Warren, Legal Counsel
C/o Maria Cormie, Bank Manager
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
761 Main St,
Moncton, NB. E1C 1E5
RE: Blowing the whistle on big banks and corrupt politicians too.
Hey,
Flaherty’s
budget looming on the horizon tonight is gonna get the big OK from the
Bloc EH? Well a mean old bike mechanic in the Maritimes has been waiting
to chuck a wrench in the works of many a crooked beancounter. I just
served your offices in hand some of the same material that Andre Arthur
MP and Senator Kinsella received before the 39th Parliament began. I am
also giving you other material and a political rant that they did not
receive. The legal counsel of all the monstrous Canadian banks have
shown me their arses, two for a month and three for almost two years. It
is high time to boot you bankers out off bed with the corrupt
politicians you depend on to cover up wrongs or sue you bastards too.
N’est pas?
etc etc etc
---------- Original message ----------
From: Jody.Wilson-Raybould@parl.gc.ca
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2018 01:00:20 +0000
Subject: Automatic reply: Here is my latest complaint about the SEC, Banksters and Taxmen
To: motomaniac333@gmail.com
Thank you for writing to the Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould, Member of Parliament for Vancouver Granville.
This
message is to acknowledge that we are in receipt of your email. Due to
the significant increase in the volume of correspondence, there may be a
delay in processing your email. Rest assured that your message will be
carefully reviewed.
To help us address your concerns
more quickly, please include within the body of your email your full
name, address, and postal code.
Please note that your
message will be forwarded to the Department of Justice if it concerns
topics pertaining to the member's role as the Minister of Justice and
Attorney General of Canada. For all future correspondence addressed to
the Minister of Justice, please write directly to the Department of
Justice at mcu@justice.gc.ca or call 613-957-4222.
Thank you
-------------------
Merci d'?crire ? l'honorable Jody Wilson-Raybould, d?put?e de Vancouver Granville.
Le
pr?sent message vise ? vous informer que nous avons re?u votre
courriel. En raison d'une augmentation importante du volume de
correspondance, il pourrait y avoir un retard dans le traitement de
votre courriel. Sachez que votre message sera examin? attentivement.
Pour
nous aider ? r?pondre ? vos pr?occupations plus rapidement, veuillez
inclure dans le corps de votre courriel votre nom complet, votre adresse
et votre code postal.
Veuillez prendre note que votre message
sera transmis au minist?re de la Justice s'il porte sur des sujets qui
rel?vent du r?le de la d?put?e en tant que ministre de la Justice et
procureure g?n?rale du Canada. Pour toute correspondance future adress?e
? la ministre de la Justice, veuillez ?crire directement au minist?re
de la Justice ? mcu@justice.gc.ca ou appelez au 613-957-4222.
Merci
---------- Original message ----------
From: "The Campaign Office of Bill Casey, Cumberland-Colchester Liberal Candidate" Date: Tue, 20 Oct 2015 09:20:33 -0400 Subject: Thank you for your email re "Hey before you Red Coats swear an Oath to the Queen and the 42nd Parliament begins perhaps the turncoat Big Bad Billy Casey the Yankee carpetbagger David Lutz or some Boyz from NB should explain this lawsuit to you real slow." To: David Amos
Thank you very much for taking the time to email the campaign office for Bill Casey, the Liberal candidate for Cumberland-Colchester.
With the election campaign well under way, our office has gotten very busy. Your input is, as always, very important to us. If your email contains a question, we will make sure that you get a response as soon as we can, and we thank you for your patience with our process.
If you have any questions about Bill's campaign or would like to contribute to the campaign by volunteering, ordering a lawn sign, or making a donation, please see Bill's campaign website at (billcasey.liberal.ca).
Once again, thank you for your time, and we wish you a wonderful day.
Sincerely,
The Cumberland-Colchester Liberal Team _____________________________________________________________________________________
Merci d'avoir communiqué avec le bureau de campagne électorale de Bill Casey, candidat du Parti libéral pour la circonscription de Cumberland-Colchester.
Puisque la campagne électorale est bien entamée, notre bureau est en plein activité. Votre apport nous tient toujours à coeur. Si votre message nous posait une question, nous ferions de notre mieux à vous répondre aussitôt que possible, et nous vous remercions pour votre patience.
Si vous avez des questions par rapport à la campagne électorale de Bill, ou si vous désirez appuyer la campagne comme bénévole, monter un placard ou offrir votre soutien financière, veuillez visiter notre site web, (billcasey.liberal.ca).
Nous vous remercions encore pour votre intérêt et vous souhaitons une bonne journée.
Cordialement,
L'équipe du Parti libéral Cumberland-Colchester
---------- Original message ---------- From: justin.trudeau.a1@parl.gc.ca Date: Tue, 20 Oct 2015 13:20:44 +0000 Subject: Réponse automatique : Hey before you Red Coats swear an Oath to the Queen and the 42nd Parliament begins perhaps the turncoat Big Bad Billy Casey the Yankee carpetbagger David Lutz or some Boyz from NB should explain this lawsuit to you real slow. To: motomaniac333@gmail.com
Veuillez noter que j'ai changé de courriel. Vous pouvez me rejoindre à lalanthier@hotmail.com
Pour rejoindre le bureau de M. Trudeau veuillez envoyer un courriel à tommy.desfosses@parl.gc.ca
Please note that I changed email address, you can reach me at lalanthier@hotmail.com
To reach the office of Mr. Trudeau please send an email to tommy.desfosses@parl.gc.ca
Thank you,
Merci ,
---------- Original message ----------
From: Ministre de la Justice Ministre de la Justice <ministre@justice.gouv.qc.ca>
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2015 06:18:30 -0400
Subject: Rép. : Here is my latest complaint about the SEC, Banksters and Taxmen (Accusé de réception)
To: David Amos <motomaniac333@gmail.com>
Bonjour,
Nous accusons réception de votre courriel et vous remercions d'avoir communiqué avec la ministre de la Justice.
Nous vous assurons que votre demande sera traitée avec toute l'attention qu'elle mérite.
P.S.
Perhaps Chucky Leblanc's wannabe lawyers should check out the Criminal Code?
Canadian Criminal Code: Defense of Person Self-Defence Against
Unprovoked Assault ... /
Extent of justification.
34. (1) Every one who is unlawfully assaulted without having provoked
the assault is justified in repelling force by force if the force he
uses is not intended to cause death or grievous bodily harm and is no
more than is necessary to enable him to defend himself.
(2) Every one who is unlawfully assaulted and who causes death or
grievous bodily harm in repelling the assault is justified if
(a) he causes it under reasonable apprehension of death or grievous
bodily harm from the violence with which the assault was originally
made or with which the assailant pursues his purposes; and
(b) he believes, on reasonable grounds, that he cannot otherwise
preserve himself from death or grievous bodily harm.
[R.S. c.C-34, s.34.] Self-Defence In Case Of Aggression.
35. Every one who has without justification assaulted another but did
not commence the assault with intent to cause death or grievous bodily
harm, or has without justification provoked an assault on himself by
another, may justify the use of force subsequent to the assault if
(a) he uses the force
(i) under reasonable apprehension of death or grievous bodily harm
from the violence of the person whom he has assaulted or provoked, and
(ii) in the belief, on reasonable grounds, that it is necessary in
order to preserve himself from death or grievous bodily harm;
(b) he did not, at any time before the necessity of preserving himself
from death or grievous bodily harm arose, endeavour to cause death or
grievous bodily harm; and
(c) he declined further conflict and quitted or retreated from it as
far as it was feasible to do so before the necessity of preserving
himself from death or grievous bodily harm arose.
[R.S. c.C-34, s.35.] Provocation.
36. Provocation includes, for the purposes of sections 34 and 35,
provocation by blows, words or gestures.
Preventing Assault ... / Extent of justification.
37. (1) Every one is justified in using force to defend himself or any
one under his protection from assault, if he uses no more force than
is necessary to prevent the assault or the repetition of it.
(2) Nothing in this section shall be deemed to justify the wilful
infliction of any hurt or mischief that is excessive, having regard to
the nature of the assault that the force used was intended to prevent.
[R.S. c.C-34, s.37.]
Avis
de confidentialité: Ce message est confidentiel. Il est à l'usage
exclusif du destinataire ci-dessus. Toute autre personne est par les
présentes avisée qu'il lui est strictement interdit de le diffuser, de
le distribuer ou de le reproduire. Si le destinataire ne peut être joint
ou vous est inconnu, nous vous prions d'en informer immédiatement
l'expéditeur par courrier électronique et de détruire ce message et
toute copie de celui-ci.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "The Campaign Office of Bill Casey, Cumberland-Colchester
Liberal Candidate" <info@billcasey.ca>
Date: Thu, 08 Oct 2015 13:28:07 -0400
Subject: Thank you for your email re "Fwd: Here is my latest complaint
about the SEC, Banksters and Taxmen"
To: David Amos <motomaniac333@gmail.com>
Thank you very much for taking the time to email the campaign office
for Bill Casey, the Liberal candidate for Cumberland-Colchester.
With the election campaign well under way, our office has gotten very
busy. Your input is, as always, very important to us. If your email
contains a question, we will make sure that you get a response as soon
as we can, and we thank you for your patience with our process.
If you have any questions about Bill's campaign or would like to
contribute to the campaign by volunteering, ordering a lawn sign, or
making a donation, please see Bill's campaign website at
(billcasey.liberal.ca).
Once again, thank you for your time, and we wish you a wonderful day.
Sincerely,
The Cumberland-Colchester Liberal Team
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Merci d'avoir communiqué avec le bureau de campagne électorale de Bill
Casey, candidat du Parti libéral pour la circonscription de
Cumberland-Colchester.
Puisque la campagne électorale est bien entamée, notre bureau est en
plein activité. Votre apport nous tient toujours à coeur. Si votre
message nous posait une question, nous ferions de notre mieux à vous
répondre aussitôt que possible, et nous vous remercions pour votre
patience.
Si vous avez des questions par rapport à la campagne électorale de
Bill, ou si vous désirez appuyer la campagne comme bénévole, monter un
placard ou offrir votre soutien financière, veuillez visiter notre
site web, (billcasey.liberal.ca).
Nous vous remercions encore pour votre intérêt et vous souhaitons une
bonne journée.
Scott Brison Confirmed Liberal Party of Canada (902) 365-2588
Shelley Bibby Harry Mortimer
Megan Brown-Hodges Confirmed Rhinoceros Party (902) 300-0103
Andreè-Anne Bèdard Ashley Doyle
Will Cooper Confirmed Green Party of Canada Andrew Alan Horsnell
Stacey Campbell
Hugh Curry Confirmed New Democratic Party (902) 637-8683 Judy
Swift Brad Morse
David Morse Confirmed Conservative Party of Canada (902) 375-3222
Kevin MacDonald Brad Morse
Edd Twohig Confirmed Independent (902) 691-2866 Roland W. Hobbs
Gerald Reigh Bustin
Clifford James Williams Confirmed Independent (902) 223-7384
Phillip John Zamora Sheila Marie Doucette-Brison
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Higgs, Premier Blaine (PO/CPM)" <Blaine.Higgs@gnb.ca>
Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2020 13:41:28 +0000
Subject: Automatic reply: Methinks PM Trudeau The Younger can make
things right for all the thalidomide victims with a stroke of a pen
N'esy Pas Petey Baby MacKay and Franky Boy.McKenna?
To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com>
Thank you for taking the time to write to us.
Due to the high volume of emails that we receive daily, please note
that there may be a delay in our response. Thank you for your
understanding.
If this is a Media Request, please contact the Premier’s office at
(506) 453-2144.
Thank you.
Bonjour,
Nous vous remercions d’avoir pris le temps de nous écrire.
Tenant compte du volume élevé de courriels que nous recevons
quotidiennement, il se peut qu’il y ait un délai dans notre réponse.
Nous vous remercions de votre compréhension.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Premier of Ontario | Premier ministre de l’Ontario <Premier@ontario.ca>
Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2020 13:41:28 +0000
Subject: Automatic reply: Methinks PM Trudeau The Younger can make
things right for all the thalidomide victims with a stroke of a pen
N'esy Pas Petey Baby MacKay and Franky Boy.McKenna?
To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com>
Thank you for your email. Your thoughts, comments and input are greatly valued.
You can be assured that all emails and letters are carefully read,
reviewed and taken into consideration.
There may be occasions when, given the issues you have raised and the
need to address them effectively, we will forward a copy of your
correspondence to the appropriate government official. Accordingly, a
response may take several business days.
Thanks again for your email.
______
Merci pour votre courriel. Nous vous sommes très reconnaissants de
nous avoir fait part de vos idées, commentaires et observations.
Nous tenons à vous assurer que nous lisons attentivement et prenons en
considération tous les courriels et lettres que nous recevons.
Dans certains cas, nous transmettrons votre message au ministère
responsable afin que les questions soulevées puissent être traitées de
la manière la plus efficace possible. En conséquence, plusieurs jours
ouvrables pourraient s’écouler avant que nous puissions vous répondre.
Methinks
its obvious to Justice Michael Phelan and the lawyers working with
Crawford and Company that PM Trudeau the Younger can make things right
for all the victims with a stroke of a pen N'esy Pas?
Born with malformed limbs 52 years ago, thalidomide victim still fights for compensation
Noëlla Hébert hopes government will show compassion to aging thalidomide survivors denied assistance
Vanessa Blanch · CBC News · Posted: Jun 28, 2020 8:00 AM AT
Noëlla Hébert of Saint-Louis-de-Kent is one of three New Brunswickers
who have been excluded from federal government compensation for
thalidomide victims. (Vanessa Blanch/CBC)
Noëlla Hébert isn't scared of anything.
The 52-year-old
from Saint-Louis-de-Kent, who was born missing an arm and with
malformations in her other limbs, says after a lifetime of fighting for
acceptance and compensation, there isn't anything left for her to be
afraid of.
"I fought all my life to be to be looked at as a normal person," she said. "This has been a battle from the beginning."
Hébert is one of three New Brunswickers who are still in court,
after decades of arguing that they deserve to be recognized and
compensated as thalidomide victims and given assistance for their
far-reaching physical disabilities.
'I took a drug, Noëlla'
Hébert grew up in rural Kent County knowing she was different and knowing her mother carried an enormous burden of guilt.
"I
can remember my mom always said, 'I took a drug, I took a drug, Noëlla,
I took a drug.' But me, I didn't understand that … you always have in
the back of your mind, 'Why did she take that pill?'"
Hébert, at six, along with her mother, father and two older
brothers in a family photo from 1974. Hébert says everyone in her family
supported her, no matter what she wanted to do. (Submitted by Noëlla Hébert)
Thalidomide, promoted as a treatment for morning sickness, was approved and arrived in Canada as samples in 1959.
Canada
was one of the last countries to pull it from the shelves in 1962, but
Hébert and others believe it was still in circulation in rural New
Brunswick for years after.
Her mother, Marie, said that's what the local doctor gave her in 1967.
"She
took sick," said Hébert. "She had a very sore stomach. She had
insomnia. She couldn't sleep. And my grandma had just died. So that was
the creation of all that."
She explained that in the 1960s, when the village doctor gave you a bottle of pills, you didn't ask questions.
"People
were ignorant. They thought that medication were miracle cures," said
Hébert. "Back then, when you had an ailment if you could have the help
of a doctor — that was God."
Hébert was born without a left arm and with severe
malformations in her other limbs. Her right leg is very short and
attaches directly to her torso with muscles. She has no hips. A surgery
was performed to turn her foot to allow her to use her heel as a make
shift knee in her prosthetic leg. (Pierre Fournier/CBC)
There is no record that proves that the bottle of pills given
to Hébert's mother in 1967 contained thalidomide. There were few
pharmacies in rural New Brunswick, and it was common for doctors to give
medication directly to their patients. The lack of a prescription kept
Hébert and 166 others from being part of a federal compensation program
for victims in 2015.
"It was just a bottle of pills that was
given from one hand to the other," she said. "And so I did not have the
documents that the government wanted but I still was a thalidomide
victim."
'We got to push'
A 30-minute drive from Saint-Louis-de-Kent, Paul Richard was born in Rogersville in 1969 with malformed arms.
He
believes his shorter-than-normal right arm, twisted hand
and malformed left arm are the result of his mother also taking
thalidomide.
Paul Richard, seen here after having several surgeries on
his right arm, told his parents at the age of seven that he didn't want
to undergo any more operations. He says he 'made do' with his deformed
right arm and went on to be a heavy equipment operator. (Submitted by Paul Richard)
"She was given a pill to alleviate nausea during her pregnancy
and back then, well, they just took whatever doctors gave them and
didn't question anything," he said.
Richard had three major
surgeries on his right arm as a young child and remembers telling his
parents when he was seven years old that he wasn't going to have any
more.
"I made do with what I had," he said. "I played hockey all my life — I wasn't Wayne Gretzky but I had fun."
As far as he knows, his legs are fine. Richard jokes he's always been able to "run from trouble."
The
husband and father of two worked as a heavy equipment operator at his
father's business when he finished school. When he could no longer cope
with the physical demands, he changed careers and became a highway
maintenance supervisor and now works in an office.
Richard worked for years as a heavy equipment operator until
the pain in his good arm sent him to a doctor, and he found out his
good arm was also malformed. He considers himself lucky to have been
able to change careers twice in his life. (Submitted by Paul Richard)
Richard said he probably would have given up his battle for
compensation, but Hébert is his mentor and if she keeps fighting, he
will too.
"Thank God for Noëlla. I would give up but she keeps on telling me, 'We got to push.'"
'My body is my record'
Hébert,
Richard and another New Brunswick man, from Val-Comeau, near
Tracadie-Sheila, were among the 167 people who were rejected from the
2015 Thalidomide Survivors Contribution Program, which included a lump
sum payment of $125,000, ongoing support payments and access to a
medical assistance fund.
We're not fraudsters, we are victims.
-Noëlla Hébert
Even
though their mothers have both signed affidavits saying they took
thalidomide while they were pregnant, and even though genetics reports
and doctors all point to thalidomide as the cause of their disabilities,
neither Richard nor Hébert qualified.
"They put us all in the
same basket that we would all try to fraud the system," Hébert said of
the third-party the government hired to determine who would qualify for
the government program.
"But we're not fraudsters, we are
victims. It's really really clear to see my body is my record — When you
see me you can't unsee me."
Hébert has a prosthetic leg and has undergone several
surgeries on both legs to allow her to walk. She has no hips and
explains her legs are held in place with muscles. (Pierre Fournier/CBC)
Gesturing to her missing left arm, she points out the tip of a
finger that pokes out of her shoulder. Her right arm looks normal, but
has four skeletal malformations, including a thumb that is more like a
fifth finger.
Her "good leg" does not have a hip and she has
required reconstructive surgeries to allow her to walk.
On the other
side, she has a very short leg that is attached to her torso, again with
no hip. She has undergone a surgery to turn her small foot backwards so
she can use her heel as a makeshift knee in her prosthetic leg.
Forgotten victims
After 52 years, Hébert explained, her continued fight isn't about the money.
She wants Canadians to recognize that she and others have lived their entire lives with severe disabilities and discrimination.
Hébert
considers herself one of the "lucky" survivors, because she was born
with a "firecracker personality" and a family who saw her as normal.
"My
mom says that … when she looks at me, yes, I'm deformed. But when she
looks aside she pictures me as a normal child. That's the picture she
had to create in her mind to be able to cope with this."
Hébert uses a scooter to get around her home. She does not
have a ramp to get into the house and bought the scooter at a bargain
price from a seller on Kijiji. (Pierre Fournier/CBC)
Hébert laughs as she remembers her big brother's reaction when, as a child, she told him she wanted to learn to swim.
"He said, 'OK, let's go.' There was no, 'How are we going to do that?' or 'You can't do it.'"
Hébert
went on to attend university and to become a lawyer. It was one of the
most difficult times of her life not because of the academics, but
because it was nearly impossible for her to walk from her dorm at the
University of Moncton to her classes.
"When you only have one
leg and you have to walk in three inches of snow and the leg's not going
— that was my biggest, biggest challenge," she said. "How many times I
fell on the snow, in the snow with my 50 pounds of books on my back and
came to my dorm crying and called my dad, my mom."
Hébert graduated from the University of Moncton law school and has been a practising lawyer for more than 20 years. (Submitted by Noella Hebert)
Again, Hébert's family encouraged her not to give up when she was ready to quit.
"My
dad would say, 'Well go to bed, pray, put some A535 [medicated cream]
and the first thing I want you to do when you open your eyes, call me
and tell me how is it going.' And just on cue the next day it was always
going a little bit better."
Hopes rise and fall
In
January 2019, Hébert and Richard were hopeful once again when then
minister of health Ginette Petipas-Taylor announced a new compensation
program for those turned down in 2015.
We didn't ask for that pill to be introduced in Canada, but we had to deal with the consequence.
- Paul Richard
The
Canadian Thalidomide Survivors Support Program promised a one-time
payment of $250,000, annual payments based on the person's level of
disability and access to a medical assistance fund.
But their hopes were quickly extinguished. This time the hurdle wasn't missing documents, it was birth dates.
The
first step of the preliminary screening for the new program is that you
were born within five years of March 2, 1962, when thalidomide was
pulled from shelves in Canada.
"They said, 'Well if the drug was
still on the shelves after five years that we pulled it off the market,
it should have been expired.' And then they added nine months for the
birth of the child," Hébert said.
Anyone born after Dec. 21,
1967, will not be considered for compensation in this latest
program. Hébert was born five weeks too late, on Jan. 31, 1968.
"It's
the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen but I'm not surprised," she
said. "We supposedly die about 10 years to 15 years younger of what we
are supposed to. They're just playing with time."
Quest for closure, compensation
"We always miss the boat," said Richard.
For him, the compensation would "help immensely," but more important would be to finally be recognized as a victim.
"I
know everyone wants something from the government," he said. "We didn't
ask for that pill to be introduced in Canada, but we had to deal with
the consequence."
Richard understands the fact that his birthday
also falls outside of the eligible dates is a hurdle, but he hopes it
won't be insurmountable.
Richard, seen here with his wife and two daughters, says
being recognized as a victim of thalidomide would give him some closure.
He says victims have suffered their entire lives because Canada allowed
the drug to be sold. (Submitted by Paul Richard)
He is calling on the Canadian government to consider what life
was like back in the 1960s in rural New Brunswick. It was a time when
doctors handed out medication, and no one threw anything away.
"All those medications could have stayed in a medicine cabinet for a few years and when they needed it, they would take it."
Like Hébert, he worries his body will continue to deteriorate, and he will need more support as he gets older.
Judge urges government to reconsider
The
legal battle for Hébert and Richard continues. This month they appealed
a ruling by Federal Court Justice Michael Phelan that would effectively
close the door to them ever receiving any compensation.
Lawyer
Alyssa Tomkins, a partner with Caza Saikaley, is representing Hébert and
Richard, along with another New Brunswicker, pro bono.
She
explained the 167 people who were refused government compensation in
2015 had launched a class-action lawsuit, which was settled in May.
Lawyer Alyssa Tomkins is appealing a court ruling that
settles a class action lawsuit by thalidomide survivors. The settlement
order, which is tied to a 2019 compensation program, would leave Hébert
and Richard out. (http://www.plaideurs.ca)
The settlement order applies to all members of the suit,
including Hébert and Richard, and means they have to accept the new 2019
program, even though it excludes them and 40 others based on their
birth dates.
Tomkins
is arguing that based on the negative or "deleterious" effects of the
settlement on so many class members, the order should be set aside.
"Effectively,
the settlement provides little benefit, we've alleged, to class members
within the birth date framework. And yet it's devastating to those
outside it," she said.
Let's
work with integrity and let's show our hearts. We may have done
mistakes in the past but it's never too late to show compassion.
- Noëlla Hébert
Tomkins
worries that if the settlement holds up, it will make it "extremely
difficult" for victims to ever get the government aid they are entitled
to.
In his ruling, Phelan also raised concern about the birth
date parameters set by the 2019 compensation program and said there was a
"less than clear" explanation from government as to why it was
necessary.
"Canada's explanation for its rigid approach, while
coldly scientific, lacked the compassion for the individual which the
government espoused," he wrote.
In his May decision, Justice Michael Phelan encourages the
government of Canada to reconsider birth date requirements that exclude
at least 42 people from a new compensation program for thalidomide
survivors. (Federal Court of Canada)
"Some of the individuals failed to qualify by a matter of a few
weeks — their stories were tragic and compelling. Class
counsel recognized the problem but on this issue Canada was
intractable."
Phelan said if it was within the power of the court, he would have struck out the date parameters.
"Regrettably, the court is powerless to do anything about this issue, other than to encourage a compassionate reconsideration."
Phelan
goes on to acknowledge that class members are advancing in age and have
increasing requirements because of their disabilities.
"Time is not their friend, if not yet their enemy."
Despite
this setback, Hébert is undeterred and ever hopeful that the many
politicians she has met with over the years will reconsider and put an
end to this "nonsense."
"It's never too late. We can say, 'The
past was the past. Let's talk with integrity now. Let's work with
integrity and let's show our hearts.' We may have done mistakes in the
past but it's never too late to show compassion."
'I am a hero of history'
Hébert's
sense of humour is still in tact as she talks about some of the
accommodations she needs to continue to live in her own home.
"I
don't have a ramp to bring my scooter with me in my truck. I don't have
a ramp outside my door. I don't have the [modified] steering wheel
because my steering wheel is too heavy for me to turn on my SUV."
"It costs an arm and a leg — which I don't have," she jokes.
Compensation would allow Hébert to afford accommodations
such as a ramp for her home, a ramp to be able to transport her scooter
in her truck and an adaptive device to allow her to continue to drive. (Vanessa Blanch/CBC)
She knows the body
she was born with will never allow her to do what her spirit would
like, but she still looks forward to a day with simple accommodations —
raised garden beds, for instance, so she can grow plants on her deck.
"It's about the recognition of being who I am," she said.
"I
am a hero of history. I've conquered the world with a not normal body
and instead of looking at us with eyes of pity, they should say to us,
'Oh my God — you're champions. You should have a medal.'"
Vanessa
Blanch is a reporter based in Moncton. She has worked across the
country for CBC for 20 years. If you have story ideas to share please
email: vanessa.blanch@cbc.ca
89 Comments Commenting is now closed for this story.
larry beggs Content disabled (These nasty words were among the first 15 comments that I saved in this blog out of the gate. My question is how many more comments did CBC edit for the benefit of Trudeau et al?) I'm
sure being crippled is not fun, whether born or in an accident, l can
understand compensation in a case of accidents, but being born with any
birth defects, is not our governing problems. From the looks in these
photos, she is not in the slums, looks more like a case of needing money
to keep up with huge house payments. You have a nice wheelchair and
office. Sorry, but I'm not for sympathy in what I see or hear in this
case.
I deemed this comment by Madame Edie to be the most informative Scroll down to see why
This comment by Mr Denis should make anyone with a conscience find some empathy
Gord Denis My
mom had morning sickness really severely during her first 6 pregnancies.
My mom took it in 1959, I was born without physical deformity but my
twin did not survive birth and was "not normal". I didn't even know I
had a twin until my eldest sister told me about it about 20 years ago
and the details were horrible. My Mom never told me.
To think these folks have suffered harm for decades without so much as
an apology or compensation is completely "not right" and shameful to the
point of potential criminal liability. The story was buried for decades
and still drags on into the 21st Century.
Methinks the rest of the comments I opted to save are interesting to say the least N'esy Pas?
pete prosser Thalidomide's
discovery was not all bad as drugs with very similar chemical
strutcture are now FDA approved and very effective against psoriasis
and psoriatic arthritis , is an effective cytokine regulator , the same
"cytokine storm" that causes the immune system to go into overdrive in
Covid-19 patients and results in their death. One of these similars is
set to be tested as a Covid-19 lifesaving drug , the owner of that drug
sold it last year for over 13 billlion dollars.
Kenneth Hewer our governments are
disgusting. meanwhile they fly first class, top rated accommodations and
dining, unlimited expense accounts, lavish gifts, over the top salaries
and benefits. To ignore thalidomide victims' right to compensation is
CRIMINAL.
Jennifer Pugsley Unconscionable
excluding these people from compensation over the lack of a
prescription record! Gimme a break! New Brunswick in the 60's; it
doesn't get more rural than that. This decision needs to be reversed
YESTERDAY.
Alan MacLean Grunenthal,
the pharmaceutical company which created the thalidomide disaster, is
still in the business of making drugs and has paid basically no
compensation to the thousands of victims outside Germany.
Rod Hebner If
the government can come up with a pension for Dean Del Maestro, they can
come up with something for people who, through no fault of their own,
got short changed long before they got too fat to be useful.
Catherine Elcombe Individuals
and families who suffer from "FAIL" drugs like thalidomide and vaccine
brain damage issues should all be compensated for losses and lifetime
injuries...get the funds from PHARMA or from taxpayers but get the job
done...and why doesn't CANADA provide vaccine damage compensation plans
that some 19 other developed countries provide because vaccines can and
do cause serious damage or death for some recipients?
Murray Gelatino I see a pattern with big pharma, public health and abuse.
Victoria Kopak Government have a lot of money to pay 10 mil lions here and there but some measly compensation? No!
Tammy Edie Bottom
line is, all these individuals are now in there mid 50's or so, and
250,000 is a drop in the bucket to what MP's spends on themselves
(expenses related to job that taxpayers pay for). So just do the right
thing and payout the money now! I'm sick and tired of having a
Conservative government when the country was promised a Liberal one.
Trudeau show some compassion for once!!
Sharon Harrison
Reply to @Tammy Edie: He did - he pledged 300 million in foreign aid for COVID. (yes this is sarcasm)
Evola Green The
PM announced yesterday that "Canada pledges $300 million to address
humanitarian concerns of COVID-19 abroad." Always leaping to throw our
tax dollars overseas. Yet for these Canadian victims of the Thalidomide
horror, nothing. What a disgusting inversion of priorities.
Wayne Wright
Reply to @Evola Green: Trudeau will not buy a UN seat no matter how much money he pledges. Clear up this File finally.
Jim Donald But 300 million to other countries, no problem. Help for veterans, people with disabilities. Problem.
Tammy Edie How
cruel that this government again turns its back on people living wiyh
these extreme physical disabilities. These people are true survivors of a
horrific drug.
Wayne Wright
Reply to @Tammy Edie:
and more importantly why has it taken the Canadian Govts so many
decades to address this Thalidomide disaster?
Tammy Edie
Reply to @Wayne Wright: I'm aware, I just JT would be better than Harper.
Wayne Wright
Reply to @Tammy Edie:
every PM let this file float far to long. Harper is long gone JT is no
better than other previous PMs over 5+ Years in office throwing money
to foreign countries like a drunken sailor.
steve jackson Another homegrown Canadian health disaster and our governments response has also been very Canadian.
George Smith Reply to @bert day: " if anyone should get sued, it's the druggist or the drug store."
No druggist or drug store is allowed to just sell drugs to people. First
and foremost all drugs have to be Federally Approved. Second a
qualified Doctor must give a prescription for the drug. The reality is
that Druggists are just supplying what the doctor ordered and the
government approved.
Jane Martin
Reply to @George Smith:
I believe many doctors are given samples by drug companies and they give
those samples to their patients, no prescription would be provided for
evidence of that.
Jos Allaire
Reply to @Jane
Martin: Yup, follow the money. And they give a lot of money to medical
schools. Like religion, it's who teaches them at bible school. Never
bite the hand of the ones who feed you.
George Smith
Reply to @Jane Martin:
Just take a minute and think about what you're saying. You are right
about the samples and doctors do sometimes give them to patients however
that's not as common as you think. It's samples not big lots of drugs
and therefore a small quantity are given by the doctor to a very few
patients. They are still controlled drugs and Doctors would have to
account for them. That would be the evidence.
George Smith How
can any government after a simple look at these people not agree with
their situation and give them the compensation they've given to others?
This fits to a T the old adage "if walks like a duck and talks like a
duck it's probably a duck". This case falls into the category of Common
Sense. Why are our governments continually fighting citizens who by all
reasonable evidence are what the claim to be? Using technicalities to
stop legitimate claims is wrong.
John Grail For all those who have blind trust in pharmaceutical companies, this is a prime example of why not to...
Wayne Wright
Reply to @John Grail:
that is fine, but it's the Government who approve of the drugs
supposedly after rigorous testing. Truly we can't blame pharmaceutical
companies solely.
Murray
Gelatino
Reply to @Wayne Wright: How about physicians or does malpractice cover it?
Wayne Wright
Reply to @Murray
Gelatino: in that time frame, it was a common practice particularly with
rural doctors. Not a malpractice when the drug was approved by Govt.
Murray
Gelatino
Reply to @Wayne Wright: She is 52? The time frame seems long.
John Grail
Reply to @Wayne
Wright: The government is in bed with the pharmaceutical companies. If
you think you can trust them either you are deluding yourself.
Wayne Wright
Reply to @Murray Gelatino: so what, affected Canadians have been fighting for decades; it's not new action.
Tammy Edie
Reply to @Wayne Wright: Would you trust a drug that was developed in Germany in the1950's? Only five years after WW11 ended?
John Grail
Reply to @Tammy Edie:
There are very few drugs I trust, period. And most of them are natural.
Like acetylsalicylic acid whose precursor can be found in trees. Mind
you I take like maybe half a dozen over-the-counter medication doses in
an entire year.
Wayne Wright
Reply to @Tammy Edie:
if our Govt approved it for our use, of course. Like you i've no
scientific or medical training; one has to trust the Doctors &
Pharmicists.
John Grail Reply to @Wayne
Wright: One does not need to trust the government, doctors or
pharmacists. That is somewhat the point of my post.
Christine
Beckett It
would be the Canadian thing to do to provide an **ongoing federal fund
for all victims of congenital deformities**, regardless of cause.
Whoever is born with such challenges has legitimate needs. Lives
healthily facilitated are in the long run far less costly to a
government.
steve jackson
Reply to @Christine
Beckett: The Canadian way is how our government has supported people
impacted by this tragedy, which was the result of the government.
Nicholas Thomas Probably
cost the government (and hence us) far more wasting time finding
reasons to not pay compensation than it would have cost to pay it :(
Wayne Wright Reply to @Nicholas Thomas: with a tone of lawyers in tow.
bert day This
all happened years after the drug was banned in Canada. Sad. Very sad.
But if anyone should get sued, it's the druggist or the drug store.
Larry Larson
Reply to @bert day: In the story it says a doctor kept it in his office. For some reason, we are supposed to trust doctors.
George Smith
Reply to @bert day:
No druggist or drug store is allowed to just sell drugs to people. First
and foremost all drugs have to be Federally Approved. Second a
qualified Doctor must give a prescription for the drug. The reality is
that Druggists are just supplying what the doctor ordered and the
government approved.
Wayne Wright
Reply to @bert day:
your youth is showing; 60-70 yrs ago Doctors had plenty of sample
bottles of various drugs intended to be distributed by the Doctor. This
is not as common today.
Mac Isaac It's
absolutely ridiculous, and yes I know I'm going to take some flak for
this but, it's stupidly ridiculous to conflate what happened with
"thalidomide babies" and the process now used for new drugs and
vaccines. In fact there are still applications being used for
thalidomide...just not for pregnant women with morning sickness. In the
future will there most likely be similar consequences for under-tested
drugs? Undoubtedly, there will be but that doesn't mean we should bury
our heads in the sand and remain petrified in place by illness and
disease.
James Smythe
Reply to @Mac Isaac: "
that doesn't mean we should bury our heads in the sand and remain
petrified in place by illness and disease. "
Don't say that too loud, that's exactly what our government wants in our
new medically induced police state. Welcome to the watch list! I was
getting lonely.
Lou Bell
Reply to @James Smythe: congrats ! There are now TWO of you !!!
Jos
Allaire
Reply to @Lou Bell: , Form taw djeule, moody Ted on flay! Two fay an foll the toi.
Mac Isaac
Reply to @James
Smythe: Stuff it! I fight my own battles and don't want or need any
"help" from you or anyone who thinks like you do!
Beverley Kernan This scenario is so very sad, but also very ironic.
Today, when life-changing or game-changing events occur (thinking
accidents, children born with mental and/or physical challenges, victims
of crime etc), there are amazing support systems out there to help
guide new parents, their children ... almost anyone whose life has
experienced a major 'event'.
The life-changing event for thalidomide victims and their parents happened just several weeks
into their gestation. Not to be revealed until birth.
There was little knowledge,then, as to effects of cigarettes, alcohol,
even emotions on unborn children, let alone drugs ... compared to the
information available now. And think of the diagnostic equipment now
used on unborn children in the event of problems and how
corrective surgeries for physical defects are now corrected in utero.
None of that was available then ... These persons are living proof of:
"What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger".
They do deserve medals for their bravery, persistence and accomplishments!!!
As do their parents and families!! BRAVO!!
And they do deserve the compensation and financial support that may be
required as they age. Especially when it has been scientifically
proven that their deformities were caused
by thalidomide. And especially when those deformities happened in the early stages of
their mother's pregnancies, not at their births. The time parameters need to be dropped.
Mac Isaac Reply to @Beverley Kernan: Well said Ms Kernan.
Ben
Haroldson Gives you a real good feeling about the fast track on coronavirus vaccine contest doesn't it. I surely won't be first in line.
Lou Bell
Reply to @Ben
Haroldson: Time to get out of the SIXTIES and the 20th Century !@ We're
20 % through the 21st Century and many are still living in the MID 20th
Century !!
Jos Allaire
Reply to @Lou Bell: What would you know about the 21st century?
Ben Haroldson
Reply to @Lou Bell: What you mean looee looii?
Lieschen Mueller
Reply to @Ben Haroldson: Yes, thalidomide was seemingly also rushed through.
David News I
can certainly empathize with these individuals, but I am not sure that I
see the connection with the lawsuits and the government. To me the
doctor or doctors involved giving away medication that was either expire
and or banned in Canada at the time is the guilty party.
Not the government. Where as initially when the drug was coming on the
market and sanctioned, there is government accountability. But not 5
years after the drug was banned.
Jos
Allaire
Reply to @David News: The doctors and pharmacies are all gone.
Mac Isaac
Reply to @Jos Allaire:
I really hate to bring another topic into the conversation, but if we
can apologize for he grievous errors or criminal acts of generations
50-100-200 years ago, surely we can at least help to rectify or at the
very least help, those who were grievously and physically damaged by the
dereliction of those responsible for prescribing thalidomide for women
experiencing morning sickness, so the clock might well have run out on
suing the companies who thought the drug could be used for morning
sickness. There continue to be other uses for the drug, including the
treatment of some cancers, but most certainly government has a tacit
responsibility to care for those people harmed by thalidomide.
David News
Reply to @Jos
Allaire: Jos I do understand that. I believe that even though this is
very sad, the government should be assisting them with the benefits that
are available to the disabled.
But I would not agree that there should be financial compensation from
the government (taxpayers) for something that an individual did ( the
doctor) that was illegal. Providing medication that had been banned.
Kris Boucher I
often say in some of my comments about how blindly following the herd
can get you into trouble. Such as “thalidomide”, yet people still choose
to stretch out their arm or put out their tongue and be big pharma’s
test subjects.
Now not everything they do is bad they have created some drugs that help
people but there are usually failures as well, but it’s when they
choose profit over “marginal acceptable losses” and by that I mean
deformities, cancer, cardiovascular anomalies, oh and death and that you
see is the problem. The next time you go to your doctor or pharmacist
for a vaccine, ask to see the insert of the drug they are about to
administer and do your own research it may save your life. Also if you
receive medication for certain medical conditions, make sure you read
the side effects and what’s in your medication do your research it may
save your life.
In short folks life is all about decisions, some good some bad but in
the end we are all responsible for our own path. I hope this woman and
the thousands of others who were harmed by big pharma, get the
compensation they deserve. We have to draw the line somewhere and say we
won’t be fooled again.
James Smythe
Reply to @Kris
Boucher: Just wait until the “rigorously tested” covid vaccine gets to
market that everyone will be clamouring for.
Ben Haroldson
Reply to @James Smythe: yes, wonder who the winner will be in that contest.
Michael G. L. Geraldson
Reply to @Kris Boucher:
Kris, your advice to read the drug's product insert first is spot on. I
didn't use to until I was prescribed a medication for panic attacks
resulting from a car accident. I began having serious side effects and
was convinced I had developed a serious ailment. I finally put two and
two together and read the insert. All of the side effects I had were
listed there. Now I won't even fill a prescripton without researching it
first.
Lou Bell
Reply to @Kris
Boucher: Maybe just get outta the 20th Century and into the 21st ! You
and James are 70 years behind and slipping further back every year !
What drugs of today are causing cancer , deformities cardiovascular
anomalies and death ???? And how many ?? I could guarantee there is no
comparison in how many lives and extended lives todays drugs save and
prolong as the drugs you and Jimmie are afraid of FROM 3/4 OF A CENTURY
AGO !!!!!!!!!!!!!
James Smythe
Reply to @Lou Bell:
Lou you are simply the extremely vocal minority here. Your abuse of
punctuation doesn't make your point any more valid, in fact it tends to
have quite the opposite effect
.
Jos Allaire
Reply to @James Smythe: Old Lou is living i the past and thinks she's in the 21st century although she doesn't have a clue.
Ben Haroldson
Reply to @Lou Bell: Bravo . well ranted.....again.
Wayne Wright
Reply to @Michael G. L. Geraldson: yup and have you noticed most side-effects for many-to-most drugs are identical.
Jos Allaire
Reply to @Ben Haroldson: Don't mind her, she's not all there.
---------- Original message ----------
From: "Higgs, Premier Blaine (PO/CPM)" <Blaine.Higgs@gnb.ca>
Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2020 01:29:28 +0000
Subject: Automatic reply: Methinks I should remind the local Health
Minister Teddy Flemming while he still has the job that I still don't
have my Health Care Card YET N'esy Pas Ginette Petitpas Taylor?
To: David Amos <motomaniac333@gmail.com>
Thank you for taking the time to write to us.
Due to the high volume of emails that we receive daily, please note
that there may be a delay in our response. Thank you for your
understanding.
If this is a Media Request, please contact the Premier’s office at
(506) 453-2144.
Thank you.
Bonjour,
Nous vous remercions d’avoir pris le temps de nous écrire.
Tenant compte du volume élevé de courriels que nous recevons
quotidiennement, il se peut qu’il y ait un délai dans notre réponse.
Nous vous remercions de votre compréhension.
---------- Original message ----------
From: "Anderson-Mason, Andrea Hon. (JAG/JPG)" <Andrea.AndersonMason@gnb.ca>
Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2020 01:29:33 +0000
Subject: Automatic reply: Methinks I should remind the local Health
Minister Teddy Flemming while he still has the job that I still don't
have my Health Care Card YET N'esy Pas Ginette Petitpas Taylor?
To: David Amos <motomaniac333@gmail.com>
Thank you for your email. Your thoughts, comments and input are
greatly valued. You can be assured that all emails and letters are
carefully read, reviewed and taken into consideration.
If your issue is Constituency related, please contact Lisa Bourque at
my constituency office at Lisa.Bourque@gnb.caLisa.Bourque@gnb.ca
> or (506) 755-2810.
Thank you.
Merci pour votre courriel. Nous vous sommes très reconnaissants de
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Merci.
Andrea Anderson-Mason, Q.C. / c.r.
---------- Original message ----------
From: "Wilson, Mary Hon. (ONB)" <Mary.Wilson@gnb.ca>
Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2020 01:29:29 +0000
Subject: Automatic reply: Methinks I should remind the local Health
Minister Teddy Flemming while he still has the job that I still don't
have my Health Care Card YET N'esy Pas Ginette Petitpas Taylor?
To: David Amos <motomaniac333@gmail.com>
Thank you for your email. Your thoughts, comments and input are greatly valued.
You can be assured that all emails and letters are carefully read,
reviewed and taken into consideration.
There may be occasions when, given the issues you have raised and the
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Thank you again for your email.
----------------------------
Merci pour votre courriel. Nous vous sommes très reconnaissants de
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Si votre demande est liée à la circonscription, veuillez contacter
Carole à mon bureau de circonscription à Oromocto à Carole.Caron2@gnb.caCarole.Caron@gnb.ca> ou par téléphone au
506-357-1177.
Merci encore pour votre courriel.
---------- Original message ----------
From: "Austin, Kris (LEG)" <Kris.Austin@gnb.ca>
Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2020 01:29:28 +0000
Subject: Automatic reply: Methinks I should remind the local Health
Minister Teddy Flemming while he still has the job that I still don't
have my Health Care Card YET N'esy Pas Ginette Petitpas Taylor?
To: David Amos <motomaniac333@gmail.com>
Thank you for your email.
Please be assured that all emails and letters are read carefully.
Should your issue be Constituency related, please contact Janet at my
constituency office at janet.johnston@gnb.ca or by calling 444-4530 or
440-9542.
Thanks again for taking the time to reach out to me with your concerns or input.
Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick Assemblée législative du Nouveau-Brunswick
Office of Kris Austin, MLA Bureau de Kris Austin, député
506-462-5875 506-462-5875
---------- Original message ----------
From: "Mitton, Megan (LEG)" <Megan.Mitton@gnb.ca>
Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2020 01:29:29 +0000
Subject: Automatic reply: Methinks I should remind the local Health
Minister Teddy Flemming while he still has the job that I still don't
have my Health Care Card YET N'esy Pas Ginette Petitpas Taylor?
To: David Amos <motomaniac333@gmail.com>
Thank you for contacting me. This response is to assure you that your
message has been received.
I welcome and appreciate receiving comments and questions from
constituents. All emails are reviewed on a regular basis, however due
to the high volume of emails my office is currently receiving, I may
not be able to respond personally to each one.
A toll-free information line and email address has been set up to help
answer non-health related COVID-19 questions, including questions
about compliance with the state of emergency. The number,
1-844-462-8387, is operational seven days a week. The email address is helpaide@gnb.ca.
Merci de m'avoir contacté. Ce courriel a pour but de vous assurer que
votre message a bien été reçu. Je vous invite à me faire part de vos
commentaires et de vos questions.
Tous les courriels sont révisés régulièrement, mais en raison du
volume élevé de courriels que mon bureau reçoit, il se peut que je ne
sois pas en mesure de répondre personnellement à chacun.
Une ligne d’information sans frais et une adresse courriel ont été
mises sur pied afin d’aider à répondre aux questions sur la COVID-19
qui ne sont pas reliées à la santé, y compris les questions relatives
à la conformité à l’état d’urgence. Le service est offert dans les
deux langues officielles. Les gens peuvent téléphoner au
1-844-462-8387 sept jours par semaine. L’adresse courriel est : helpaide@gnb.ca.
Pour les demandes des médias, veuillez appeler: 506-429-2285.
Megan Mitton
Member of the Legislative Assembly/Députée
Memramcook - Tantramar megan.mitton@gnb.ca
506-378-1565
---------- Original message ----------
From: Newsroom <newsroom@globeandmail.com>
Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2020 01:29:29 +0000
Subject: Automatic reply: Methinks I should remind the local Health
Minister Teddy Flemming while he still has the job that I still don't
have my Health Care Card YET N'esy Pas Ginette Petitpas Taylor?
To: David Amos <motomaniac333@gmail.com>
Thank you for contacting The Globe and Mail.
If your matter pertains to newspaper delivery or you require technical
support, please contact our Customer Service department at
1-800-387-5400 or send an email to customerservice@globeandmail.com
This is the correct email address for requests for news coverage and
press releases.
---------- Original message ----------
From: Adam Huras <huras.adam@brunswicknews.com>
Date: Sun, 28 Jun 2020 18:29:29 -0700
Subject: On leave. Re: Methinks I should remind the local Health
Minister Teddy Flemming while he still has the job that I still don't
have my Health Care Card YET N'esy Pas Ginette Petitpas Taylor?
To: motomaniac333@gmail.com
Thanks for the email.
That said, I'm am currently on paternity leave for two weeks.
I will be back at it on Monday, July 13.
David Raymond Amos @DavidRayAmos Replying to @DavidRayAmos @alllibertynews and 49 others Methinks its obvious to Justice Justice Michael Phelan and the lawyers working with Crawford and Company that PM Trudeau the Younger can make things right for all the victims with a stroke of a pen N'esy Pas?
Born with malformed limbs 52 years ago, thalidomide victim still fights for compensation Noëlla Hébert hopes government will show compassion to aging thalidomide survivors denied assistance
Vanessa Blanch · CBC News · Posted: Jun 28, 2020 8:00 AM AT
> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: "Gallant, Premier Brian (PO/CPM)" <Brian.Gallant@gnb.ca> > Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2018 10:58:34 +0000 > Subject: RE: Methinks I should remind the local Health Minister Benoît > Bourque while he still has the job that I still don't have my Health > Care Card YET N'esy Pas Ginette Petitpas Taylor? > To: David Amos <motomaniac333@gmail.com> > > Thank you for writing to the Premier of New Brunswick. Please be > assured that your email will be reviewed. > > If this is a media request, please forward your email to > media-medias@gnb.camedia-medias@gnb.ca>. Thank you!
>
> *************************************
>
> Nous vous remercions d’avoir communiqué avec le premier ministre du
> Nouveau-Brunswick. Soyez assuré(e) que votre courriel sera examiné.
>
> Si ceci est une demande médiatique, prière de la transmettre à
> media-medias@gnb.camedia-medias@gnb.ca>. Merci!
>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Ginette.PetitpasTaylor@parl.gc.ca
> Date: Thu, 1 Nov 2018 19:08:54 +0000
> Subject: RE: Methinks I should remind the local Health Minister Benoît
> Bourque while he still has the job that I still don't have my Health
> Care Card YET N'esy Pas Ginette Petitpas Taylor?
> To: motomaniac333@gmail.com
>
> Dear Mr. Amos,
>
>
>
> On behalf of the Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor, I would like to
> acknowledge receipt of your correspondence and I thank you for
> writing.
>
>
>
> The Member welcomes the views of her constituents on the issues that
> are important to them, whether supportive or critical.
>
>
>
> You may rest assured that your comments and suggestions have been duly
> noted and are appreciated.
>
>
>
> Once again, thank you for taking the time to write.
>
>
> Respectfully yours,
> Patti
> [cid:image002.png@01D471FD.32DE48C0]
>
> Patti Trites
> Executive Assistant/Adjointe exécutive
> The Hon./l’hon. Ginette Petitpas Taylor, P.C./c.p.
> Member of Parliament/députée
> Moncton-Riverview-Dieppe
> Constituency Office/Bureau de circonscription
> 272 rue St. George St., Suite 110
> Moncton, NB E1C 1W6
> Tel/Tél: (506) 851-4987 Fax/Téléc.: (506) 851-3273
>
>
> [cid:image003.jpg@01D471FD.32DE48C0]<http://gpetitpastaylor.liberal.ca/>[cid:image004.jpg@01D471FD.32DE48C0]<https://www.facebook.com/ginetteptaylor/?fref=ts>[cid:image005.png@01D471FD.32DE48C0]<https://twitter.com/GPTaylorMRD>
> PENSEZ AVANT D'IMPRIMER P THINK BEFORE PRINTING
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Amos [mailto:motomaniac333@gmail.com]
> Sent: October-25-18 7:58 AM
> To: Benoit.Bourque; Petitpas Taylor, Ginette - M.P.; Dominic.Cardy;
> kelly; tj; lou.lafleur; David.Coon; bruce.northrup;
> keith.chiasson@gnb.ca; gerry.lowe@gnb.ca; jacques.j.leblanc@gnb.ca;
> jean-claude.d'amours@gnb.ca; robert.mckee@gnb.ca; megan.mitton@gnb.ca;
> kevin.a.arseneau@gnb.ca; robert.gauvin@gnb.ca; mike.holland@gnb.ca;
> greg.thompson2@gnb.ca; andrea.anderson-mason@gnb.ca;
> mary.wilson@gnb.ca; kris.austin@gnb.ca; michelle.conroy@gnb.ca;
> rick.desaulniers; blaine.higgs; oldmaison; andre; Mark.Blakely;
> Gilles.Blinn; martin.gaudet; mike.obrien; Leanne.Fitch; premier;
> brian.gallant; Alex.Johnston; Catherine.Tait; Chuck.Thompson;
> darrow.macintyre; sylvie.gadoury; jesse; jesse; jessica.hume; Joly,
> Mélanie - M.P.; premier; Prime Minister's Office; Gerald.Butts;
> Bernier, Maxime - Député
> Cc: Scheer, Andrew - M.P.; David Amos; postur; Newsroom; Mike Therien;
> Huras, Adam :PG; news; steve.murphy; Jacques.Poitras; David.Akin;
> execdirgen; Ezra; sfine
> Subject: Methinks I should remind the local Health Minister Benoît
> Bourque while he still has the job that I still don't have my Health
> Care Card YET N'esy Pas Ginette Petitpas Taylor?
>
>
>
> https://davidraymondamos3.blogspot.com/2018/10/methinks-i-should-remind-health.html
>
>
>
> Thursday, 25 October 2018
>
> Methinks I should remind the Health Minister Benoît Bourque while he
>
> still has the job that I still don't have my Health Care Card YET
>
> N'esy Pas?
>
> https://twitter.com/DavidRayAmos/with_replies
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> David Raymond Amos @DavidRayAmos
>
> Replying to @DavidRayAmos @Kathryn98967631 and 49 others
>
> Methinks I should remind the local Health Minister Benoît Bourque
>
> while he still has the job that I still don't have my Health Care
>
> Card YET N'esy Pas Ginette Petitpas Taylor?
>
>
>
>
>
> https://davidraymondamos3.blogspot.com/2018/10/methinks-i-should-remind-health.html
>
>
>
>
>
> #TrudeauMustGo #nbpoli #cdnpoli #TrumpKnew
>
>
>
>
>
> https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/ambulance-new-brunswick-delays-staff-shortage-gallant-higgs-austin-1.4876637
>
>
>
> Bilingual ambulance service dominates 1st question period of new
> legislature
>
>
>
> Majority of Ambulance New Brunswick job openings are for bilingual
> positions
>
> Jacques Poitras · CBC News · Posted: Oct 24, 2018 5:27 PM AT
>
>
>
>
>
> 69 Comments
>
>
>
>
>
> David Amos
>
> Methinks I should remind the Health Minister Benoît Bourque while he
>
> still has the job that I still don't have my Health Care Card YET
>
> N'esy Pas?
>
This program is intended to help meet the lifetime needs of Canadian thalidomide survivors.
It is being delivered by Epiq Class Action Services Canada* (also
known as Epiq), an independent third-party service provider.
Epiq is responsible for:
delivering ongoing support payments
managing the Extraordinary Medical Assistance Fund (EMAF)
this fund will pay for specialized surgery, home and vehicle adjustments to accommodate survivor disabilities
assessing and re-assessing the health status of thalidomide survivors
determining the eligibility of people who identify themselves as survivors of thalidomide
*as of July 1, 2019, Crawford Class Action Services (a division of
Crawford & Company Canada responsible for delivering the CTSSP)
became Epiq Class Action Services Canada further to a business
acquisition.
Program information
Ongoing lifetime support through the program includes:
tax-free payments based on level of disability
these will increase by 2% a year
payments will continue for the survivor’s lifetime without the need to reapply
timely and easy access to the EMAF
the EMAF will increase by 2% a year
Program eligibility
You are eligible for support under the program if you:
are a Canadian thalidomide survivor who was compensated as per
the 1991 Extraordinary Assistance Plan (EAP) or under the Thalidomide
Survivors Contribution Program (TSCP)
there is no need to reapply if you are a thalidomide survivor
who already received payment through the EAP or the TSCP. You will be
transferred automatically to the program and will continue to receive
your benefits
are listed on an existing government registry of thalidomide victims
are determined by the third-party administrator to be eligible
If your application to the 2015 Thalidomide Survivors
Contribution Program was denied, you may be affected by a Class
Proceeding. Please visit the Thalidomide Survivors Contribution Program for more information.
Information for potential thalidomide survivors
Contact Epiq if you think you are a survivor of thalidomide who has yet to be recognized by the federal government.
As established by an Order in Council, the Canadian Thalidomide
Survivors Support Program (CTSSP) uses a three-step probability-based
medical assessment process summarized below. Applicants must meet the
requirements established at each step in order to move onto the next.
Preliminary Screening:
The date of birth of the person in Canada falls within the
period beginning on December 3, 1957 and ending on December 21, 1967;
The person's date of birth or any other information
available is consistent with maternal ingestion of thalidomide in the
first trimester of pregnancy and;
The nature of the person's congenital malformations is
consistent with known characteristics of congenital malformations
linked to thalidomide.
Application of a diagnostic algorithm for thalidomide embryopathy:
The algorithm will harness the best available international science
in understanding the patterns of thalidomide embryopathy, and will
yield a probability based result. It is not a definitive medical test.
Recommendation by medical-legal committee:
A medical-legal committee, established by Epiq, will consider the
totality of the information related to the application and any other
evidence that it considers to be relevant. This could include genetic
test results and medical exams it may requisition, to inform its
recommendation to the third party administrator that an individual is
eligible for support under the Program.
Application Period
The CTSSP application period is from June 3, 2019 to June 3, 2024.
GCG Announces
Integration with Canada’s Leading Claims Administrator, Crawford Class
Action Services, Debuts International Brand Identity
GCG unites two recognized leaders with proven success executing historic settlement administrations across North America
| Source:Crawford & Company
NEW
YORK, June 15, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Garden City Group, LLC (GCG),
a wholly-owned subsidiary of Crawford & Company® and a leading
global provider of settlement administration solutions, is pleased to
announce it has added Canada’s oldest and most trusted class action
claims administrator – Crawford Class Action Services – to its
portfolio. The integration brings together two reputable leaders with a
combined half-century of expertise in government, legal, technology and
operations and strengthens GCG’s capacity to provide premier
administration services to clients across North America.
Crawford
Class Action Services has been administering class action settlement
and voluntary redress programs since class action law came into
existence in Canada in 1992. Canadian courts have turned to Crawford
Class Action Services to administer cases involving product recalls,
water system contamination, tainted blood transfusion, Indian
residential schools, institutional duty of care and pharmaceutical and
medical device defects. Crawford’s Canadian Class Action services team
has handled some of Canada’s most historic settlement programs,
including the Hepatitis C class action settlements, Residential Schools
Class Action Litigation, KPMG Overtime Redress Plan and the Walkerton
Class Action Settlement.
“This integration is an important step
toward expanding the GCG brand globally,” said Kenneth Cutshaw,
president and CEO of GCG. “Crawford Class Action Services has
demonstrated its value to the Canadian courts, the legal community and
consumers for more than two decades. We look forward to continuing that
tradition and to delivering a more comprehensive suite of services to
our clients in North America and around the world.”
Michael
Mooney, vice president and general manager of Crawford Class Action
Services, will remain at the helm of GCG’s Canadian operations. During
his 10-year tenure, Mooney has earned the confidence of the courts,
serving as both a court-appointed monitor and an independent auditor in
the pre-settlement stage, where he ensures cases are administered fairly
and in accordance with the terms of the settlements and the court’s
directives.
“This alignment with GCG affords our clients the
perspective of a company that has operated longer and across a broader
range of litigation, both of which are critical and competitive
advantages in Canada’s emergent class action environment,” said Mooney.
“In return, our intimate knowledge of the landscape combined with our
access to the Crawford Canada network will have an immediate and
positive impact on GCG’s clients across North America.”
New International Brand Identity In
conjunction with its expansion into the Canadian market, GCG today
debuted a new logo and brand identity, which reflects both the company’s
international growth and its long-standing and on-going commitment to
delivering more: more expertise, more value, more technology, more
service lines in more countries, and more resources dedicated to
providing clients the quality and service they expect. The new branding
centers upon the sole use of the GCG acronym.
“We recognize and
appreciate how far we’ve come as ‘Garden City Group,’” said Christi
Cannon, senior vice president and chief client officer. “But we’re
equally excited about the future as GCG, where our brand identity is
driven by our industry-leading team and their commitment to solving our
clients’ complex challenges in smart, innovative ways. As we continue to
expand, our vision and values will inform everything we do, and we
think our new branding captures that perfectly.”
To learn more
about GCG’s new logo and brand identity, please visit us at
choosegcg.ca. Stay up to date with the latest news about GCG by
following us on Facebook (facebook.com/gcgnews), Twitter (@GCGnews) and LinkedIn (GCG).
About GCG For more than three decades, GCG (www.choosegcg.com)
has been the premier global provider for class action settlement
administrations, restructuring and bankruptcy matters, mass tort
settlement programs, regulatory settlements, and data breach response
programs. GCG is the partner of choice for leading law firms, corporate
legal departments, and government agencies, handling a wide range of
matters, including notably the General Motors Ignition Switch Defect Litigation, the CAD$4.6 billion Indian Residential Schools Settlement, the $2.3 billion Bank of America Securities Litigation, the more than CAD$2.1 billion Hepatitis C class action settlements, the more than $1.425 billion Stryker Hip settlements, the $500 million Countrywide MBS Settlement and the Walkerton Class Action Settlement. GCG is a subsidiary of Crawford & Company.
About Crawford® Based
in Atlanta, Crawford & Company® (NYSE:CRD‐A) (NYSE:CRD‐B) is the
world's largest publicly listed independent provider of claims
management solutions to insurance companies and self-insured entities
with an expansive global network serving clients in more than 70
countries. The Crawford Solution™ offers comprehensive, integrated
claims services, business process outsourcing and consulting services
for major product lines including property and casualty claims
management, workers compensation claims and medical management, and
legal settlement administration. More information is available at
www.crawfordandcompany.com.
For more information, please contact:
Christi Cannon
631-470-6845
Christi.Cannon@choosegcg.com
Welcome to the official website
for the Pre 1986/Post 1990 Hepatitis C class action settlement. The
purpose of this website is to provide visitors with information relating
to the settlement and the settlement benefit claims process.
The final claims deadline for applications under the settlement was June 30, 2016. The Administrator is not in a position to process claims filed after this date.
The Settlement
The Pre-1986/Post-1990 Hepatitis C Settlement Agreement is for the
benefit of people infected with Hepatitis C through the blood system in
Canada prior to January 1, 1986 or between July 2, 1990, and September
28, 1998, and certain members of their families.
Please review the information on this Web site very carefully. This
will help you to determine whether you are eligible or not for
compensation. Please note that the first claim deadline under this
Agreement has passed. Please refer to the Claim Deadlines section under
General information on this Web site for further information about
exceptions. Once you have reviewed the information contained in this Web
site, you may contact the Administrator if you have any questions or
comments.
Alyssa Tomkins has a broad-ranging
litigation practice in both official languages, including corporate and
commercial litigation, bankruptcy and insolvency,
administrative/constitutional law and construction, including
procurement and the law of tender. Alyssa has appeared before all
levels of court, in various commercial arbitrations and before
administrative tribunals, including the Canadian International Trade
Tribunal and various agricultural marketing boards.
Prior to joining Caza Saikaley at the
time of its inception, Alyssa clerked for the Honourable Michel
Bastarache at the Supreme Court of Canada and worked for several years
at a national firm.
Alyssa is the
co-chair of the County of Carleton Law Association Technology Committee
and co-chaired a conference on the use of technology in litigation. She
is a regular volunteer at Pro Bono Law Help Ontario and has acted on
numerous pro bono matters in the area of human rights. She is also the
volunteer coach of the University of Ottawa’s Laskin Moot team
(constitutional and administrative law).
When Alyssa is
away from the office, she is an avid soccer and hockey player, skis and
is attempting to learn to snowboard. She also loves music of all kinds
and can be convinced to play the trumpet.
Direct Line: 613-564-8269
atomkins@plaideurs.ca
CALL TO THE BAR
Ontario (2007)
EDUCATION
B.Sc. (Engineering Chemistry), B.A. (Political Studies), Queen’s University, 2002 (Distinction)
LL.B., University of Ottawa, 2006 (Summa cum laude, Gold Medalist)
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
The Advocates’ Society
Association des juristes d’expression française de l’Ontario
County of Carleton Law Association
Michel Bastarache, C.C., Q.C.
For more than a decade, Mr. Bastarache
served as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, participating in 680
cases and rendering 143 rulings
spanning a spectrum of matters, including those involving questions of
commercial law, labour and employment, public law, administrative law,
and the application of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Mr Bastarache was a member of the Interim Constitutional Court of
Kenya responsible for the supervision of constitutional reform in 2010.
He was also Commissioner, Commission d’enquête sur la nomination des
juges au Québec, 2013. He was the Independent conciliator for the
indemnification of victims of sexual abuse for the dioceses of Bathurst
(2010-2012) and Moncton (2012-2014). In 2016, Mr. Bastarache was
appointed as the independent assessor to manage the settlement of the
Merlo/Davidson case, a class action against the Royal Canadian Mounted
Police involving allegations of harassment, intimidation and
discrimination based on sex or sexual orientation. Since 2015, he is
vice president of the Administrative Tribunal of the Association of
American States in Washington, a part time position, and is now serving
as the president.
From 2008 to 2014, Mr. Bastarache was
Counsel to the national law firm of Heenan Blaikie, where he headed a
public law and appellate advocacy practice group. He was also a law
professor and Dean at the University of Moncton Faculty of Law, and a
law professor and Vice Dean the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law,
Common Law Section.
Mr. Bastarache has been very active in
the business community, notably as President and Chief Executive Officer
of a life insurance company (from 1989-1994). Furthermore, he has sat
on countless boards and committees focused on legal education and the
practice of law.
Mr. Bastarache has received numerous
honorary doctorates, as well as prestigious decorations and awards in
recognition of his outstanding leadership in private practice, legal
education, and the public service. Mr. Bastarache was named jurist of
the year, Association des juristes francophones du Nouveau-Brunswick,
1993. Ordre des francophones d’Amérique, government of Quebec, 1981.
Awarded Canadian 125th anniversary medal, 1993. Prix Boréal, Fédération
des communautés francophones et acadiennes du Canada, 1995. Kavanagh
Award, University of Ottawa, 1998. Received the Médaille de Commandeur
de l’Ordre de la Pléiade, 1999, Goodman Fellow, University of Toronto,
1999. Fellow, American College of Trial Lawyers, 2001. Received the
medal marking the 125th anniversary of the University of Montréal’s
Faculty of Law, 2003. Officier de la Légion d’honneur (France), 2003.
Member, Common Law Honour Society, University of Ottawa, 2003. Mr.
Justice Bastarache has been nominated as Companion, The Order of Canada,
2009. Recipient of Queen’s Jubilee Medal 2012. In 2013, Mr. Bastarache
received l’Ordre du mérite from l’Ajefo and was appointed Queen’s
Counsel for New Brunswick.
Mr. Bastarache is the editor and principal author of three books:
Language Rights in Canada (Yvon Blais, 1987 and 2004 (2nd ed.)), Les
droits linguistiques au Canada, (Yvon Blais 1986, 2006 and 2013). Précis
du droit des biens réels (Yvon Blais, 1993 and 2001 (2nd ed.)) and The
Law of Bilingual Interpretation (Butterworths, 2008). Numerous
publications in collective works and periodicals.
Member of the Board of Directors of Air Nova, Fundy Cable, Corporate
Communications and Paturel Seafood, 1993-95. Member of the Editorial
Boards of the Revue générale de droit international, the Revue
québécoise de droit international, the Revue générale de droit, the
review C’est ton droit and the Revue du Nouvel Ontario, 1985-88.
Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Bar Review, since 1998-2005.
Vice-Chair, National Judicial Institute, 2004-08; Member of the
Canadian National Group to the Permanent Court of Arbitration, since
2005; Member of numerous committees on legal education and the practice
of law. Member of the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council, 1992-94,
Literacy New Brunswick, 1993-94, the Izaak Walton Killam Hospital for
Children Foundation (Halifax), 1994-95, the Trudeau Foundation
2008-2014, and the Advisory Committees of the administration faculties
at the University of Moncton and the University of New Brunswick at
Saint John, 1994-95.
---------- Original message ----------
From: "OfficeofthePremier, Office PREM:EX" <Premier@gov.bc.ca>
Date: Fri, 6 Dec 2019 01:23:46 +0000
Subject: Automatic reply: A little Deja Vu from the Maritimes for the
lawyers Michel Bastarache and Rob Talach
To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com>
Hello,
Thank you for taking the time to write. I appreciate hearing feedback
and suggestions from the people of British Columbia as we work
together to build a better BC.
Due to the volume of incoming messages, this is an automated response
to let you know that your email has been received and will be reviewed
at the earliest opportunity.
In the event that your inquiry more appropriately falls within the
mandate of a Ministry or other area of government, staff will refer
your email for review and consideration.
56 lawsuits against Catholic Church that allege sexual abuse are
before N.B. courts
Every month, new legal action is taken against the church in Moncton,
Bathurst and Edmundston
Gabrielle Fahmy · CBC News · Posted: Nov 15, 2017 6:00 AM AT
Number shocks former judge
The 56 new lawsuits were all filed after an extensive conciliation process.
Between 2012 and 2014, retired judge Michel Bastarache, who was
brought in by the church, spoke to hundreds of victims and worked out
a compensation formula for the church to pay them all.
In the end, the Archdiocese of Moncton had to come up with $10.6
million for victims, and the Diocese of Bathurst $5.5 million.
Victims received between $15,000 and $300,000, depending on the
severity of the abuse, how old they were when it started, and how many
years it lasted.
Bastarache said the conciliation process had to be delayed three times
to accommodate new victims, which is why he's taken aback by so many
lawsuits still before the courts.
"I'm just surprised that the numbers are so high," he said.
He also wonders why these alleged victims didn't take advantage of the
process and are choosing to go to court instead.
"I heard about a hundred victims in Bathurst, another hundred in
Moncton, and those people — 90 per cent of them, wanted absolute
confidentiality," said Bastarache.
"A lot of them never told their story to anyone, not even in their family."
Lawyer says sexual abuse victims still waiting for money from Catholic Church
'There's a lot of frustration, and a lot of anger, and definitely distress'
Alex Cooke · CBC News · Posted: Sep 13, 2019 7:32 PM AT
"There's a lot of frustration, and a lot of anger, and definitely
distress," said Talach, who leads the sexual abuse department for the
London, Ont.-based Beckett Personal Injury Lawyers.
"There's distress by these victims who were victimized as children and
continue to remain somewhat vulnerable."
Talach said he and another lawyer are representing about 50 victims
between the two of them.
A dozen of Talach's clients have reached settlements with the
archdiocese, said Talach. The other dozen still haven't reached an
agreement with the church.
But Talach said the battle isn't over even for those who have reached
settlements. They still haven't received their money — and most of
these settlements were agreed to more than three years ago.
Talach said the money offered is, for the victims, "taking pennies on
the dollar."
Drake Ramore
The Diocese got away with one here. Failing to disclose that the
Church has turned a blind idea to active known pedophiles in their
ranks should have disentitled to them to coverage.
Marguerite Deschamps
Reply to @Drake Ramore: quite an entitled bunch!
James Risdon
Reply to @Marguerite Deschamps: Who?
---------- Original message ----------
From: David Amos Date: Fri, 6 Dec 2019 04:59:25 -0400 Subject: Re: A little Deja Vu from the Maritimes for the lawyers Michel Bastarache and Rob Talach To: Snap
Not of the type you are referring to
On 12/5/19, Snap wrote: > Thanks for pointing this out, David. Are you a survivor? > > > > Sent from my iPhone >
On 12/5/19, David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com> wrote:
> https://www.snapnetwork.org/canada
>
>
> Canada
> Coquitlam British Columbia
>
> Contact: Leona Huggins
> Phone: 604-240-3741
> Email: SNAPVancouver@SNAPnetwork.org
> Windsor Ontario
>
> Contact: Brenda Brunelle
> Email: SWontario@snapnetwork.org
> Toronto Ontario
> Contact: Marion Kelly
> Phone: 416-274-5954
> Email: marion.kelly12@hotmail.ca
>
>
> SNAP SW Ontario Releases List of Credibly Accused Priests of the Roman
> Catholic Diocese of London (Ont).
> December 04, 2019
>
> The following individuals were Roman Catholic priests who were either
> incardinated priests of the Roman Catholic Diocese of London (Ontario)
> or committed the offences noted while serving within the geographical
> and ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Diocese of London.
>
> If the individual belonged to another Religious Order of Diocese at
> the time, it is noted in parentheses. These 36 individuals were
> criminally convicted, and/or criminally charged by more than one
> complainant and/or sued in a civil lawsuit which resolved for more
> than $50,000. These categories are the basis of their “credibly
> accused” status. The time period of offences contained within this
> list is 1952 to 2005, being a period of 54 years inclusive. The events
> take place in numerous communities throughout the Diocese of London
> and in some cases also elsewhere. The individuals in this List are
> limited to those who offended with young people, being minor males or
> females, under the age of 18. Members on this list are both deceased
> and living, with a ꝉ symbol noting those who are now deceased.
>
> A copy of this list with citations and links to supporting information
> can be found here.
>
> This list is a work in progress and any additional information,
> corrections or comments are welcome. Accuracy, accountability and
> transparency is the ultimate goal. If you wish to make comment or
> correction please contact:
>
> Brenda Brunelle – Southwestern Ontario SNAP Leader at –
> SWOntario@SNAPNetwork.org 1 519 903-7503
>
> Jerry Boyle SNAP Member at -
> jeboyle@rogers.com 1 519 241-8165
>
>
>
> https://davidraymondamos.blogspot.com/2019/12/survivors-create-public-list-of.html
>
> https://twitter.com/DavidRayAmos/with_replies
>
> David Raymond Amos @DavidRayAmos
> Replying to @DavidRayAmos @Kathryn98967631 and 49 others
> Methinks CBC and the folks within SNAP should Google two names Robert
> Talach and David Raymond Amos Then ask the lawyer to explain page 134
> of this file real slow N'esy Pas?
>
> http://checktheevidence.com/pdf/2619437-CROSS-BORDER-txt-.pdf
>
> #cdnpoli #nbpoli
>
> https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/catholic-sexual-abuse-london-diocese-1.5384217
>
> http://davidraymondamos3.blogspot.com/2019/06/
>
>
>
>
>>>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>>> From: "David Amos" david.raymond.amos@gmail.com
>>>>> To: "Rob Talach" rtalach@ledroitbeckett.com
>>>>> Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2012 10:59 PM
>>>>> Subject: Re: Attn Robert Talach and I should talk ASAP about my suing
>>>>> the Catholic Church Trust that Bastarache knows why
>>>>>
>>>>> The date stamp on about page 134 of this old file of mine should mean
>>>>> a lot to you
>>>>>
>>>>> http://www.checktheevidence.com/pdf/2619437-CROSS-BORDER-txt-.pdf
>>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> http://davidraymondamos3.blogspot.com/2017/02/re-fatca-nafta-tpp-etc-attn-president.html
>>>
>>> Tuesday, 14 February 2017
>>>
>>> RE FATCA, NAFTA & TPP etc ATTN President Donald J. Trump I just got
>>> off the phone with your lawyer Mr Cohen (646-853-0114) Why does he lie
>>> to me after all this time???
>>>
>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>> From: Michael Cohen <mcohen@trumporg.com>
>>> Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2017 14:15:14 +0000
>>> Subject: Automatic reply: RE FATCA ATTN Pierre-Luc.Dusseault I just
>>> called and left a message for you
>>> To: David Amos <motomaniac333@gmail.com>
>>>
>>> Effective January 20, 2017, I have accepted the role as personal
>>> counsel to President Donald J. Trump. All future emails should be
>>> directed to mdcohen212@gmail.com and all future calls should be
>>> directed to 646-853-0114.
>>> ______________________________
> __
>
>>> This communication is from The Trump Organization or an affiliate
>>> thereof and is not sent on behalf of any other individual or entity.
>>> This email may contain information that is confidential and/or
>>> proprietary. Such information may not be read, disclosed, used,
>>> copied, distributed or disseminated except (1) for use by the intended
>>> recipient or (2) as expressly authorized by the sender. If you have
>>> received this communication in error, please immediately delete it and
>>> promptly notify the sender. E-mail transmission cannot be guaranteed
>>> to be received, secure or error-free as emails could be intercepted,
>>> corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late, incomplete, contain viruses
>>> or otherwise. The Trump Organization and its affiliates do not
>>> guarantee that all emails will be read and do not accept liability for
>>> any errors or omissions in emails. Any views or opinions presented in
>>> any email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily
>>> represent those of The Trump Organization or any of its
>>> affiliates.Nothing in this communication is intended to operate as an
>>> electronic signature under applicable law.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> http://davidraymondamos3.blogspot.ca/2017/11/federal-court-of-appeal-finally-makes.html
>>>
>>> Sunday, 19 November 2017
>>>
>>> Federal Court of Appeal Finally Makes The BIG Decision And Publishes
>>> It Now The Crooks Cannot Take Back Ticket To Try Put My Matter Before
>>> The Supreme Court
>>>
>>> https://decisions.fct-cf.gc.ca/fca-caf/decisions/en/item/236679/index.do
>>>
>>>
>>> Federal Court of Appeal Decisions
>>>
>>> Amos v. Canada
>>> Court (s) Database
>>>
>>> Federal Court of Appeal Decisions
>>> Date
>>>
>>> 2017-10-30
>>> Neutral citation
>>>
>>> 2017 FCA 213
>>> File numbers
>>>
>>> A-48-16
>>> Date: 20171030
>>>
>>> Docket: A-48-16
>>> Citation: 2017 FCA 213
>>> CORAM:
>>>
>>> WEBB J.A.
>>> NEAR J.A.
>>> GLEASON J.A.
>>>
>>>
>>> BETWEEN:
>>> DAVID RAYMOND AMOS
>>> Respondent on the cross-appeal
>>> (and formally Appellant)
>>> and
>>> HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN
>>> Appellant on the cross-appeal
>>> (and formerly Respondent)
>>> Heard at Fredericton, New Brunswick, on May 24, 2017.
>>> Judgment delivered at Ottawa, Ontario, on October 30, 2017.
>>> REASONS FOR JUDGMENT BY:
>>>
>>> THE COURT
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Date: 20171030
>>>
>>> Docket: A-48-16
>>> Citation: 2017 FCA 213
>>> CORAM:
>>>
>>> WEBB J.A.
>>> NEAR J.A.
>>> GLEASON J.A.
>>>
>>>
>>> BETWEEN:
>>> DAVID RAYMOND AMOS
>>> Respondent on the cross-appeal
>>> (and formally Appellant)
>>> and
>>> HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN
>>> Appellant on the cross-appeal
>>> (and formerly Respondent)
>>> REASONS FOR JUDGMENT BY THE COURT
>>>
>>> I. Introduction
>>>
>>> [1] On September 16, 2015, David Raymond Amos (Mr. Amos)
>>> filed a 53-page Statement of Claim (the Claim) in Federal Court
>>> against Her Majesty the Queen (the Crown). Mr. Amos claims $11 million
>>> in damages and a public apology from the Prime Minister and Provincial
>>> Premiers for being illegally barred from accessing parliamentary
>>> properties and seeks a declaration from the Minister of Public Safety
>>> that the Canadian Government will no longer allow the Royal Canadian
>>> Mounted Police (RCMP) and Canadian Forces to harass him and his clan
>>> (Claim at para. 96).
>
I.G. Whitehall, Q.C.
Mr. Whitehall has a JD from the University of British Columbia and a
graduate degree in Public Law from the University of Alberta Law School.
After a short period in practice in Vancouver he joined the
Department of Justice in 1971 occupying increasingly senior positions
and in 1989 becoming the Chief General Counsel with the rank of
Assistant Deputy Minister. He was in the apposition until he retired
from the Public Service.
Mr. Whitehall has considerable experience in commercial
litigation. Mr. Whitehall was the Chief General Counsel of the Canadian
Department of Justice from 1989 to 2003. Mr. Whitehall is part of an
elite circle of litigators, having appeared dozens of times before the
Supreme Court of Canada. He is also one of those rare lawyers possessing
experience with major commercial cases, arbitrations and public
inquiries. He has been repeatedly named as Canada’s best lawyers in
litigation involving First Nations.
Mr. Whitehall’s experience as counsel highlights our firm’s capacity
and reputation in public law litigation, such as Charter and aboriginal
rights issues.
Mr. Whitehall has appeared several times as counsel before major
national and international arbitrations. He has been named as a member
of the Canadian Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce and
he was a member of the ADR Institute of Canada. Mr. Whitehall. In 2012,
Mr. Whitehall was appointed a Deputy Judge of the Superior Court of
Justice, Small Claims Division, where he regularly presided over cases
involving contract disputes.
For several years Mr. Whitehall has been listed as one of the Best
Lawyers in Canada and lectured extensively on numerous legal topics. Mr.
Whitehall was once again recognized as one of the Best Lawyers in
Canada in 2017 for his work in International Arbitration and Aboriginal
Law.
Direct Line: 613-564-8273 iwhitehall@plaideurs.ca
CALL TO THE BAR
BC (1967)
Ontario (1985)
EDUCATION
Received his BA in 1964, JD in 1967
and a Post Graduate Diploma in Public Law in 1983. He also holds a
Certificate in Arbitration issued by the ADR Institute of Canada
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Ontario Bar Retired member of the BC Bar
Jeff G. Saikaley
Jeff G. Saikaley practices in most areas of civil litigation in both
official languages, with a focus on commercial litigation, employment
law and libel and slander cases. Jeff appears before all levels of court
and many tribunals. He was co-counsel on Cusson v. Quan, a
landmark defamation case argued before the Supreme Court of Canada. Jeff
has also appeared before the Court of Appeal for Ontario and regularly
appears before the Superior Court of Justice.
Jeff is the co-chair of the County of Carleton Law Association Civil
Litigation Conference Montebello @ Tremblant and, for several years,
served as a Trustee of the CCLA. Jeff is also a member of the Advisory
Committee of Arbitration Place.
In 2016, Jeff was awarded the Top Forty Under 40 prize by the Ottawa
Business Journal and Ottawa Chamber of Commerce, one of Ottawa’s most
prestigious business awards recognizing accomplished and rising business
leaders under the age of 40.
When Jeff is away from the office, he is a devoted fan of the Ottawa
Senators and enjoys playing ball hockey and poker with friends.
Direct Line: 613-564-8268 jsaikaley@plaideurs.ca
CALL TO THE BAR
Ontario (2002)
EDUCATION
B.A., University of Ottawa, 1998
LL.B., University of Ottawa, 2001
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
The Advocates’ Society
Association des juristes d’expression française de l’Ontario
County of Carleton Law Association
Thank you for submitting your article to us. If you receive this
automated message it means we have received your documents.
If you have any questions feel free to reach out to us here:
Ali Taghva • 514-550-7066
Madison Hofmeester • 978-882-1667
Best, The Post Millennial team
Search for Boston mobster victims heads to Nova Scotia
By The Associated Press
Posted Jan 15, 2001 at 12:01 AM
YARMOUTH, Nova Scotia -- Massachusetts state police will travel to
southwestern Nova Scotia Wednesday to examine a site where Boston
mobsters may have buried their victims. Elizabeth Conrad Parent, 43,
whose father Kenneth “Bobby” Conrad has been missing since 1979,
believes he was killed by an associate of South Boston gangster James
“Whitey” Bulger and buried in Canada -- alongside other victims of
Bulger’s group.
Last month, Parent recounted to the Boston Herald that former FBI
agent John J. Connolly Jr. told her almost 20 years ago that her
father was stabbed by Bulger associate Louis R. Litif, and buried in
Nova Scotia. Parent believes her father disappeared after witnessing a
Mafia killing in the basement of a Boston bar.
The Halifax Daily News reported yesterday that four officers will fly
to Yarmouth to discuss with local Royal Canadian Mounted Police a
small parcel of land in rural Deerfield, Nova Scotia. According to
land registry reports, Litif -- who was murdered in Boston in April
1980 -- purchased a house and land in Deerfield in 1971. His widow is
still an absentee landlord of the property.
Sgt. Brian Oldford, a spokesman for the RCMP, said any potential
murder investigation would be handled locally. “We would rely heavily
on (Massachusetts police) for intelligence, but the actual homicide,
as I understand it from reading the newspaper, took place on Canadian
soil and the body’s on Canadian soil,” he said.
Oldford expects the Massachusetts investigators will be in Nova Scotia
for only one day. “It’ll just be a matter of them telling us what they
know and then getting them back on the plane,” he said.
Parent said Connolly told her in a 1983 telephone conversation “a lot
of bodies” were buried at the site.
Bulger, who is on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list, was recently
indicted on new charges alleging he was involved in 18 murders.
Could mobster arrest shed light on rumour?
The Vanguard
Published: Jun 23, 2011 at midnight
Updated: Sep 30, 2017 at 7:20 a.m.
The RCMP conduct of a dig of a rumoured mob graveyard in Yarmouth
County in October 2001. No human remains were found. TINA COMEAU PHOTO
By Tina Comeau
THE VANGUARD
NovaNewsNow.com
The arrest of notorious mobster James “Whitey” Bulger in Santa Monica,
California, on Wednesday, June 22, has piqued the interest of the RCMP
in Yarmouth who wonder if Bulger’s arrest may eventually shed new
light on a rumoured mob graveyard here.
After being on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List and on the lam for around
16 years, the 81-year-old mob king-pin was arrested without incident
after the FBI launched some daytime television ads two days before
seeking the whereabouts of Bulger's girlfriend, Catherine Greig, with
a $100,000 reward offered. There was a $2 million reward for Bulger's
capture.
Corporal Dana Parsons, of the RCMP’s Southwest Major Crime Unit based
in Yarmouth, had not yet heard about Bulger’s arrest when contacted
Thursday morning by the Vanguard. He admitted the arrest is intriguing
in terms of the information it could yield when Bulger is questioned
by American authorities.
Bulger was wanted on charges of racketeering, 19 counts of murder,
conspiracy to commit murder, money laundering, extortion and drug
distribution.
But in these parts his name is of interest given rumours of a mob
graveyard in Yarmouth County.
In 2001, an extensive dig was held at a property located at the corner
of the Saunders Road and Mood Road. For 20 days the RCMP had the
permission to dig a 1.2-acre site where a bartender from Boston was
rumoured to be buried.
The property was turned upside-down and inside-out, and there was even
digging done in the basement of a residence on the scene, but no human
remains were found.
Cpl. Parsons notes that this was not a missing persons file in Nova
Scotia, rather it was a missing persons file originating in the United
States. Therefore it is still up to American authorities to lead any
investigation or inquiries. But this isn’t to say, he says, that if
new substantiated information comes forward that the police here
wouldn’t get involved again.
“It should be their follow-up as far as the interview of Bulger and if
he discloses that a murder occurred up here, than we would become
involved again,” Parsons says.
The man whose remains the RCMP were searching for when they carried
out the dig in October 2001 was South Boston bartender Kenneth Bobby
Conrad, who disappeared in 1979 after allegedly witnessing a mob hit.
The man’s daughter claimed that two years after her father vanished,
an FBI agent by the name of John Connelly had told her that her father
had been lured to Yarmouth County by a mob associate and murdered.
At the time of Conrad’s disappearance, the property was owned by Louis
R. Litif, who was an associate of Bulger. Conrad’s daughter said she
had been told that Litif had killed her father and buried his body at
the property. She said she was told other bodies were buried there as
well.
Getting information from Litif years later was a dead end. In 1980 he
was killed in a gangland slaying in Boston. In 2001 his widow had
given police the permission to dig up the property. She had taken over
part ownership of the property a month before Litif was killed.
(An interesting footnote in this story is Whitey Bulger used to be an
informant for the FBI. But when it was decided in 1994 he had to be
arrested for his crimes, it was FBI agent John Connelly who had tipped
Bulger off, allowing him to escape and remain on the lam for 16 years.
Connelly is serving time for obstruction of justice.)
When the news surfaced in 2000 about a possible mob graveyard in
Yarmouth County – which led to the dig a year later – local residents
of the area said they had heard rumours about alleged mob connections
to the property in the past. So while the news was shocking, it wasn’t
necessarily surprising.
The RCMP dig was not a simple matter of the police going onto the
property with shovels. An infrared device was used to detect
variations or disturbances in the ground. A gas-powered machine with a
spike drum was used to unlock scents beneath the ground for police
dogs. An excavator was brought onto the scene. Even the Yarmouth
County Ground Search and Rescue Team conducted a hands-and-knees
search through wooded areas of the property that had not been dug up
by the excavator.
But in the end, the RCMP could only dig and search the area for which
they had permission. After a week they concluded the dig.
“It’s never been laid to rest because there has never been a resolve
to the disappearance of that body,” says Cpl. Parsons.
On the one hand, there was no body found on the property, so was it
just a rumour and therefore a waste of money and effort? Or on the
other hand, did the dig not go far enough?
Cpl. Parsons says while the RCMP here won’t be looking to lead any new
investigation into the matter, because the file originates in the
United States, he said he may contact U.S. authorities just to touch
base with them and remind them of the assistance the police here
provided in the past.
“We don’t have an open file on a missing persons, our file was an
assistance file to them to see if there was a body up here on that
property in Deerfield,” he says. “Ultimately it’s their lead and what
we would do is follow-up on anything they gave us.”
Yet while Cpl. Parsons stresses the onus would be on the American
authorities, he says ultimately in investigations of missing persons
everyone is seeking the same goal – to bring these investigations to a
successful conclusion and hopefully bring about closure for a family.
And perhaps, in this case, to also put rumours to the test, or put them to rest.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Shimon Fogel <sfogel@cija.ca>
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2013 16:35:43 -0500
Subject: Re: A Neo-Nazi estate dispute being overseen by two Jewish
groups Perhaps Shimon Fogel should talk to his lawyer or the Attorney
General Blais or his Number # fan Mr Baconfat???
To: David Amos <motomaniac333@gmail.com>
Mr. Amos,
I still do not know who you are and at this point, could care less.
But I do care about your emails clogging up my inbox. Please remove me
from your list and refrain from contacting me again. Your failure to
respect my request will compel me to seek all legal measures to oblige
your compliance and to file whatever charges are available.
You are free to hold whatever views you wish – but I don't have to
hear, read or humour them. Thank you in advance for your attention to
this matter.
SKF
Shimon Koffler Fogel, CEO
Centre for Israel & Jewish Affairs
613.234.8271 ext.240
The Centre has a new look online. Visit cija.ca and let us know what you think!
Lauren Gazzola | Communications Associate - Publications
Center for Constitutional Rights
666 Broadway, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10012
p 212-614-6480 | e LGazzola@ccrjustice.org www.ccrjustice.org
Follow @theCCR on Twitter and "Center for Constitutional Rights" on Facebook
"Animals matter. Animals matter because they not only live, but have
lives-lives that we have every reason to believe are filled with joy
and pain." - Jonathan Safran Foer
It's not food. It's violence.
---------- Original message ----------
From: "Bell, Stewart (National Post)" <sbell@nationalpost.com>
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2013 16:21:58 -0500
Subject: Re: A Neo-Nazi estate dispute being overseen by two Jewish
groups Perhaps Shimon Fogel should talk to his lawyer or the Attorney
General Blais or his Number # fan Mr Baconfat???
To: David Amos <motomaniac333@gmail.com>
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Shimon Fogel <sfogel@cija.ca>
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2013 07:20:39 -0500
Subject: Re: CBC says A Neo-Nazi estate dispute will be overseen by
two Jewish groups and a very corrupt Attorney General???
To: David Amos <motomaniac333@gmail.com>
I have no idea who you are or why you have decided to add me to your
list of individuals receiving you messages. Please remove my name from
your list-serve.
Best regards,
SKF
Shimon Koffler Fogel
Centre for Israel & Jewish Affairs
613.234.8271 ext.240
The Centre has a new look online. Visit cija.ca and let us know what you think!
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS ZIONIST'S MANY EVIL WORDS MR FOGEL???
Monday, May 27, 2013
Zionism,The David Amos Rant, and the Pederast!
David Amos is a garden variety coward and anti-Semite. He hates
Zionists. He proudly trumpets his hatred, vitriol, venom, and insane
animus against Jews and Zionists. He proclaims his insane ideas that
"Jewish bankers are trying to blow up the world's economy," on
"conspiracy theory computer web sites."
Yes David Amos, I am a Zionist! I served in IDF as an exchange
officer. I am in good company. Arik Sharon was a Zionist. Theodor
Hertzl was a Zionist. David Ben Gurion was a Zionist. British Foreign
Secretary Harold Balfour was a Zionist. Sir Winston Churchill was a
Zionist. Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson was a Zionist. United
States President Harry Truman, was a Zionist.
Diaspora Jews may, or may not be Zionists, but true Jews are Zionists.
Ilikenewman, or young Owen from the UK, had David Amos pegged as a
little man, a bigot, and called him out as the anti-Semite he is. He
was "outted" on You Tube as an insane little man, for the entire
planet to see, and disdain. David then tried to call young Owen's
school in the UK. Just like he called the Dean of my daughter's law
school.
Those people of Fredericton who see David Amos in their community now
see him as the evil, pederast, anti-Semite hater, that he really is.
The people of New Brunswick when the see his children or his daughter
Laura, will see the racist pigs that David Amos raised them to be.
Zionists risk their lives for a greater good. Zionists fight and die
for a home for the world's Jewry, a bolt hole if you will, from evil
anti-Semites of the planet like David Amos.
Yes David I am a Zionist! You are a pedophile and your children racist
animals like yourself. David who claim a past with Alberta, but the
reality is that you couldn't find Alberta on a map of Canada, on the
best day you ever had.
David, my lad, how is that for some "criminal malice?"
Posted by Seren at 8:50 PM
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Murray, Leanne" <leanne.murray@mcinnescooper.com>
Date: Wed, 21 Aug 2013 21:28:56 -0300
Subject: Out of Office: CBC says A Neo-Nazi estate dispute will be
overseen by two Jewish groups and a very corrupt Attorney General???
To: David Amos <motomaniac333@gmail.com>
I will be out of the office on vacation from August 5 to 21, 2013,
inclusive, and will have limited access to email during this time
period.
For immediate assistance from August 5 to 9, 2013, please contact Lynn
Davidson at 453-0929 or by email at lynn.davidson@mcinnescooper.com.
For immediate assistance from August 12 to 21, 2013, please contact
Margie Loisel at 458-1034 or by email at margie.loisel@mcinnescooper.com; otherwise, I will get back to you as
soon as possible upon my return.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Britt Dysart <bdysart@stewartmckelvey.com>
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2013 00:21:17 +0000
Subject: Automatic reply: CBC says A Neo-Nazi estate dispute will be
overseen by two Jewish groups and a very corrupt Attorney General???
To: David Amos <motomaniac333@gmail.com>
I am out of the office in meetings much of today, and will not have
regular access to my email or voicemail during this time. Please
contact my assistant,Sonja at 506-443-9942 and she will direct your
inquiry. Otherwise, I will contact you upon my return .
***********************************
This e-mail message (including attachments, if any) is confidential
and may be privileged. Any unauthorized distribution or disclosure is
prohibited. Disclosure to anyone other than the intended recipient
does not constitute waiver of privilege. If you have received this
e-mail in error, please notify us and delete it and any attachments
from your computer system and records.
-----------------------------------
Ce courriel (y compris les pièces jointes) est confidentiel et peut
être privilégié. La distribution ou la divulgation non autorisée de
ce courriel est interdite. Sa divulgation à toute personne autre que
son destinataire ne constitue pas une renonciation de privilège. Si
vous avez reçu ce courriel par erreur, veuillez nous aviser et
éliminer ce courriel, ainsi que les pièces jointes, de votre système
informatique et de vos dossiers.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Teri Soontiens <tlsoontiens@stewartmckelvey.com>
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2013 00:21:23 +0000
Subject: Automatic reply: CBC says A Neo-Nazi estate dispute will be
overseen by two Jewish groups and a very corrupt Attorney General???
To: David Amos <motomaniac333@gmail.com>
I will be out of the office the afternoon of Wednesday, August 21,
2013. If your matter is urgent, please contact Chantal MacAusland at cdmacausland@stewartmckelvey.com.
***********************************
This e-mail message (including attachments, if any) is confidential
and may be privileged. Any unauthorized distribution or disclosure is
prohibited. Disclosure to anyone other than the intended recipient
does not constitute waiver of privilege. If you have received this
e-mail in error, please notify us and delete it and any attachments
from your computer system and records.
-----------------------------------
Ce courriel (y compris les pièces jointes) est confidentiel et peut
être privilégié. La distribution ou la divulgation non autorisée de
ce courriel est interdite. Sa divulgation à toute personne autre que
son destinataire ne constitue pas une renonciation de privilège. Si
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From: Charles LeBlond <cleblond@stewartmckelvey.com>
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2013 00:10:39 +0000
Subject: Automatic reply: CBC says A Neo-Nazi estate dispute will be
overseen by two Jewish groups and a very corrupt Attorney General???
To: David Amos <motomaniac333@gmail.com>
I will be out of the office until Monday, August 26, 2013. I will
have limted acess to emails. For immediate assistance, please contact
my assistant Teri at tlsoontiens@stewartmckelvey.com.
Je serai absent du bureau jusqu'au 26 août, 2013. J'aurai un accès
limité à mes courriels. Pour une aide immédiate, communiquez avec mon
assistante Teri à tlsoontiens@stewartmckelvey.com.
.
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[4.59.182.109].
On 8/21/13, David Amos <motomaniac333@gmail.com> wrote:
> Well who gets to oversee the malicious actions of the Attorney General?
>
> Methinks it must be mean old me. Its a dirty job but soembody has to
> do it. What say you? Please check the pdf file hereto attached and
> argue me in writing if ya dare.
>
> The Chaisson lawyer is a partner in McInnes and Cooper thus he and his
> partners have had Hard Copy of some of my concerns about illegal
> probate actions practiced against the courts by lawyers for many
> years. According to the CROWN Corp known as the CBC(They would not
> conceal awful truths would they?) Chaisson dismissed Hughes'
> suggestion that the Southern Poverty Law Centre is pulling strings as
> "a conspiracy theory." "Where is the evidence? You can't just come to
> court and throw wild accusations like that without any shred of
> evidence," said Chiasson.
>
> Well trust that I have LOTS of evidence of conspiriacies practiced by
> the Southern Poverty Law Center and legions of others that Chaisson
> and his fellow lawyers should have disclosed to John Hughes by now.
> Perhaps John Hughes should ignore his golfing buddies and finally call
> me back. He and I should bury the hachet and he should simply quit
> bullshitting me and ask me nicely for an affidavit and invite me to
> court on September 10th. The amount being argued within the McCorkell
> estate is chump change to me. However the Free Speech issues and the
> right to privacy without state intervening on behalf of unethicial
> "civil rights" groups certainly is not.
>
> The awful truth is the Attorney General is an elected public official.
> The Blais lawyer from Moncton was appointed by her mindless party
> leader David Alward to uphold the law not to break it for the benefit
> of greedy Yankees. The self appointed Jewish Groups who claim to be
> the gusrfians of our civil rights are no such thing that task belongs
> to our Justice officials. The Jewish groups should have had no
> standing in the mcCorkell matter whatsoever.Hell even Canadian Jewish
> lawyers such as Ezzy Baby Levant and Karen Selick agreed with me very
> publicly. To watch a corrupt Attorney General and her mindless minions
> side with a couple of sneaky Yankee lawyers was truly comical indeed
> but to see the Court of the Queen's Bench allow the nonsense of it all
> was way beyond ridiculous.
>
> How will the ordinary folk of New Brunswick have any idea what joke
> the province may become over this frivolous action if the CBC and
> their media buddies do not duly inform them of all sides of the matter
> instead of merely slandering people. How many taxpayers dollars have
> been spent already on secretive ex RCMP private investigators and the
> less that useles litigation team? It had not escaped my notice that
> many bloggers etc are not so easily fooled by the Corporate Media. Try
> Googling mccorkell new brunswick sometime to see how much of a joke
> Maritimers have already become no thanks to Attorney General Blais and
> her minions.
>
> Moncton's former city solicitor John Hughes should not have ignored me
> years ago so I am not surprised that he ignored once again recently.
>
> The amount of money he wants to argue before the Supreme Court is the
> smallest that I have ever seen.
>
> http://www.scc-csc.gc.ca/case-dossier/info/sum-som-eng.aspx?cas=31693
>
> Trust that the pdf file hereto attached proves that I could make
> Hughes a very wealthy man if he were even remotely ethical and his
> friend Attorney General Blais and her boss Stephen Harper know it.
>
> Its just like I hinted in an email to the Yankee lawyer/preacher
> Scotty Baby Lively who is also battling the same SPLC dudes that I
> published early this morning before I heard the news today. In my
> humble opinion Mr Streed should use his rights in the US of A and sue
> everyone of the nastyCanadian bastards ASAP in a US District Court
> pursuant to US Title 42 Section 1982. If they wish to attack him he
> should at least get to pick the turf.
>
> http://thedavidamosrant.blogspot.ca/2013/08/the-snobby-lawyerpreacher-
> scotty-lively.html
>
> http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2013/07/31/nb-neo-na
- Hide quoted text -
> zi-mccorkell-estate.html
>
> Hughes contends the Southern Poverty Law Centre is behind the whole
> matter and recruited her.
>
> This is "a skillful operation by people who have done this many times,
> not only to bankrupt their opponents, but to enrich their own
> organization," he said.
>
> But her lawyer dismissed Hughes's suggestion that the Southern Poverty
> Law Centre is pulling strings as "a conspiracy theory."
>
> "Where is the evidence? You can't just come to court and throw wild
> accusations like that without any shred of evidence," said Chiasson.
>
> How his client pays her legal bills is a matter of client-attorney
> privilege, he said.
>
> Judge ruled against cross-examination
> Justice Peter Glennie ruled against allowing the cross-examination.
>
> "Cross examination under these circumstances should not become an
> application for discovery," he said.
>
> The judge also ruled the temporary injunction should continue until
> the hearing on Sept. 10.
>
> "I can't see any good coming out of this," said Chiasson, referring to
> the estate going to the National Alliance. "Only evil would come from
> that."
>
> Just in case folks think I don't understand the scene laid out above
> pehaps they should checkout a letter an evil Special Agent of the US
> Treasury Dept wrote me long ago.
>
> http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ne8Q7TeybUc/SFNyAJCln9I/AAAAAAAABE8/seWnLXU8
> YMU/s1600-h/IRS.jpg
>
> Or find some fun in reading illegal ex parte documents filed by the US
> Attorney in Beantown in order to try to protect his beloved Cardinal
> Bernard Francis Law's evil arse.
> They begin around page 100 of this file.
>
> http://www.checktheevidence.com/pdf/2619437-CROSS-BORDER-txt-.pdf
>
> (Wanna see more? Trust that I have lots more All ya gotta do is surf
> the
> web)
>
> How about how I used US Title 42 to defend my dumb arse agains the
> Janet Reno's pal the VERY VERY EVIL Yankee lesbian Judge Sidney Hanlon
> in 2004? Everything Hanlon did against me was ex parte and VERY
> ILLEGAL.
>
> http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/1982
>
> 42 USC § 1982 - Property rights of citizens
>
> US CodeNotesUpdatesAuthorities (CFR)Current through Pub. L. 113-21.
> (See Public Laws for the current Congress.)
>
> All citizens of the United States shall have the same right, in every
> State and Territory, as is enjoyed by white citizens thereof to
> inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey real and personal
> property.
>
> Source
>
> (R.S. § 1978.)
> Codification
>
>
> R.S. § 1978 derived from act Apr. 9, 1866, ch. 31, § 1,14 Stat. 27.
> Section was formerly classified to section 42 of Title 8, Aliens and
> Nationality.
>
>
> http://thedavidamosrant.blogspot.ca/2013/02/november-05-2004-legal-tal
> k-text-of.html
>
> THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS
> THE TRIAL COURT
> DORCHESTER, SS.
> DISTRICT COURT DEPARTMENT
> THE COMMONWEALTH OF )
> MASSACHUSETTS )
> CRIMINAL ACTION
> )
> DOCKET NO. 0407CR004623
> v . )
> )
> DAVID R. AMOS )
> )
> AFFIDAVIT OF DAVID R. AMOS
> Now comes, David R. Amos, a Citizen of Canada and a Legal Permanent
> Resident of the USA and asserts his Constitutional Rights pursuant to
> Title 42 Sections 1981, 1982, 1985 and 1986 of the Federal Code and
> freely swears under the penalties of perjury that the following
> statements are true and to the best of his knowledge.
>
> http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Attorney+General+Janet+Reno+Opens+New+Do
> rchester+Domestic+Violence...-a065078979
>
> United States Attorney General Janet Reno came to Boston today to
> announce the opening of the new Dorchester District Court Domestic
> Violence Session, under a Department of Justice grant given to Boston.
> The Judicial Oversight Demonstration Initiative (JOD) grant is for $7
> million over five years, contingent on continued Congressional
> appropriations.
>
> Judge Sydney Hanlon, presiding judge of the Dorchester District Court,
> will run the new domestic violence session. The domestic violence
> court session will conduct arraignments, bail hearings, probation
> surrenders, and probation reviews. It will also hear all ex parte and
> contested civil restraining orders.
>
> http://www.mass.gov/courts/appealscourt/justices/hanlon.html
>
> http://wikiworldbook.com/global-address-book/Sidney-Hanlon
>
>
> BTW lots of people hate lots of other people it is not illegal in most
> places that are blessed with common sense. However with the right to
> Free Speech come responsibility. Freedom has its limits in a
> purportedly "Just" Society. Free Speech does not give one the licence
> to injure others with your mouth or pen.
>
> R. v. Lucas, [1998] 1 S.C.R. 439 is the leading Supreme Court of
> Canada decision on defamatory libel. The Court held that the freedom
> of expression under Section 2(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and
> Freedoms is subject to the "reasonable limits prescribed by law" set
> out in Section 1 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
>
>
> Hell some offences come with quite a price tag in the British
> Commonwealth. For instance libel and hate speech are illegal under the
> Canadian Criminal Code Check Sections 300 and 319 if you don't believe
> mean old me.
>
> http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/page-150.html#docCont
>
> http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-46/page-155.html#h-92
>
> For instance the Jewish lawyer Ezzy Baby Levant can have fun preaching
> hate on Corporate TV against fools as Arty Topham and legions of
> mindless anarchists but just like all of you Ezzy dares not to even
> breathe my name over the public airwaves if he wishes to keep his job.
> This is a comical video.
>
> http://canadianhumanrightscommission.blogspot.ca/2012/11/muslim-hate-s
> peech-and-authur-topham.html
>
> http://www.radicalpress.com/?p=1411
>
> The wacko Arthur Topham that Ezzy Bay speaks of quite simply does not
> know when to shut up. Even while he is being prosecuted under Section
> 319 and after his strange lawyer Dougy Christie has shit the bed Arty
> baby continues to hang himself with his own words. Look what the evil
> bastard publishes about a Jewish lady lawyer just because he did not
> like her opinion of Southern Poverty Law Center's nasty actions
> against the McCorkell estate.
>
> http://www.radicalpress.com/?p=3081
>
> However if you think Arty Topham and his Hitler worshipers are bad,
> trust that you ain't seen nothing yet. Check out Ezzy Levant's # 1 fan
> and fellow zionist. Ask yourself howcome Mr Baconfat can get away with
> publishing such evil things about the Canadian Human Rights
> Commissioners and many others for years?
>
> http://baconfat53.blogspot.ca/2009/06/welcome-to-alberta-human-rights.
> html
>
> http://baconfat53.blogspot.ca/2009/06/jennifer-lynchfuck-you.html
>
> http://baconfat53.blogspot.ca/2009/06/people-to-steal-your-rights-want
> -to.html
>
> http://baconfat53.blogspot.ca/2009_06_01_archive.html
>
> http://baconfat53.blogspot.ca/2009/07/welcome-to-inquistion.html
>
> Better yet howcome Arty Topham is too afraid to defend himself from Mr
> Baconfat?
>
> Howcome Byron Prior is not allowed to?
>
> http://baconfat53.blogspot.ca/2009/10/byronprioreuthenasia-lobotomy.ht
> ml
>
> Friday, October 9, 2009
> ByronPrior...euthenasia, lobotomy?
> As I research the Byron Prior story it seems like a tragedy that could
> only happen in Newfoundland . Byron Prior's siblings has been abused
> by generations of his own parents. Such abuse tolerated and enabled by
> Bryron Prior's father, and by the entire community from which he is
> from. That is the crime here. It would surprise me to find out that
> either Byron or one of his siblings is or was the product of incest.
>
> Arthur Topham has writen this about the Byron Prior case with the
> assistance and consent of Audrey Prior, Byron Prior's wife.
>
> On March 28th of this year (2009) I received a short email from Byron
> Prior, an associate out in Newfoundland, who I have been in email
> contact with for a number of years. His case, as explained in the
> websites listed in his email below, is most likely one of the best
> examples of the power of the provincial and federal courts, aided and
> abetted by a complicit media, to shield themselves and their political
> cohorts from the scrutiny of public investigation. Byron's case is a
> classic, albeit a relatively unknown one, that epitomizes the level of
> corruption which exists within Canada's politically biased judicial
> system and how that system becomes criminal itself in its overt and
> covert methodologies used to shield the perpetrators of sexual abuse.
>
> When people of power are accused of wrongdoing and there is good
> reason for inquiries to be held then those in such positions exploit
> their influence for their own self-serving benefit and to the
> detriment of our justice system as a whole.
>
> Byron Prior's case, like my own fight with B'nai Brith Canada and the
> Canadian Human Rights Commission, is purposely kept hidden in the
> twilight and shadows constructed by the Zionist-controlled mainstream
> media. Our situations are quite different in terms of the underlying
> reasons for the persecutions we face but the fact that the system
> itself is abusing us both is beyond question. In my case the "crime"
> is speaking the truth as I see it about the Rothschild Zionist global
> conspiracy.
>
> In Byron's case the circumstances are far beyond anything so
> threatening as the intellectual attack that I am being subjected to by
> the state and its Zionist manipulators. His story is a macabre horror
> story compared to my own, the details of which would provide ample
> subject matter for a full length documentary. The reaction, by
> Canada's legal system, to his noble and sincere efforts to gain both
> recognition and justice are frightening and ominous.
>
> We have heard Dean Roger Ray tell everyone that freemasons raped Byron
> Prior's sister. He has told us the "cover-up"has been perpertrated, by
> freemasons, Jesuits, and the illuminati. Now conspiracy retard Arthur
> Topham claims kinship with Byron Prior and the involvment of the
> "State" and the "Zionists" in his "case" and the Byron Prior tragedy.
>
> Last evening over drinks at "a faculty club" at the U of A, I asked
> two members to the Faculty of Law if they knew anything of Mr. Priors
> case. Both relied NOTHING other than two "Charter issues" that have
> recently dealt with by the Newfoundland Supreme Court . Indeed he was
> exculpated and acquitted. None ofus are sure exactly why
>
> Mr.Prior's sexual assault allegations were fully investigated and that
> there was NOT enough evidence to lay charges...especially considering
> the time that has elapsed. As I understand it ...there is NO legal
> means given the lack of evidence to compel Mr. Hickman to provide a
> DNA sample. In fact his CharterRights preclude that. That begs the
> question are Mr. Priors Charter Rights more important or relevant than
> Mr. Hickman's?
>
> So what is justice here? Mr. Hickman ought not be compelled to provide
> body samples merely because Byron prior accuses his of something
> without evidece, reseasonable or probable cause.There appears to be NO
> FACTS in this matter, no evidence to compel further proceedings.
>
> So now with Byron Priors ecouragement the conspiracy constitency has
> embraced his cause. The Zionists are to blame, the freemasons raped
> his sister ad nauseum...whereas the only conspiracy I see.....is in
> Byron Prior's community and his family...they have alll covered up
> this disgusting, inhuman incestuous abuse for generations .
>
> Byron Prior is obviously insane ..after all this who wouldn't be...he
> should provide the evidence of his allegations to compel a DNA sample
> ...simply accept the fact there are no legal grounds to forciably
> obtain one.
>
> Byron Prior has made a bargain with the devil embracing conspiracy
> retards.....he should just put in a deep dark hole.
>
>
> Posted by Seren at 5:02 AM
>
> http://qslspolitics.blogspot.ca/2008/05/nfld-whistleblower-dodges-libe
> l-charge.html
>
> Truth matters
> Defamation law that ignores truth ruled unconstitutional Peter Walsh -
> The Telegram (St. John's, NFLD) Tuesday, May 6
>
> The Supreme Court of Newfoundland has ruled a law that could send
> someone to prison for defamation is unconstitutional.
>
> Justice Lois Hoegg made the decision Friday. Her ruling also struck
> down a criminal case by Crown prosecutors against Byron Prior of Grand
> Bank.
>
> Prior claims that in 1966, a justice official in the province raped
> and impregnated one of his relatives. Crown attorneys say Prior wore
> placards and distributed flyers which published the allegations.
>
> The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary interviewed Prior's relative in
> 2004 and in 2007, but the alleged victim denied she had been sexually
> assaulted or that she even knew the person Prior said had attacked
> her.
>
> Crown prosecutors tried to convict Prior of defamation under Section
> 301 of the Criminal Code, which says "everyone who publishes a
> defamatory libel is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to
> imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years."
>
> The problem is, Hoegg said, the Crown couldn't prove that Prior was
> knowingly spreading lies.
>
> "I find that it is not justified, in our free and democratic society,
> for the Crown to use the heavy hammer of the criminal law against a
> subject for publishing defamatory libel when the Crown is not able to
> show that the subject knows that his statements are false.
>
> "The expression of truthful, unpopular or even false statements
> deserve protection unless expressed in a violent manner," wrote Hoegg.
>
> Hoegg said if the Crown could prove Prior knowingly published
> defamatory libel, it would have charged him under a different section
> of the criminal code that says "everyone who publishes a defamatory
> libel that he knows is false is guilty of an indictable offence and
> liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years."
>
> That law has withheld court challenges. Section 301 - the law which
> does not mention the matter of truth - has been struck down as
> unconstitutional by three other superior courts in Canada.
>
> "The sections catch different types of offender. To me, it naturally
> follows that their purpose or objectives must be different," wrote
> Hoegg. "I then determined that the objective (of Section 301) was not
> so pressing and important as to override freedom of expression. The
> section is offensive to modern day notions of justice."
>
> The decision only applies to criminal applications of defamation law.
> Hoegg said Prior could possibly be sued in civil court over his
> allegations.
>
> Three years ago, a federal politician filed a statement of claim in
> the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador to have a website that
> contained allegations about him by Prior removed. In the statement,
> the politician said a website posted by Prior accuses him and other
> prominent Newfoundlanders of wrongdoing.
>
> A website containing the allegations is still active ( see 1). Prior
> claims to be a victim of physical and sexual abuse.
>
> pwalsh@thetelegram.com 709-364-2323
>
>
> 2005 01 T 0010
>
> IN THE SUPREME COURT OF NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR
> TRIAL DIVISION
> BETWEEN:
>
> WILLIAM MATTHEWS PLAINTIFF
> AND:
> BYRON PRIOR DEFENDANT
>
> AND BETWEEN:
> BYRON PRIOR DEFENDANT/PLAINTIFF
> BY COUNTERCLAIM
>
> AND: WILLIAM MATTHEWS PLAINTIFF/FIRST DEFENDANT
> BY COUNTERCLAIM
>
> AND: T. ALEX HICKMAN SECOND DEFENDANT
> BY COUNTERCLAIM
>
> AND: THOMAS MARSHALL THIRD DEFENDANT
> BY COUNTERCLAIM
>
> AND: DANNY WILLIAMS FOURTH DEFENDANT
> BY COUNTERCLAIM
>
> AND: EDWARD M. ROBERTS FIFTH DEFENDANT
> BY COUNTERCLAIM
>
> AND: JOHN CROSBIE SIXTH DEFENDANT
> BY COUNTERCLAIM
>
> AND: PATTERSON PALMER SEVENTH DEFENDANT
> BY COUNTERCLAIM
>
> SUMMARY OF CURRENT DOCUMENT
>
> Court File Number(s):2005 01 T 0010
>
> Date of Filing of Document: 25 January 2005
>
> Name of Filing Party or Person: Stephen J. May
>
> Application to which Document being filed relates: Amended
> Application of the Plaintiff/Defendant by Counterclaim to maintain an
> Order
> restricting publication, to strike portions of the Statement of
> Defence, strike the Counterclaim in it's entirety, and to refer this
> proceeding to case management.
>
> Statement of purpose in filing: To maintain an Order restricting
> publication, to strike portions of the Statement of Defence, strike
> the Counterclaim in its entirety and refer this proceeding to case
> management.
>
> A F F I D A V I T
>
> I, Stephen J. May, of the City of St. John's, in the Province of
> Newfoundland and Labrador, Barrister and Solicitor, make oath and
> say as follows:
>
> THAT I am a Partner in the St. John's office of PATTERSON PALMER
> solicitors for William Matthews, the Member of Parliament for
> Random-Burin-St. George's in the Parliament of Canada.
>
> THAT Mr. Matthews originally retained Mr. Edward Roberts, Q.C. on
> or about 30 April 2002 after Mr. Byron Prior, the Defendant/Plaintiff
> by
> Counterclaim, had made allegations against Mr. Matthews in a
> publication called "My Inheritance - The truth - Not Fiction: A Town
> with a Secret". In that publication, the allegation was made that Mr.
> Matthews had had sex with a girl who had been prostituted by her
> mother. That girl was alleged to have been Mr. Prior's sister.
>
> THAT upon being retained, Mr. Edward Roberts wrote a letter to Mr.
> Prior. That letter to Mr. Prior is attached as Exhibit "1" to my
> Affidavit.
>
> THAT subsequent to Mr. Roberts' letter to Mr. Prior, Mr. Roberts
> received a 1 May 2002 e-mail from Mr. Prior. That e-mail is attached
> as Exhibit "2".
>
> THAT subsequent to Mr. Roberts receipt of the e-mail, Mr. Prior
> swore an Affidavit acknowledging that what had been said in that
> publication was false. That Affidavit is attached as Exhibit "3" to my
> Affidavit.
> Following Mr. Roberts' receipt of that Affidavit, Mr. Matthews
> advised that he was satisfied not to pursue the matter any further and
> our firm closed our file.
>
> THAT on or about 25 October 2004, I was retained by Mr. Matthews
> following his gaining knowledge that a web site, made a series of
> allegations against him relating to my having sex with a girl of
> approximately 12 years old through to an approximate age of 15 years
> old. It also accused him of being a father of one of her children and
> accused him of having raped that girl. Upon checking the web site I
> saw that Byron Prior, the Defendant, had been identified as the
> author of the material on the site.
>
> THAT Mr. Matthews instructed me to write Mr. Prior, to remind him of
> the fact that the allegations had been admitted to being false
> through a 16 May 2002 Affidavit to advise him of Mr. Matthews'
> intentions to commence legal proceedings if the comments were not
> removed from the web site. A copy of my letter to Mr. Prior is
> attached as Exhibit "4" to this Affidavit.
>
> THAT I attach as Exhibit "5" a transcript from a 5 November 2004
> voicemail left by David Amos, identified in the voicemail as a
> friend of Mr. Prior.
>
> THAT I attach as Exhibit "6" a portion of a 6 November 2004 e-mail
> from Mr. Amos.
>
> THAT until I received his voicemail and e-mail, I had never heard
> of Mr. Amos.
>
> THAT Mr. Amos has continued to send me e-mail since his 5 November
> e-mail. Including his 6 November 2004 e-mail, I have received a
> total of 15 e-mails as of 23 January 2005. All do not address Mr.
> Matthews' claim or my involvement as Mr. Matthews' solicitor. I attach
> as Exhibit "7" a portion of a 12 January 2005 e-mail that Mr. Amos
> sent to me but originally came to my attention through Ms. Lois Skanes
> whose firm had received a copy. This e-mail followed the service of
> the Statement of Claim on 11 January 2005 on Mr. Prior. I also attach
> as Exhibit "8" a copy of a 19 January 2005 e-mail from Mr. Amos.
>
> THAT I attach as Exhibit "9" a copy of a 22 November 2004 letter
> addressed to me from Edward Roberts, the Lieutenant Governor of
> Newfoundland and Labrador covering a 2 September 2004 letter from Mr.
> Amos addressed to John Crosbie, Edward Roberts, in his capacity as
> Lieutenant Governor, Danny Williams, in his capacity as Premier of
> Newfoundland and Labrador, and Brian F. Furey, President of the Law
> Society of Newfoundland and Labrador. I requested a copy of this
> letter from Government House after asking Mr. Roberts if he had
> received any correspondence from Mr. Amos during his previous
> representation of Mr. Matthews. He advised me that he received a
> letter since becoming Lieutenant Governor, portions of which involved
> his representation of Mr. Matthews. Mr. Roberts' letter also covered
> his reply to Mr. Amos.
>
> THAT I attach as Exhibit "10" an e-mail from Mr. Amos received on
> Sunday, 23 January 2005.
>
> THAT I swear this Affidavit in support of the Application to strike
> Mr. Prior's counterclaim.
>
> SWORN to before me at
> St. John's, Province of Newfoundland and Labrador this 24th day of
> January, 2005.
>
> Signed by Della Hart
> STEPHEN J. MAY
> Signature STAMP
> DELLA HART
> A Commissioner for Oaths in and for
> the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador. My commission expires
> on December 31, 2009
A child victim of thalidomide in London in 1963. Photograph: PA
The
dark shadow of thalidomide is still with us. The original catastrophe
maimed 20,000 babies and killed 80,000: war apart, it remains the
greatest manmade global disaster. Now evidence has been uncovered that
the pharmaceutical outrage – it is nothing less – was compounded by a
judicial scandal that has suppurated all these years.
It
is exposed in a large number of documents discovered in the state
archives of North Rhine-Westphalia by a researcher for the UK
Thalidomide Trust. The papers, which have been examined and
authenticated by the international law firm of Ince & Co, speak to
political interference that violated the constitutional division of
power between the legislative, the executive and the judiciary. And more
than half a century since the pill’s threat to an embryo was proven,
the company that produced the first disaster has continued to sell the
drug in parts of Latin America, on prescription only, where babies
continued to be born with malformations similar to the survivors from
the 1960s.
The
criminal trial of employees of Chemie-Grünenthal, the German company
that created and marketed thalidomide, opened in the pretty town of
Alsdorf, near Aachen, on 27 May 1968. It promised to be comparable in
scale and emotional intensity to Nuremberg. Thousands of deformed babies
had died or been allowed to die. Many families with surviving children
filed civil suits, but all the victims had to wait years without support
because the criminal trial took precedence.
Grünenthal
had insisted that it was blameless: the thousands of abnormal births
were an act of God. It had the discreet support of the politically
well-connected chemical industry, mindful that a conviction would raise
insurance premiums. The North Rhine-Westphalia public prosecutors found
the company obstructive. They had to seize the most important Grünenthal
documents in police raids on its “bunker” and a company lawyer’s house.
It
took them six years to examine 5,000 case histories: expectant mothers
who had taken thalidomide and given birth to deformed and dead babies,
and men and women who had suffered irreversible nerve damage. The bill
of indictment they prepared against nine Grünenthal employees ran to 972
pages. In support, they had lined up 351 witnesses, 29 technical
experts and 70,000 pages of evidence. There were 400 co-plaintiffs.
Nearly
700 people crowded the biggest space in the region, a “casino” in the
premises of a mining company. Every day, the judges – three
professional, two lay – lawyers and scientists, press and witnesses,
passed by three deformed children nursed by Red Cross sisters while
their mothers were inside hoping to learn why they had suffered.
Grünenthal
came defiantly to court. Its battery of 40 lawyers, easily outnumbering
the prosecution’s, did their best to delay. They several times
threatened to walk out. Eighteen of them spent 12 days failing to shake
the key testimony of the Hamburg paediatrician Dr Widukind Lenz, who had
alerted Grünenthal to the tragedy.
It was reckoned that with court sittings three days a week the trial would take at least three years. It didn’t.
It
was shut down on 18 December, 1970. The nine men charged with intent to
commit bodily harm and involuntary manslaughter went free. The judges
said this was with the explicit approval of the prosecution. They
granted Grünenthal immunity from any further criminal proceedings.
Silence was imposed on the 2,554 German families who had children with
foreshortened limbs or no limbs; many had damaged organs, and some were
blind. Their parents then had no alternative but to go along with a
miserable compensation scheme contrived by the government and the
company. It benefited Grünenthal far more than it did the victims.
What
should have happened for justice to prevail was for the government to
support the families while the criminal court tracked liability for an
enormous crime. That was demanded by the West German Social Democratic
party in opposition in 1962, but they forgot about it in government.
Instead,
while the witnesses testified and endured cross-examination in noisy,
angry scenes in the courthouse, the real action was elsewhere. The large
number of private documents newly discovered in German state archives
by the researcher for the UK Thalidomide Trust speak to government
interference in the judicial proceedings.
On
July 21, 1969, the documents show, Grünenthal directors and their
lawyers met in secret with the federal health ministry. The principal
defendant in the criminal trial had been excused attendance in court for
health reasons, but he was there at this and other meetings:
Grünenthal’s founder, Hermann Wirtz, a 71-year-old father of five, a
member of a devout Catholic family socially prominent as philanthropists
in Aachen. No victims or their representatives were present, nor were
they advised of the meeting.
A follow-up note
to the July meeting records that on 18 September, four federal
ministries were involved in discussing an “overall solution”, meaning a
high-level political intervention to stop the trial.
The
most glaring conflict of interest detailed in the archives is of one Dr
Joseph Neuberger (1902-1977). He was a partner in the law firm
Neuberger, Pick and Greeven engaged by Chemie-Grünenthal. In November
1966, he personally took over the defence of Wirtz. Three weeks later,
on December 1966, he acquired the power to control the prosecution.
How
on earth could this happen? There was a political coup that led to an
SPD/FDP coalition. Neuberger (SPD) got the job of minister of justice
for North Rhine-Westphalia, a post he held from 1966-1972.
Three
days before he took office, he wrote to the prosecutors to demand they
stop proceedings against his client: “I would be personally obliged for a
rapid execution.”
The last thing he did in the
afternoon of the day he was sworn in was meet with the prosecution in
Aachen. Again, he asked them to stop action against Wirtz. He told them
he was resigning as solicitor for Wirtz on becoming minister of justice.
But then he discussed the case again and repeated his claims. His
personal interest in defending Wirtz and the company persisted, as did
his company’s representation.
In February 1970,
prosecution officials prepared working papers for and against
discontinuing the trial. On 26 January, Grünenthal had offered a glimpse
of what it had been brewing in the secret talks. It announced that if
the 2,544 families would give up their civil suits for compensation,
Grünenthal would contribute 100m Deutsche marks ($27m) to a fund. There
was no mention of a deal with the government or ending the trial. The
Grünenthal posture was packaged as one of concern for families. The
company said it intended to fight the criminal trial and then fight
civil actions and appeal. All this would take at least 10 years and
meanwhile the children would have no money.
Here,
then, was an attempt to lay the ground for closing the criminal trial.
The discovered papers suggest the private argument had been going the
other way. They include a draft for the prosecution which added up to an
argument against closure. The papers are undated but the context
suggests February 1970. They considered acquittals were unlikely. Only
one argument was advanced in favour of ending the trial. It was that the
sooner it was over, the sooner the victims could start civil suits for
damages – but that would mean they would receive less compensation than
if there had been convictions for negligence.
The
papers said discontinuing the trial must meet three conditions. One,
discontinuance had to be clearly in the public interest. Two, it had to
be shown that the accused had a low degree of personal guilt. The
document concluded neither of these two requirements had been met, but
even if they had there was an insuperable third: discontinuance could
not be considered for any case where “severe bodily harm” was “in the
air”. Why then did the prosecutor, reporting to Neuberger, consent to
the discontinuance of the criminal trial?
The
state prosecutor Josef Havertz said “everything got worse” after
Neuberger took over. “I was the only state prosecutor and I was drowning
in the files. It wasn’t until the last year I was provided with two
young prosecutors as assistants, and they went behind my back and
betrayed the victims.”
Thalidomide tablets Photograph: PR
The
betrayal was twofold. The first betrayal was of values. No civilized
society can abandon finding out how thousands of babies died, how
thousands were deformed, how thousands of adults were inflicted with
irreversible nerve damage.
The second betrayal
was that the trial was abandoned in circumstances that undermined the
parents’ claims for damage, exactly as the ministry briefing had said
would happen with premature closure. So not only did the German
government of the day secure the release of Wirtz and his associates,
but the German taxpayer, not the company, has ended up paying the lion’s
share of compensation.
The parents were
pressured to end their civil suits. The scheme that emerged from all the
secret meetings without parents amounted to just 10% of their claims
(an average sum of $22,000 for each child for a lifetime of disability).
It stayed low for nearly four decades until, in a dramatic two-step
improvement, between 2008 and 2013 the government raised the payments to
the most injured to $6,6912 a month. The Grünenthal contribution is now
less than 3%.
The UK Thalidomide Trust says it
will give the documents it found to the North Rhine-Westphalia’s
ministry of health, which has commissioned an investigation into “the
Contergan scandal” – the brand name of thalidomide in West Germany. The
ministry says the inquiry, to be carried out by Wilhelms University
Münster, will focus on the regional state authorities and report in
2015.
The federal ministry of justice refused
to comment on the findings in the archives, bringing a brisk rebuke from
Dr Martin Johnson for the trust. “We welcome the action of North
Rhine-Westphalia but we ask the federal government to answer for its
major role in obstructing justice at the time. This is not just about
the needs of today’s survivors of a crime, but about justice for the
many thousands of children killed by Grünenthal’s drug. The thalidomide
disaster remains the worst and biggest crime in postwar Germany. Justice
must be done and seen to be done.”
The Wirtz
family’s Chemie-Grünenthal, based in the little Rhineland town of
Stolberg, was new to pharmaceuticals. Before the war, the family had
been in business making soaps, perfumes and cleaning fluids. Hermann
Wirtz, who founded Grünenthal in 1946, installed a half-dozen scientists
and technicians under the command of 32-year-old Dr Heinrich Mückter
(1914-1987).
Wirtz and Mückter had been members
of the Nazi party, which was not unusual in postwar Germany. The
distinctive feature of Wirtz’s company was the presence of the number of
scientists who had experimented in Hitler’s labour camps. The
non-executive chairman was Otto Ambros, one of the inventors of the
nerve gas sarin, and in charge of the construction of the Auschwitz IG
Farben plant. He was sentenced to eight years in prison at the Nuremberg
trials, released after four to help the US army chemical corps.
Mückter
experimented with live prisoners in labour camps in Poland in his
attempt to find an anti-typhus vaccine. Many died. He narrowly escaped
arrest by the Polish war crimes prosecutors.
Grünenthal
also had Dr Martin Staemmler, one of the top people in the Nazi racial
hygiene and eugenics setup. They were not men imbued with exceptional
compassion, but Neuberger, who came to the rescue of Grünenthal, could
hardly be suspected of Nazi sympathies. He had escaped prewar
persecution as a Jew by emigrating to Israel, but returned in time for
the German economic miracle. In fact, as relevant to the disaster is the
atmosphere in West Germany in those hectic years. It had what a Swedish
observer called “an overweening belief in the divine right of
commercial success”. There is a Neuberger Medal awarded to non-Jews who
helped Jews; Chancellor Merkel was honoured in 2008.
Wirtz
and Mückter launched the company’s “wonder drug” for over-the-counter
sale in liquid and pill form on 1 October 1957, as a sedative for
sleeplessness and remedy for morning sickness in pregnancy. It came to
be the second best selling pharmaceutical in Germany, behind only Bayer
Aspirin.
Between the launch and the grudging
withdrawal on 27 November 1961, Wirtz and Mückter massively promoted
thalidomide in 52 countries as “completely non-poisonous … astonishingly
safe … fully harmless … completely safe for pregnant women and nursing
mothers without any adverse effects on mother and child”. The claim was a
fraud. They did no tests for the effect on an embryo. Their stock line
later was that nobody in the 50s realised a pharmaceutical could reach
the foetus. It was a nonsense statement then, and has become obscene
with every repetition.
One of the original Sunday Times reports on the thalidomide scandal Photograph: public domain
Round
the world, the non-toxic claim of Grünenthal was shattered before the
epidemic of malformed births was realised. Adults who took thalidomide
as a sedative suffered serious nerve damage. During 1959, Grünenthal
received a series of complaints from the German doctors and thalidomide
distributors. The management had a standard answer: “First we’ve ever
heard of anything like that.”
The first
description in medical literature could not be brushed off. In December
1960, the British Medical Journal published a description of four cases
of peripheral neuritis traceable to thalidomide. (Distaval in the UK.)
Mückter, whose income was tied to sales, already knew of 150 cases, but
he told the complaining British distributor to sit back and enjoy the
revenues. “More than a million people in West Germany alone take
Contergan every day.” Oh, yes, added Mückter, they’d heard of
“occasional” reactions – “allergies” most likely – but they vanished
after the patient stopped taking the pill. This was another lie,
embellished by sales executives who worked hard to suppress bad reports,
offered bribes for favourable mentions, and abused troublemakers.
Grünenthal
did release some investigative energies. It instructed its private
detective, Ernst Jahnke of Essen, to put complaining patients and
doctors under surveillance.
To deny, delay and
obfuscate was Grünenthal’s routine reaction. It did not act with urgency
on abnormal births until doctors in Germany and Australia insisted on
the connection. The archived files unearthed by the UK Thalidomide Trust
include evidence indicating that Grünenthal kept selling thalidomide
longer than was realised at the time of the trial. It took its Contergan
brand off the market on November 27, but the documents suggest that
Grünenthal had known of the toxic effects for at least six weeks before
then – six weeks that imperilled thousands of expectant mothers.
The
files recovered include an incriminating letter by Dr Günter von
Waldeyer-Hartz. He was a chemistry graduate who had been in a training
unit for scientific sales in October 1961, six weeks before the drug was
withdrawn. On January 5, 1969, realising his evidence might not surface
in the trial, he sent a letter by registered post to the minister
responsible for the liaison between state and federal, one Dr Posser:
“We were shown a packaging unit for Contergan-Thalidomide with the
sticker NOT FOR PREGNANT WOMEN. The management knew about the
intra-uterine effect of the preparation at the latest by mid-October.
The decision to carry on selling the preparation was without any doubt
motivated by profit-making and criminal in my view.”
He
named four witnesses. A note by prosecutor Havertz (26 January 1969)
says he recalled sending the great criminal chamber testimony from Dr
Waldeyer-Hartz in “the spring or summer of 1968”. It was never found.
The
judges who acquiesced in the closure sanctioned by Neuberger did not
convict and they did not acquit, but in the final remarks, they said the
substantive charges had all been legally proven. The nerve damage would
have been easy to foresee. It was as “a well-known fact” that a great
number of chemical substances were suspected of being harmful to the
foetus. The company had been “negligent, misleading, inexcusable,
unlawful, very inadequate by the standards of the day … obstructive …
unethical …”
Yet, inexplicably, the judges then
granted immunity. Extenuating circumstances? They expressed sympathy
for the personal suffering of the accused . The unethical practices from
excessive competition were “regrettably” widespread due to a lack of
federal regulation. The company had voluntarily “made considerable
contributions from their private fortunes for the benefit of destitute
victims”.
Grünenthal has been unrelenting in
exploiting its get-out-of-jail-free card. It has a regular excuse for
washing its hands of the tragedy it created. It insists it has no legal
liability (thanks to the aborted trial). It suggests it was just unlucky
because it followed “the standards prevailing in the pharmaceutical
industry at that time”. This assertion merely lengthens Pinocchio’s nose
since whatever they thought erroneously in 1958 they have kept saying
since in the face of repeated scientific testimony of its falsity.
Reproductive
studies had been routine at pharmaceutical companies since the mid
1940s. As the German judges said in their final remarks in 1970, it was
widely recognised at the time that a drug could indeed reach the foetus.
The tranquilisers in direct competition with thalidomide were all
tested for teratogenic effects and the results published. “The overall
behaviour of the company did not correspond with the standards required
of a serious and conscientious producer of pharmaceuticals,” the judges
said.
And yet, Sweden and Switzerland apart,
government and law mostly abandoned the children to decades of David and
Goliath legal suits; parents with limited resources but limitless new
obligations of care versus powerful and immortal corporations.
A
hundred victims in Australia and New Zealand were left to struggle
unaided for 40 years until Ken Youdale of the Australian Thalidomide
Trust and lawyer Peter Gordon won a class action suit against Grünenthal
in December 2013. The responsive British multinational Diageo, which
inherited thalidomide as a licensee, voluntarily put $88m into a fund
for 100 victims. Grünenthal refused to contribute. A hundred Canadian
victims today live miserable lives because their disabilities have aged
them beyond their years and outrun the small provisions from
Grünenthal’s distributor Richardson-Merrell and the government. It is
excruciating to see the fragment of a video of a Canadian woman who can
take a bath only when there is someone around who can try to get her
into a sling so she can be winched in and out of the water.
In
Spain, where thalidomide was available until 1965, Grünenthal keeps
fighting a case mounted for 180 people by the Spanish Association of
Thalidomide Victims (Avite). Victims arrived at the courtroom in their
wheelchairs on 21 November 2013 to cheer Grünenthal’s conviction. It was
ordered to compensate each one of the plaintiffs according to the
severity of their injuries. But then Grünenthal got the judgment
reversed in November 2014 on the grounds they had sued too late. Now
Avite has to raise more money to take the case to Spain’s highest court,
while one of Grünenthal’s undoubted victims, Juan Carlos Vélez, 44,
sits on the pavement in a smart part of Madrid with a hat upturned for
coins. He can’t hold out a hand because he hasn’t any.
Grünenthal
seems to believe its moral obligation has been discharged by its
creation of a foundation for palliative care in Aachen. That is no
solace for the victims worldwide. The 300 Spanish members of Avite are
upset that Pope Francis I has honoured Michael Wirtz, the son of
Hermann, the founder of Grünenthal. Michael Wirtz is no longer chairman,
but he is seen as a symbol of its obduracy. No mention was made of
thalidomide in a ceremony in Aachen earlier this year. Bishop Henry
Mussinghoff conferred on him the Order of St Sylvester, “one of the
highest honours which the pope gives to lay persons for services to the
Roman Catholic church”. Avite will petition the pope to rescind the
award. Grünenthal’s possible impact in the pope’s home nation of
Argentina seems to have escaped attention.
A thalidomide victim in Seville. Photograph: Marcelo del Pozo/Reuters
Health
researchers believe that many cases of second and third generation
victims in Argentina are because some of the companies did not impose
stricter restrictions on its sale. The records of the Nacional de
Meckcamen show Grünenthal selling thalidomide (No 2066) at least until
about 2000 under the trade name Talidomida Cassara. Eight different
manufacturers made thalidomide. Six of them had the sales restriction,
making it exclusively for use in hospitals. Two, Grünenthal’s Cassara
and one other, however, required only a prescription, meaning anyone
with a prescription could get it by walking into any pharmacy. The
researchers say that this meant that, although the products would have
carried inserts in the packaging warning of the risks, people could take
pills home and share them without control. Between 1997 and 2005, only
one thalidomide baby was born in Brazil after use was restricted to
hospitals. Five were born between 2005 and 2008 when this restriction
was watered down.
Nobody quite understands how
thalidomide works. It has been found to prolong the lives of patients
with multiple myeloma and to ease the symptoms of leprosy. The drug is
out of patent. Millions of pills are being produced by companies and
black market operators with an eye on its potential more than the risks
of it being ingested by expectant mothers. The paediatricians in the
hospital-based Eclamc (The Latin American Collaborative Study of
Congenital Malformations) know of a hundred malformed babies but suspect
there are “vast number of innocent victims” not yet known since, the
group covers less than 1% of all births in Latin America: “The
incitements for a new disaster are alarming”.
Experts
on thalidomide meeting in October at the World Health Organisation in
Geneva called for enhanced studies of the epidemiology. These redemptive
efforts of science may be considered rather more worthy of applause
than the pope’s unfortunate embrace of a rich company that escaped
accountability in the criminal court, and still refuses to accept
responsibility for inflicting pain and suffering on innocents worldwide.
Additional reporting by Madeline Chambers in Reuters Berlin bureau and Tobias Arndt.
Sir
Harold Evans is Reuters’ editor at large and co-author with Phillip
Knightley, Elaine Potter and Marjorie Wallace of Suffer The Children,
The Story of Thalidomide (1979) by The Sunday Times Insight Team.
Grünenthal’s statement to the Guardian
“First
of all, we would like to emphasise that Grünenthal sincerely regrets
the thalidomide tragedy, which will always be part of the company’s
history. Grünenthal cares about those affected by thalidomide and is
involved in an active dialogue with those affected in many countries –
amongst others in the UK.
“In
1971, the German parliament passed a law for the establishment of the
so-called Contergan Foundation to provide monetary relief and life-long
pensions to those affected by thalidomide. Grünenthal voluntarily
contributed more than €100m for the support of those affected in Germany
and other countries through the Contergan Foundation.
“Additionally
and in case of a special personal emergency all individuals recognised
to have been affected by a thalidomide containing product of Grünenthal
or one of its distributors can apply for more support from the
company-owned Grünenthal Foundation. Those from the UK and Spain can
also apply.
“As regards the litigation in
Spain, 160 claims in Spain were dismissed in the first instance; the
remaining claims of approx. 20 people have now been rejected by the
court of appeal. The claims in Spain did not distinguish between
thalidomide products marketed by Grünenthal and those marketed by other
companies with no links to Grünenthal. There are established government
schemes in Germany for financial support of Spanish individuals affected
by a thalidomide containing product from Grünenthal or its
distributors. There are individuals who currently benefit from these
payments.
“In April 1970, Grünenthal and
lawyers representing the affected children and families in Germany
entered an out-of-court settlement under which Grünenthal committed to a
pay compensation of 100m Deutsche marks to the families. The government
and the prosecution were not parties to that settlement nor was it a
condition precedent for payment of the settlement amount that the
criminal trial pending against officers and employees of the company was
discontinued. In fact, the trial continued after the settlement. Only
in December 1970, after several years of criminal investigations and
more than 280 days in court, did the criminal court of Aachen decide to
discontinue proceedings. In accordance with applicable criminal laws,
the discontinuation of the proceedings was a decision made by the court
on its own assessment and sole responsibility and not a decision of the
prosecution.
“The introduction of thalidomide
took place more than 50 years ago. Grünenthal believes that its conduct
was consistent with the state of scientific knowledge and the prevailing
standards for the development and testing of the pharmaceutical
industry at that time. Grünenthal believes that medical concern that
thalidomide could be responsible for malformations was raised with it
for the first time in November 1961 by German physician Dr Widukind
Lenz, and then, a few days later, when the UK-based licensee Distillers
informed Grünenthal that an Australian physician, Dr William McBride,
had raised a similar suspicion. Eleven days after being contacted by Dr
Lenz, Grünenthal took steps to withdraw thalidomide from the market.”
• This article was amended on 27 November 2014 to add Marjorie Wallace’s name to the co-authors of Suffer the Children.
