LAST THURSDAY'S "DOC ZONE"

Well I've been receiving more phone calls than usual including from old colleagues and acquaintances. Apparently they all enjoyed the documentary. Even my kids who were born long after the American War on Vietnam, expressed surprise regarding Canada's political and economic ties to the war. Others while vaguely aware of Canada producing arms and ammunition were quite surprised with the linkage to either herbicides or chemical warfare depending on your point of view. In hindsight an argument could be made contrary to the rationalization at the time that herbicides solely targeted vegetation.

The Vietnam War became intensely unpopular in the United States. In fact like most wars it was the political ideology of the politicians in power that drove it forward. That said it was the young generation and their immediate families who paid the awful price.

Elmira, Ontario is not intrinsically a hotbed of pro war fanaticism. It may well have seemed at the time a logical extension for a company producing insecticides (DDT) and herbicides (2,4-D & 2,4,5-T) to supply Agent Orange as a herbicide to the U.S. military to defoliate jungles. The fact that Agent Orange had already been used for the purpose of destroying an enemy's food supply was not well known. Nor were the awful contaminants in it that produced terrible birth defects in human beings. Not well known by the public but still known by scientists and senior politicians.

The issue now is what are we doing about it now? Both for human beings generations later both in Vietnam and the U.S. as well as what are we doing here in Elmira. The answer in Elmira is that our political leaders are continuing the legacy of denial, deflection and distraction. As we speak friends and fellow travellors right here in Elmira are trying to defuse the discoveries of the last year approximately. Dioxins the toxic component of Agent Orange are still flowing down the Canagagigue Creek from Chemtura and eventually into the Grand River. Intentional bypasses of Uniroyal's toxic wastes have been discovered. A professional hydrogeologist has determined the high probability of Uniroyal's toxins flowing both east and south off site. The Ministry of the Environment quickly discovered even yet higher concentrations of DDT downstream in the Canagagigue in 2012 and 2013. Now they've decided to sit on the 2014 results while claiming lab delays. This is the politicans once more usurping authority from scientists and honest citizens.