The Canadians are coming…eh?

Sitting here in -15C cold in Ottawa it warms my heart to see a few Canadian folk already giving advice to our Anti-GMO friends in Ireland......in a review of the anti-folks' website as suggested in a letter to the Irish Farmers Journal I found there were indeed a few Canuks lurking around. (I love it here!!!...Canada is the best country in the world.........by the way check out these pictures of “if Canadian ruled the world” http://www.worth1000.com/cache/gallery/contestcache.asp?contest_id=9001&display=photoshop

First, there is Prof. Joe Cummins (retired), who is headlining with a so called “risk assessment” he has written giving advice on the dangers of the proposed BASF GM spud trials in Co. Meath……(by the way I will be posting a review of Cummins handywork shortly)

A word of advice for my fellow country men who happen to be anti-GMO……you may have some excellent points to make but please Michael O', for the love of Jayus, use creditable scientists in your campaign!!…….Joe Cummins has a track history of inaccurately citing other scientist’s work (see Hodgson, Nature Biotechnology 18, 13 (2000)). In this article virologist Dr. Barbara Hohn from the Friedrich Miescher Institute (Basel, Switzerland) admitted to being "terribly irritated" by Cummins. She says Cummins inaccurately cited her work. Another critic Chris Leaver from the University of Oxford also rejected as "pure fiction, and lies" Cummins’ so called “scientific” suggestions

On a personal note, in 2001, in front of 150 Canadians at the University of Guelph, I myself had to stop Mr. Cummins’s misinformation by reading a letter from Prof. Walter Doerfler that expressed his disgust that Mr. Cummins was misrepresenting his DNA research. He was a wee bit red faced!!

Anyway in addition to Mr. Cummins there is Canada’s favourite son David Suzuki…….straight from “Beachcombers” ......I swear!!! And I’m sure Percy Schmeiser (Canada’s favourite infringer) will appear in the Irish media if he's not too busy on his NGO funded world tours (usually visiting places warmer than Canada like Mexico, Brazil, New Zealand, etc. etc.).

So sitting here in Canada its nice to know the my neighbours maybe making an impact back home in Ireland.

To end on a funny note I am attaching a card I got from my students in 1998. Enjoy.....