The allegations have not yet been tested in court and Bayer says it stands behind the safety of the products.
Roundup, the brand name of a glyphosate-based herbicide that is the subject of the lawsuit, is the most commonly used herbicide in the world and has been sold across Canada since 1976 by U.S. company Monsanto. The German pharmaceutical giant Bayer acquired Monsanto in 2018.
About 165,000 claims have been filed in the U.S. against Bayer alleging Roundup caused users to get sick. The company says 113,000 of those claims have been resolved, meaning plaintiffs were financially compensated or the cases were deemed to be ineligible.
The Canadian case comes as the controversial ingredient glyphosate was taken out of household Roundup products in the U.S. this month.
“We took this action exclusively to help manage litigation risk in the U.S. and not because of any product safety concerns,” a Bayer email statement reads. “The vast majority of claims in the U.S. have come from residential lawn and garden users, so this action largely eliminates the primary source of future claims.”
In 2023, at least five U.S. plaintiffs won their Roundup-related court cases against Bayer – requiring the company to pay almost $2 billion in punitive damages and nearly $1 billion in compensatory damages. Several of these decisions are being appealed. Reuters reported that last month, Bayer won a trial against a related lawsuit, ending what had been a five-trial losing streak for the company in trials over similar claims.
While Americans looking to kill weeds around their homes may no longer be using products with glyphosate, Bayer says the ingredient will remain in Roundup products across Canada – both for household and agricultural use – renewing questions over whether this country’s pest regulations are doing enough to protect Canadians’ health.
In 2019, Health Canada re-approved glyphosate for sale in Canada until April 27, 2032 with the caveat that producers needed to have more details on labels. But glyphosate is banned for cosmetic use and sale in certain parts of Canada, such as Montreal.
France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Vietnam are some of the countries with partial or complete bans on glyphosate.
Jeffrey DeBlock is hoping Canadians will reconsider their use of the product.
As a 14-year-old in the 1990s, DeBlock started his high school summer job at a family friend’s farm near Exeter, Ont. For a few weeks each summer, he wore a backpack connected to a handheld sprayer that he would use to cover roughly 400 acres of crops with Roundup.
“(Roundup) was deemed to be safe, actually very safe. That is why we were using it… We read through all the materials,” DeBlock said. “We’d be cautious about how we pour it, mix it. But thereafter, I’d be out there (in a) long-sleeve shirt, jeans, rubber boots and sort of walking in the field and I did get it on my, you know, hands and face.”
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In high school, DeBlock began to experience fatigue. He saw a doctor, who wrote it off as stress from high school life or maybe mono.
“I had night fevers, night chills, sweats. Felt a lot of pain,” DeBlock said. “Numbness down my leg because my spleen was about two plus times the size it should have been – a 10, 15-centimetre tumour in around my hip. And it was getting very uncomfortable. Very painful.”
DeBlock lost about 50 pounds in nine months. He finally got CT scans, which allowed doctors to diagnose him on what should have been his last day of high school with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma – a type of cancer that begins in the lymphatic system. On his 18th birthday, DeBlock started an aggressive six-month chemotherapy treatment. He was given a 20 per cent chance to live two more years.
“It was pretty challenging treatment…that I don’t really wish on anyone,” DeBlock said. “It was very humbling and difficult on myself, my family and my friends.”
DeBlock beat the odds and is now a 46-year-old dad living in Toronto. He believes that using Roundup caused him to get cancer as a teen, and he’s now the lead plaintiff in the Canadian class action.
“I think the product in its current form is just simply not safe and is carcinogenic,” DeBlock said. “I really don’t want to see other people going through what I’ve had to go through.”
The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer said in 2015 that glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic to humans.” More research has come out since then, including a multi-institutional global glyphosate study released in October 2023, which found that low doses of glyphosate-based herbicides appeared to cause leukemia in rats.
The next hearing date for the case has yet to be scheduled.
Declining an interview, a Bayer company spokesperson sent an emailed statement emphasizing that leading health regulators in Canada and around the world have repeatedly concluded that glyphosate is not a carcinogen and that glyphosate products are safe when used according to label directions.
“While we have great sympathy for the plaintiff, we are confident our glyphosate products are not the cause of his illness,” the emailed statement reads in part. “Bayer stands fully behind the safety of our glyphosate products, which have been used safely and successfully in Canada and internationally for nearly 50 years.”
Federal Health Minister Mark Holland declined an interview about glyphosate.
Do Canadian regulations need to change?
However, there remain calls for domestic regulations to be adjusted.
One of the leading scientists calling for change in Health Canada’s classification of glyphosate is Bruce Lanphear, a health sciences professor at Simon Fraser University.
In 2022, Lanphear accepted an invitation to co-chair Health Canada’s scientific advisory committee under the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA), formed to increase transparency around the regulatory process for pesticides in Canada. But after serving for less than a year, Lanphear grew frustrated and resigned, calling for a complete overhaul of the way pesticides are regulated in Canada.
At the time, new studies had come out about glyphosate, including a survey of urine samples showing glyphosate levels in people living in Canada.
“All the previous risk management was done making assumptions about how much exposure is actually out there,” Lanphear said. This new survey included data on humans. But Lanphear alleged Health Canada would not allow the committee to examine it.
Questions posed by scientists on the committee had to be approved by Health Canada, which Lanphear said could take three to four months. If approved, the scientists may get some additional information into their queries, he said, but sometimes information was withheld.
In an emailed statement, Health Canada said it is committed to being open and transparent.
“No information relating to the safety of certain pesticides, including glyphosate, has been withheld from Health Canada’s Science Advisory Committee on Pest Control Products,” the email statement reads.
The widespread exposure of glyphosate is a concern for Lanphear, because he says there are no safe thresholds below which pesticides are harmless.
“If you have hundreds of pesticides, what if some of those pesticides or other toxic chemicals interact and magnify the health effects of each other? We haven’t even begun to look at the joint effects,” he said.
Yet, Health Canada disagrees and says a small amount of glyphosate may not be cause for concern.
“The amount of glyphosate detected in humans is very low, more than 1000 times below the screening level (which is the level that would trigger further analysis) and is not a health concern.”
Gathering enough studies to limit or ban glyphosate is a hurdle that Lanphear characterized as “an extraordinary and daunting task.” Once a pesticide is given the green light, Lanphear claims it is very difficult to overturn the decision even if new evidence is found.
“This is going to take decades, and in the process, what’s happening? Canadians are being used in a massive experiment – one that they’ve never been asked or consented to participate in,” he said. “We now know that [glyphosate] exposure is widespread and this is just in the last five to 10 years.”
Are there other alternatives?
There are some Canadian farmers who are already trying to phase out glyphosate, including Christopher Dermott in Utopia, Ont.
Dermott runs a 1,500-acre family farm where they’ve been growing wheat, corn and soybeans for generations. Since 2023, he has devoted himself to his “hope and dream” of finding a different way to grow food.
“This year, I have probably cut at least half of [the glyphosate] we generally would use in a year,” Dermott said.
But the change is no small commitment.
“Glyphosate is so common because it makes farming easy. It is a product that will easily wipe out the weeds that are a nuisance in your farms,” Dermott said.
Part of what fuelled Dermott’s decision to shift his farm was a worry of whether his family could have health risks from the herbicide.
“I definitely was worried about exposure. Your kids want to play outside…my son would want to come up and ride in the tractor or the combine or even in the sprayer,” Dermott said. “And I want to see my kids be able to go out and walk in that field.”
Dermott has begun making his own “brews,” composed of good bacteria that naturally occurs in lakes or ponds mixed with water and molasses, to act as natural weed and disease deterrents. While it takes more time and money than using Roundup, Dermott said it has been just as effective in keeping weeds and mold off his crops.
“I’m not putting something on the plant that can be harmful to the plant or to people who are consuming it,” he said.
Dermott believes more farmers would phase out glyphosate if they had access to resources detailing how to do it.
“The unknown is hard for a farmer – changing practices (from) doing something your father’s always done for the past 30 years,” Dermott said. “And (it’s) not to say what my father did was wrong. But when there are other people researching and trying new ways of managing how to be a better farmer, I think we can’t be scared of that.”
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Employers and the union representing supervisors embroiled in a labour dispute that triggered a lockout at British Columbia’s ports will attempt to reach a deal when talks restart this weekend.
A spokesman from the office of federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon has confirmed the minister spoke with leaders at both the BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514, but did not invoke any section of the Canadian Labour Code that would force them back to talks.
A statement from the ministry says MacKinnon instead “asked them to return to the negotiation table,” and talks are now scheduled to start on Saturday with the help of federal mediators.
A meeting notice obtained by The Canadian Press shows talks beginning in Vancouver at 5 p.m. and extendable into Sunday and Monday, if necessary.
The lockout at B.C. ports by employers began on Monday after what their association describes as “strike activity” from the union. The result was a paralysis of container cargo traffic at terminals across Canada’s west coast.
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint against the employers for allegedly bargaining in bad faith, a charge that employers call a “meritless claim.”
The two sides have been without a deal since March 2023, and the employers say its final offer presented last week in the last round of talks remains on the table.
The proposed agreement includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term along with an average lump sum payment of $21,000 per qualified worker.
The union has said one of its key concerns is the advent of port automation in cargo operations, and workers want assurances on staffing levels regardless of what technology is being used at the port.
The disruption is happening while two container terminals are shut down in Montreal in a separate labour dispute.
It leaves container cargo traffic disrupted at Canada’s two biggest ports, Vancouver and Montreal, both operating as major Canadian trade gateways on the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
This is one of several work disruptions at the Port of Vancouver, where a 13-day strike stopped cargo last year, while labour strife in the rail and grain-handling sectors led to further disruptions earlier this year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Judicial recounts in British Columbia’s provincial election should wrap up today, confirming whether Premier David Eby’s New Democrats hang onto their one-seat majority almost three weeks after the vote.
Most attention will be on the closest race of Surrey-Guildford, where the NDP were ahead by a mere 27 votes, a margin narrow enough to trigger a hand recount of more than 19,000 ballots that’s being overseen by a B.C. Supreme Court judge.
Elections BC spokesman Andrew Watson says the recounts are on track to conclude today, but certification won’t happen until next week following an appeal period.
While recounts aren’t uncommon in B.C. elections, result changes because of them are rare, with only one race overturned in the province in at least the past 20 years.
That was when Independent Vicki Huntington went from trailing by two votes in Delta South to winning by 32 in a 2009 judicial recount.
Recounts can be requested after the initial count in an election for a variety of reasons, while judicial recounts are usually triggered after the so-called “final count” when the margin is less than 1/500th of the number of votes cast.
There have already been two full hand recounts this election, in Surrey City Centre and Juan de Fuca-Malahat, and both only resulted in a few votes changing sides.
A partial recount of votes that went through one tabulator in Kelowna Centre saw the margin change by four votes, while a full judicial recount is currently underway in the same riding, narrowly won by the B.C. Conservatives.
The number of votes changing hands in recounts has generally shrunk in B.C. in recent years.
Judicial recounts in West Vancouver-Sea to Sky in 2020 and Coquitlam-Maillardville in 2013 saw margins change by 19 and six votes respectively.
In 2005, there were a record eight recounts after the initial tally, changing margins by an average of 62 votes, while one judicial recount changed the margin in Vancouver-Burrard by seven.
The Election Act says the deadline to appeal results after judicial recounts must be filed with the court within two days after they are declared, but Watson says that due to Remembrance Day on Monday, that period ends at 4 p.m. Tuesday.
When an appeal is filed, it must be heard no later than 10 days after the registrar receives the notice of appeal.
A partial recount is also taking place in Prince George-Mackenzie to tally votes from an uncounted ballot box that contained about 861 votes.
The Prince George recount won’t change the outcome because the B.C. Conservative candidate there won by more than 5,000 votes.
If neither Surrey-Guildford nor Kelowna Centre change hands, the NDP will have 47 seats and the Conservatives 44, while the Greens have two seats in the 93-riding legislature.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
