MP Atwin tables petition in House of Commons to ban toxic chemical glyphosate

A petition to ban the sale and use of glyphosate with more than 18,300 signatures from every Canadian province and territory was tabled in Parliament this week by Jenica Atwin, MP for Fredericton.

Glyphosate is Canada’s most widely used pesticide and the world’s most widely used herbicide. Its use in New Brunswick’s forests, particularly aerial spraying of the chemical on Crown lands on unceded Wolastoqiyik, Mi’kmaq and Peskotomuhkati territory has been widely condemned by environmental, health, and recreation and hunting groups.

Over the past 13 years, the NB Media Co-op has published more than 70 stories featuring New Brunswickers questioning the use of glyphosate in the province. Most recently, patients and families dealing with a mysterious neurodegenerative illness called for a new investigation into potential environmental causes, naming the toxic chemical as a possible factor.

At a press conference in Ottawa on May 2, filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal explained that she started the House of Commons petition five years after starting work on a film about the effects of glyphosate on human health and the environment.

“I’ve learned more about this chemical glyphosate than I ever wanted to know,” Baichwal said, “and I can’t now unknow what I know about this chemical.”

Baichwal’s film, ‘Into the Weeds: Dewayne “Lee” Johnson vs. Monsanto Company’ released in 2022, follows a former groundskeeper and his fight against the multinational agrochemical corporation. His case was the first in a series of lawsuits involving thousands of plaintiffs claiming the chemical (used in the weed killer Roundup and Ranger Pro) caused their cancer.

“There is an alarming and growing body of independent scientific research proving glyphosate is a harm to human health and to biodiversity,” said Baichwal in Ottawa. “It leads to kidney and liver diseases. It is an endocrine disruptor. It is a testosterone mimicking chemical. And it has all of the mechanisms that lead to cancer. And that is why the International Association for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization, in 2015 called it a probable human carcinogen, which set off a firestorm in the industry to try to prove them wrong. And they have not been able to do so.”

In November 2019, David Coon, NB Green Party leader and MLA for Fredericton South tabled a bill in the provincial legislature to end glyphosate spraying on Crown lands. The next month, Coon forced a vote on a glyphosate ban. The vote failed after all the PC government and Liberal official opposition members voted against.

In April 2021, Jenica Atwin tabled a private member’s bill in the federal Parliament to ban glyphosate in Canada but the bill died after the first reading. According to Atwin’s parliamentary office, since then the MP has advocated for a change in the legislation in meetings with federal Ministers Jean-Yves Duclos (Health), Marie-Claude Bibeau (Agriculture), Steven Guilbeault (Environment and Climate Change), and Jonathan Wilkinson (Natural Resources) whose portfolios are all related to the use of glyphosate.

At the press conference on May 2, Atwin said there is a growing global consensus that glyphosate is a threat to biodiversity and human health. In addition to organizing the press conference and tabling the petition, Atwin’s intervention this week included an information event about glyphosate use for MPs and the public.

In her remarks, Atwin thanked the leadership of “the tens of thousands of New Brunswickers but especially Dr. Caroline Lubbé D’Arcy who has bravely fought for years by leading the Stop Spraying in New Brunswick movement.”

In a related story the same day, the CBC reported that a New Brunswick court found that biologist Rod Cumberland was not fired from the Maritime College of Forestry Technology for his critical views on glyphosate. While on staff at the College, Cumberland had asserted that the practice of applying glyphosate on softwood plantations was mostly responsible for the reduction in the province’s population of white-tail deer. Cumberland and his legal team had argued that his outspoken views were the primary reason for his dismissal.

Susan O’Donnell writes for the NB Media Co-op with the RAVEN project.