Trappers in Robinson Huron treaty area want aerial ... · red, it’s really black.” (Trapper Bob Behrens demonstrating how to set a trap on his trap line near Sault Ste. Marie

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Trappers in Robinson Huron treatyarea want aerial herbicide spraying toend - APTN News

Christopher Read9-11 minutes

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Investigates, National News | March 22, 2019 by | Comments Offon Trappers in Robinson Huron treaty area want aerial herbicidespraying to end

Christopher ReadAPTN Investigates

While a trial in San Francisco makes headlines around the world,a group of trappers and Indigenous Elders in Ontario are takingnote.

Trappers in Robinson Huron treaty area want aerial herbicide sprayin... about:reader?url=https://aptnnews.ca/2019/03/22/trappers-in-robins...

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San Francisco has become a hot spot for legal challengesagainst Monsanto, the subsidiary of Bayer which produces muchof the world’s glyphosate-based herbicide, commonly known bythe trademark Roundup.

A jury trial in San Francisco agreed on March 19, that Californiaman Edwin Hardeman’s lawyers had proven that exposure to theMonsanto product Roundup was a substantial factor in causinghis non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

(The United States District Court for the Northern District ofCalifornia where Edwin Hardeman’s suit against Monsanto isbeing tried. Photo: Josh Grummett/APTN Investigates)

The second phase of the Hardeman trial is now focused onliability and damages.

Meanwhile in the Robinson Huron Treaty area of Ontario, agroup calling itself the Traditional Ecological Knowledge [or TEK]Elders have gotten nowhere in their efforts to stop the aerialspraying of glyphosate-based herbicide as a forest management


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practice.

“The Anishinaabeg do not believe in any chemical use in theirterritory,” said TEK co-founder Ray Owl. “If it can kill one item,one blade of grass, it’s not good.”

In the forestry industry, it has become common to useglyphosate-based herbicide to kill off plants that will compete withnewly planted seedlings in areas that have been clear cut.

But the TEK Elders and some trappers in the Robinson HuronTreaty area say they are seeing declines in animal numberswhich they attribute to glyphosate herbicide.

Owl and his TEK group have approached both the federal andprovincial governments about their concerns in regard to theaerial spraying of glyphosate-based herbicide in Robinson-HuronTreaty territory.

(Trappers Bob Behrens and Joe Jones study a map of the areaaround Behrens’ trap line near Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. Photo:Christopher Read/APTN Investigates)


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“They’re really good at playing ping pong,” said Garden RiverFirst Nation Councilor Sue Chiblow of the government responseto the TEK inquiries.

Chiblow helps organize the TEK Elders’ efforts to stop the aerialspraying of glyphosate herbicide.

“We went to the Ministry of Natural Resources and they said ‘wellno we just issued the license so that’s not our problem, it’sHealth Canada’s problem” said Chiblow. “So we went to HealthCanada and they said ‘well we don’t actually do the spraying,we’re just saying that it’s ok and it’s up to the companies to use itor not use it.”

Bob Behrens is a trapper from Sault Ste. Marie who has alsowritten to the provincial government with his concerns.

Behrens has been trapping on the same trap line since 1985 andsays he has been watching animal numbers dwindle since 1988when he was informed in a letter from the MNRF that Vision – aglyphosate-based herbicide made by Monsanto for forestryapplications – was to be sprayed where he traps.

“We had an abundance of rabbits, songbirds, porcupines,beaver. They all started to decline – rabbits just started toreappear last year. And I’m going to say for a 20-year periodthere were no rabbits here. A lot of the trappers are havingproblems with the decline in beaver,” said Behrens.

Behrens’ friend and fellow-trapper Joe Jones of Garden RiverFirst Nation has seen dwindling numbers of animals too.

This most recent trapping season, Jones – who is also one of theTEK Elders – began noticing a change in beaver meat he’s


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harvested – and he wonders if its connected to the spraying.

“Eating the beaver, this fall it’s going black,” said Jones,“Especially the bigger beaver. You cut ‘em open . . . it’s not asred, it’s really black.”

(Trapper Bob Behrens demonstrating how to set a trap on histrap line near Sault Ste. Marie. Photo: Christopher Read/APTNInvestigates)

In 2017, Behrens asked the federal Ministry of the Environmentand Climate Change to conduct a review of the use of glyphosateherbicide in forestry, but he was told by the department that areview was “not warranted.”

APTN Investigates requested interviews with the Ministry ofNatural Resources and Forestry but those requests weredeclined.

The ministry did email APTN a statement, which said in part,“Herbicide use is very limited in Ontario and they are only usedwhen absolutely necessary – usually amounts to less than 0.2


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per cent of Ontario’s forested area in any given year….HealthCanada recently re-evaluated the use of glyphosate, finding nounacceptable risks to human health or the environment whenused as directed.”

However, a federal government publication about forestryacknowledges that glyphosate based herbicide causesreductions in animal numbers.

“Short-term reductions in numbers of some wildlife species (e.g.,small animals or birds) are known to occur,” the publicationFrontline put out by the Canadian Forestry Service in Sault Ste.Marie states.

The article goes on to say that, “Such changes are typically quitetransient, with numbers returning to normal levels within 2-3years as vegetation and preferred habitat or food re-establisheson the treated site.”

The Frontline publication also notes that similarly moose anddeer may also avoid glyphosate-treated areas for “a few years.”

However, Jones and Behrens say they have noticed ongoingdeclines in animal numbers over a 30 year period.

Some reports indicate glyphosate may disrupt the endocrinesystems of animals and humans. Endocrine disruption couldresult in changes to metabolism, growth and development, tissuefunction, sexual function etc.

But most of the governmental regulatory agencies in the worldsay that glyphosate ought to be safe – in contrast to decisionsmade by two juries in recent San Francisco court cases.


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Most recently, a jury ruled this week that Edwin Hardeman’slawyers had proved “by a preponderance of evidence that hisexposure to Roundup was a substantial factor in causing” hisnon-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Previous to the Hardeman case, a San Francisco-area mannamed Lee Johnson was awarded U.S. $289 million by a jury in2018. The judge later slashed Johnson’s amount to US $78million – and Johnson has yet to see a penny of it due to appealsby the Monsanto legal team.

In determining punitive damages, the jury in the Johnson trialdetermined that Monsanto had acted with “malice andoppression” in attempting to conceal their product’s potentialdanger.

Bayer, the parent company which now owns Monsanto,maintains that glyphosate herbicide is a safe product and in arecent statement they point to “more than 800 rigorous studies”submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and otherregulators, as well as the “largest and most recent epidemiologicstudy” which followed more than 50,000 pesticide applicators formore than 20 years and found no association betweenglyphosate-based herbicides and cancer.

But the fact that Johnson’s lawyers were able to convince thejury that his non-Hodgkin lymphoma was caused by his exposureto glyphosate has emboldened a wave of litigants, and more than11,000 people have filed similar suits against Monsanto in theU.S.


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(Trapper and TEK Elder Joe Jones with Garden River FirstNation councillor Sue Chiblow. Photo: Christopher Read/APTNInvestigates)

The question of whether this legal trend will continue to gathermomentum is on the minds of the TEK Elders, as is the questionof what effect it may have on regulators such as Health Canada.

The World Health Organization’s International Agency forResearch on Cancer classified glyphosate as a “probablycarcinogenic to humans” in 2015 – and for that reason, the TEKelders have decided to write to the WHO for help in their fight toshut down aerial spraying in their territory.

Chiblow is optimistic about the letter to the WHO she’s beginningto write.

“They dictate to other governments about health and what’s goodand what’s bad,” said Chiblow. “So the World HealthOrganization should be able to assist.”

Jennifer Moore is one of Edwin Hardeman’s two main attorneys,and she also thinks contacting the WHO is a smart move.


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“Going to the Wold Health Organization is absolutely the rightthing they should do,” said Moore.

“They need to get away from any type of body that is subject topolitical pressure because what we have seen is that Monsantohas incredible lobbying efforts.”

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@chrisread1970

Tags: Beaver, Featured, glyphosate, herbicide, Monsanto,Robtinson Huron Treaty, spraying, Trappers


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Documents

Trappers in Robinson Huron treaty area want aerial ... · red, it’s really black.” (Trapper Bob Behrens demonstrating how to set a trap on his trap line near Sault Ste. Marie