Tag: informed consent

Gene-edited food can reach your plate without a Health Canada safety check, but you’d never know it

Safe Food Matters Inc. and its co-founder, Mary Lou McDonald, have asked the Federal Court to strike down Health Canada guidance that lets many gene-edited plant foods reach the market without the department’s pre-market safety assessment.

The application, filed October 20, names the Attorney General of Canada. It asks the court to declare the May 18, 2022, Guidance on the Novelty Interpretation of Products of Plant Breeding unlawful and contrary to section 7 of the Charter, and to quash its key section.

The court has not ruled yet, but under the Food and Drug Regulations, a food is “novel” if it comes from a plant “genetically modified” to gain or lose a characteristic. Novel foods need Health Canada’s written clearance before sale. The 2022 guidance carves out an exception: if a gene-edited plant contains no foreign DNA and meets four other criteria, it’s not novel.

That means there’s no mandatory notification, no departmental assessment and no public decision.

McDonald says in the filing that she refuses genetically modified foods as a matter of health and conscience and “cannot reliably determine whether the foods offered to her are gene-edited.” She put it plainly: “the only filter I had to protect my health from GE food was transparency from Health Canada. That protection is gone.”

The applicants argue that a guidance document can’t rewrite a regulation. Health Canada says it still assesses all novel foods and has no authority to require notice of products it doesn’t consider novel.

Basically, disclosure is voluntary. Health Canada’s list of non-novel products names 25 products, 15 of them gene-edited, including tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, corn and soybeans. The newest is dated July 31, 2026, and Canada doesn’t require labels identifying genetic modification or gene editing at all, unless there’s a health reason (like an allergen).

The same light touch now covers seed. Since May 2023, CFIA guidance generally exempts gene-edited plants without foreign DNA from pre-release authorization. In most cases, developers decide for themselves whether their plant is novel.

Who wanted it this way? Radio-Canada reported in September 2023 that access-to-information records showed a government-industry “Tiger Team,” including CropLife Canada, helped shape the approach.

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Trump Orders EPA Framework to ‘Release Into the Environment’ Modified, Bacteria-Based Mosquito and Tick Technologies Without Informed Consent

President Donald Trump ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to create a regulatory framework for the “planned development and release into the environment” of mosquito- and tick-control technologies, according to a September 29 executive order published by the White House.

The executive order says that framework must consider “sterilization techniques, safe genetic modification, and use of safe, beneficial bacteria.”

  • Where is the informed consent?
  • What exactly will be released?
  • What has been modified?
  • Which bacteria will be used?
  • What else will the resulting products contain or carry?
  • How far can they travel?
  • Who monitors unintended exposure?
  • Who is liable if something goes wrong?
  • And how does an American who does not consent keep a released organism off their body and off their property?

The executive order does not say.

I do not consent.

You can contact the White House here.

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There are no exemptions to informed consent

On 16 March, Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and President of the National Vaccine Information Centre (“NVIC”), gave a presentation on informed consent ethic to Florida Department of Health employees. 

Titled ‘The Informed Consent Principle: A Guide for Public Health Policy and Medical Ethics’, Loe Fisher began her presentation with a video of a debate she had with a medical doctor from Johns Hopkins University about mandatory vaccination in 1997.

The text of her presentation has been published on the NVIC website HERE. The following are some highlights from the presentation.

The 1997 debate Loe Fisher had with a medical doctor was the first time the subject of informed consent to medical risk-taking was discussed on national television.  It was also the first time it was suggested that there is a possible link between the administration of multiple vaccines in early childhood and increases in chronic disease and disability among children.

The US vaccine safety and informed consent movement was launched in 1982 by parents of DPT vaccine-injured children.  The world of vaccines has changed dramatically since 1982: there are more college-educated parents today who conduct their own research and so are aware of the risks of vaccination, particularly during the response to the covid pandemic, where they were exposed to lockdowns, mandatory masking, online censorship about the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and mandatory use of an mRNA biological product that was labelled a vaccine.

The covid vaccine not only failed to prevent infection, but it is also associated with an enormous number of suspected injuries.  The covid vaccination campaign resulted in over 1.6 million covid vaccine adverse event reports, including heart and brain inflammation and death, being made to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (“VAERS”), Loe Fisher said.

Despite this, many doctors still dismiss vaccine reactions as “normal” or “coincidental” and unrelated to the vaccination just given.

It’s no surprise then that there isa serious crisis of trust in public health policy and law, with public perception of the safety and effectiveness of vaccination and the wisdom of mandatory vaccination laws being challenged at the grassroots level.

It’s not just covid vaccines that are being eyed by the public with scepticism.

“There are questions about whether atypically manipulating the immune system to mount inflammatory responses over and over again by giving multiple doses of vaccines in early childhood and throughout life could be an important co-factor in the rise in chronic disease and disability in our society,” Loe Fisher said.

“There are unresolved issues discussed in the medical literature, such as asymptomatic infection and transmission of pertussis and measles in highly vaccinated populations that give evidence for waning immunity and also the evolution of microbes into vaccine-resistant strains.

“These facts are being debated even as efforts by-industry backed corporations to censor those conversations in the digital public square continues in this country and in Europe.”

She then explained why measles vaccines are ineffective and unnecessary, which we haven’t gone into here.  You can read about this beginning with the section of her presentation titled ‘Reported Cases of Measles: There’s More to the Story’.

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The Evolving Battle Over Vaccine Mandates and Informed Consent in America

In early February, Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo made headlines by announcing the state’s intention to become the first in the nation to eliminate all vaccine mandates, extending beyond Covid-19 requirements to include long-standing immunizations for diseases like measles, polio, and hepatitis B. Speaking at a press conference, Ladapo framed the move as a defense of personal liberty, declaring, “Your body is a gift from God… Government does not have that right.” This policy shift, initially proposed in September 2025 by Governor Ron DeSantis (R) and Ladapo, aims to dismantle mandates for schools, nursing homes, and other institutions, arguing that they infringe on individual autonomy. If enacted by the Legislature, it could start a ripple effect, as more people are waking up to the truth about vaccines.

Ladapo’s announcement sparked widespread debate, with many Americans celebrating the push for “medical freedom.” Supporters argue it empowers parents and individuals, aligning with a broader post-Covid anti-mandate sentiment. Critics condemn it as a dangerous rollback that could endanger vulnerable populations, such as immunocompromised children. As of this month, bills like SB 1756 have advanced in the Florida Senate, expanding exemptions but stopping short of a full ban, amid reports of measles cases fueling the controversy. Public health officials fear this could inspire similar actions in conservative states like Idaho, which has already followed suit.

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