Click here to read the entire newspaper
This is a archived copy in PDF format of the the Laval News that was published and distributed January 9, 2016. In this issue read the Year in Review 2015.
This issue covers local events such us politics, sports and human interest stories. It features editorials and other columns.
(TLN) Just before the Christmas holidays, Sainte-Rose Liberal MNA Jean Habel paid tribute in a speech in the Quebec National Assembly to the courage of Matthew Schreindorfer and his wife. Habel then had a surprise for them: a special meeting with Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard.
“One the one hand, I had wanted to thank Mr. Habel for his second statement as an MNA that he made in my honour,” Schreindorfer said. “I would also like to thank him for the meeting with our premier and for his support through all these ordeals.”
As previously reported in the Laval News, Matthew Schreindorfer was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in June 2014. Since then, he underwent all the treatments possible within the Canadian medical system.
He underwent a further experimental treatment in New York City at a cost of more than $800,000 that he and his wife, Katia Luciani, raised from donors. Although he was declared cancer-free last September, Schreindorfer learned earlier this month that cancer cells have again been found in his bone marrow.
Habel said he was impressed by Schreindorfer’s ordeal. “I wanted to point out the combativeness, determination and strength of Mr. Schreindorfer and his wife which is an example and a source of inspiration for us all,” Habel said. “They have shown courage out of the ordinary all through this sickness and I wanted to show this.”
(TLN) The New Year did not start well for four Laval women caught in Albany NY for a “Grandparent Scam operation”.
On January 7, Christina M. Antonakakis, 29, Sophia Mikelakis, 57, Nora Apkarian, 42, and Anahid Apkarian, 61, traveled from Laval, to the Albany area to pick up cash packages at a UPS store sent by their various victims, or have a legitimate carrier pick up the package and bring it to them at a hotel, but they were arrested before the operation was completed.
In the police operation took part the New York State Police Special Investigations Unit in Albany, the Menands Police Department, the U.S. Postal Inspector’s Office and U.S. Homeland Security Investigations which they say they made the arrests after an investigation into an organized criminal operation based out of Laval.
Police say the operation targeted the elderly community in what is known as a “Grandparent Scam”.
How the Grandparent Scam works
In this scam, an anonymous person contacts an elderly person either by phone or email, and identifies himself as their grandson. He indicates that he has been arrested in another state and needs money quickly to pay for bail. He advises that the grandparent cannot tell his parents because he doesn’t want to upset them. A second person then gets on the phone and identifies himself as a police officer. The alleged police officer advises where and how to send the cash to pay for the bail. The officer then advises the grandparent if another agency contacts them, the other agency is scamming them, and they should not provide any information to them.
The four women face charges of third-degree criminal possession of stolen property. Antonakakis and Mikelakis are also charged with 3rd degree attempted grand larceny. Antonakakis and Mikelakis were granted bail of $30,000 US each while the mother and daughter Apkarians were given bail of $35,000 US each, said to The Laval News New York State Police trooper William Duffy.
“It is interesting that here we have two mother-daughters duo”, added trooper Duffy
Phone scam capital
It turns out, that the area code 514 and 450 is to phone scams what Nigeria is to email fraud. Vancouver, Toronto, and bilingual Montreal have long been hubs of call centers for reputable firms—for catalog sales or orders for parts—and less-than-reputable enterprises pushing, say, credit cards to the financially vulnerable. (In the mid-2000s, some of those legitimate call centers were outsourced to places where labor is cheap, such as India, the Philippines.) The metropolitan area of Montreal which includes Laval, is the Queen City of the grandparent scam, as well as a whole litany of other frauds, many of them aimed at telephone numbers in the U.S.
It is estimated that phone scams targeting USA citizens surpass annually 3 billion dollars.
Martin C. Barry
A public consultation held last week by Vimy Liberal MP Eva Nassif to determine people’s wants and needs for the upcoming federal budget led to a lively round of discussion by a group of more than two dozen of the riding’s constituents.
Emphasis on economy
“As we promised an open and transparent government, we are consulting the citizens across the country,” Nassif said in an interview with the Laval News. “This is what the Minister of Finance had promised. Mostly we are here to listen to business owners, to citizens and to everyone’s point of view as to what they would like to see in the 2016 budget. We want to know what they want as priorities.”
Nassif said the budget will include things such as placing environmental sustainability at the heart of Canada’s resource sector, and supporting growing firms to help them secure the talent, capital and strength they need to realize opportunities in the global marketplace.
Budget measures
In addition, she said the budget will contain measures ensuring that Canada’s tax system is competitive for foreign investment while attracting global research and development mandates, as well as elements to encourage a closer relationship with the provinces for a skills and labour strategy emphasizing better participation of under-represented groups.
Among those attending the meeting at Holy Cross Armenian Church on Saint-Martin Blvd. were Laval city councillor Sandra Desmeules, along with councillors Daniel Hébert and Pierre Anthian. Desmeules, who sits on the executive-committee, said the city’s number one request to the federal government is that it provide financial support to deal with an “emergency” in social housing.
Social housing ‘emergency’
“The City of Laval has an immense backlog in providing social housing whether it be for young people or families or people 65 years of age or older,” Desmeules said. According to Desmeules, the city needs 3,000 units of social housing. “We have some projects underway, but we need federal support. In the past, we held negotiations with the former government. Unfortunately the money was not forthcoming.”
In contrast, Desmeules said she and other city officials were pleased with what they are hearing from the new Liberal government, but that a working relationship needs to be developed so that ideas can be transformed into reality. “We have to work together with the federal government, as well as with the Quebec government,” she said.
Economic challenges
In a speech prior to beginning the discussion, Nassif said she would focus on the economic context leading towards the upcoming budget. “The global economy is weak, and Canada’s economy is facing an uphill battle,” she said. “The period since the end of the 2009 recession has been characterized by low global economic growth.
“The main reason for the decline in GDP in the first half of 2015 was sharply lower oil prices. But the good news is Canada is facing these challenges from a position of strength, despite the fact that the last number of years have been characterized by low economic growth. There are untapped opportunities to further improve Canada’s economic performance.
Employment to be key
“With the demographic changes that are expected, continued strong labour force participation will be key to sustaining growth,” she continued. “Canada is already doing well here, but there is room for improvement. Canadians with disabilities, indigenous peoples, women with young children, and recent immigrants are all under-represented in the labour force. Now, more than ever, we need a plan to grow our economy, support the middle class, and return to long-term, sustainable growth.
“Maintaining our position of strength is not enough to grow the economy,” said Nassif. “Growth will absolutely require investment. We also need to be sure we’re investing in people. Specifically, in the middle class and those working hard to join it. We simply can’t call ourselves prosperous as a country if our middle class is struggling.”
Infrastructure investments
According to Nassif, the new government will be emphasizing public infrastructure investments to stimulate the economy. “Over the next decade, we have pledged to invest $125 billion in public infrastructure. Our investments will be aimed at getting Canadians moving, and opening up more cost-efficient trade options for our exporters. Well-designed investments in public infrastructure would provide immediate economic benefits and support long-term economic growth. All of this will be rooted in a careful assessment of needs, and a clear articulation of the federal role.”
Canada Child Benefit
Nassif said that in the budget, the government will introduce the new Canada Child Benefit, another measure that will provide increased support to nine out of 10 families and assist hundreds of thousands of children currently living in poverty. “In contrast to the existing regime, the Canada Child Benefit will be simpler, more generous and tax free,” she added.
“Put together, these measures will help strengthen the middle class, putting more money in their pockets to save, invest and grow the economy. More broadly, they will help grow our economy in the context of a difficult global economic climate so that all Canadians benefit.”
Martin C. Barry
A Chomedey man who has become a self-appointed “watchdog” over the official opposition at Laval city hall had questions about their annual expenses last week at city council’s first meeting of the year, after first raising the issue last fall.
Not satisfied with answer
During one of the monthly city council meetings last October, Natale Polito had asked whether the Action Laval opposition party could provide specific information on its spending and budget allocations.
Chomedey city councillor Aglaia Revelakis, who is currently Action Laval’s sole elected representative, said at the time that the information would become available in the city’s annual budget which was tabled in December.
Responding during the Jan. 12 council meeting to Polito’s complaint that he still didn’t have an answer, Revelakis read out a prepared statement in which she said all the opposition’s expenses are supervised and accounted for by the city’s financial services department. She also noted that the expenses are completely in line with the Quebec municipal affairs ministry’s legal requirements.
Freedom of Information
Polito, who was active as a volunteer with Action Laval during the 2013 election but has since grown disillusioned with the party, made a freedom of information request to the municipal clerk’s office for details on the opposition office’s expenses over the past two years.
Although the opposition has only briefly had more than two elected members on city council, that number was reduced when Councillor Paolo Galati jumped in August 2014 from Action Laval to the governing Mouvement Lavallois. Councillor Michel Trottier decided in July that same year to join the official opposition, but remained only until last fall when he decided to sit again as an independent.
Staff salaries top expenses
According to the document released by the city clerk, the opposition office received a more than 3 per cent allotment increase in 2015, raising its overall budget to $677,600. By far the most outstanding expense was for support personnel salaries: they amounted to more than $420,000 in 2014, and thousands more for social benefits.
Although the opposition councillors each earned a base salary of around $30,000 a year, the report reveals that former chief of staff Jean Desautels’ pay was almost three times greater ($88,000) during the opposition office’s first year. Former Action Laval political attaché Emilio Migliozzi’s salary was $65,000 before he departed.
Gobé was paid $42,700
The four other opposition office staffers’ 2014 salaries ranged from $65,000 to just below $43,000, with Action Laval leader and mayoral candidate Jean-Claude Gobé receiving $42,700 as a “special advisor.” Although some staffers left by the following year, the record shows that those who remained in 2015 saw their remuneration increase slightly or more steeply if they were promoted. While there were seven staff at the opposition office in 2014, there were only six in 2015.
In an interview with the Laval News, Polito said that even though he was ultimately able to get the information, he had hoped to hear it first from Action Laval. “Why are there so many people on the payroll for a one-person show?” he said. “Where is the money going? They’re paying salaries, but what are we getting in return? Where are the benefits for the citizens of Laval? Or are they just paying salaries for something that’s not benefiting the citizens?”
Coupal axed from commissions
In other developments during the Jan. 12 city council meeting, Mayor Marc Demers was forced during the residents’ question period to justify his decision to remove former Mouvement Lavallois councillor Jean Coupal from his position as a member of two council commissions. Coupal recently decided to leave the ML and sit as an independent.
“[Coupal] left because he wanted to be able to speak freely,” said the mayor, while adding that Coupal’s commitment to the two commissions he previously sat on included an oath of secrecy. Demers also suggested that his duties as mayor include making sure that “the right person for the job” was appointed to work on commissions.
Airport shuttle resolution
Councillor Aglaia Revelakis tabled a resolution on behalf of her party calling for the Société de Transport de Laval (STL) to study the possibility of implementing a special shuttle bus between Laval and Montreal International Airport.
Noting that it is currently impossible for Laval residents to get to the airport by any means other than a personal car or by taxi, that the cost of a taxi to the airport is very costly and that the Société de Transport de Montréal (STM) currently offers an airport shuttle service, the motion asks the STL to take a serious look at the issue.
Regarding a proposed zoning change for the preservation of Laval’s Bois-de-l’Équerre urban forest, Sainte-Rose councillor and executive-committee member Virginie Dufour said a by-law for that purpose will only be ready for the next council meeting on Feb. 2. The city will be setting aside 216 hectares of the territory as a protected green space, while another portion would be designated for development.
Lower loonie pushes up prices, while consumers look for alternatives to expensive meat
CBC News Does it seem like food is costing more every time you make a trip to the grocery store? A study released Thursday says you’d be right to think your grocery bill is rising — and you should expect more of the same in 2016.
A research team led by Sylvain Charlebois of the University of Guelph Food Institute forecasts that food inflation rates will be two to four per cent in 2016, much higher than the overall inflation rate as measured by Statistics Canada’s consumer price index. That’s after a year in which the cost of meat, vegetables, fruit and nuts jumped more than anticipated, pushing up your food bill by 4.1 per cent in 2015.
‘Canada is the only industrialized country where you find the food inflation rate to be above 2.5%.’– Sylvain Charlebois, University of Guelph
The main driver is the value of the loonie, which has fallen 14 per cent to just above 73 cents US. With 81 per cent of vegetables, fruit and nuts imported from outside of Canada, all of these grocery items are more expensive and are set to become even pricier as the loonie falls further.
Some analysts believe the Canadian dollar will fall to 70 cents US after the U.S. raises interest rates.
The prices of fruit and vegetables are rising quickly because of a low Canadian dollar, according to a study from the University of Guelph Food Institute. (Jacques Boissinot/Canadian)
Here’s what the Food Institute study says to expect in 2016:
| Food price inflation % | |
| Category | 2016 price increase |
| Meats | 2.5-4.5% |
| Fish and seafood | 1-3% |
| Dairy and eggs | 0-2% |
| Grains | 0.2% |
| Fruits and nuts | 2.5-4.5% |
| Vegetables | 2-4% |
| Overall food costs | 2-4% |
Charlebois says the average Canadian household will spend $8,631 on food in 2016, an increase of about $345. That figure includes $2,416 spent at restaurants.
“Canada is the only industrialized country where you find the food inflation rate to be above 2.5 per cent. That’s significant. Right now we are sitting at 4.1 per cent,” Charlebois told CBC News.
“Europe food inflation’s barely at one per cent. There’s too much food in the market. The U.S. inflation rate is much lower than ours. The currency clearly is not helping families that are in need of affordable foods.”
He said Canada has become more vulnerable to currency swings and inflation, because it has allowed food processing in the country to be moved offshore. That’s one reason we are paying more for pasta and bread, even though Canada produces the wheat.
Charlebois said the high prices are hardest on low-income Canadians and people in remote communities, who often have difficulty affording fresh food.
“We need to figure out a way to offer affordable foods to northern communities,” he said.
Climate change and El Nino
Another factor that could affect food prices is climate change, according to the Food Institute study.
The drought in California has pushed up fruit and vegetable prices in 2015, but in 2016 a big El Nino should mean a lot of rain that will restore crops in the U.S. southwest and could help keep prices down. El Nino is a Pacific current that affects weather pattern.
Charlebois is watching several consumer trends that could have an effect on food production in the coming year, among them the trend to local food and a concern about animal welfare and more emphasis on protein alternatives.
Meat prices rose so rapidly over the past two years that consumers have shifted to alternatives, including pulses such as lentils and chickpeas.
“People are looking for local products …,” he said. They’re concerned about the ethical treatment of animals, the ingredients, the naturalization of food.”
Charlebois pointed to decisions by companies such as Kraft and General Mills to put more natural ingredients in food and be more transparent about how ingredients are sourced.
“Throw in a lot of different things that may drive prices — like McDonald’s this year to go cage-free cured chicken without antibiotics — all these things will only drive prices higher,” he said.
Martin C. Barry
When officials in Ottawa were looking for help in welcoming the thousands of Syrian refugees being accepted into Canada, they had no problem finding Agape.
As proof, the Chomedey-based group’s name appears on a three-page list of Laval social service agencies compiled by Immigration Canada and distributed to Syrian refugees arriving here recently.
Seeks government support
But what Agape’s Betty McCleod would like to know, though, is whether the government has plans to provide financial support for the monumental efforts that Agape and other agencies are making and which are depleting their never very plentiful resources.
“Has anyone called and asked ‘How are you doing?’” she said regarding the government’s stance. “I haven’t heard from a soul. Somebody has to do something to support this organization. We’ve always been on our last dollar and this has just made things worse. There’s got to be some kind of government support.”
As most people are probably aware by now, Canada’s new federal government has taken up a leading role in welcoming refugees from Syria into the country.
Resources nearly depleted
“In Laval, a good number of refugees have arrived, and not just in January, but since September,” McLeod, a co-founder of Laval’s largest English-language social services provider, said last week in an interview with the Laval News.
“Over the past week we’ve received I would say pretty close to 35 families. And you know what that means: they have children, some have come in with their parents, brothers, sisters, sometimes even two families as one.”
Agape’s usually-well stocked basement storage area has almost been depleted by the sudden surge in demand, although so far the government has given no indication it will be issuing any kind of compensation. Agape’s list of needs includes decent-quality furniture and household furnishings, men’s and boys’ boots and heavy-duty sweaters.
No furniture left
“Our first 18 or 19 families we provided for no sweat,” added McLeod. “But if you’ve seen our basement we don’t have a piece of furniture left over. We don’t have any mattresses, beds, stoves. Nothing is left. I am honored to serve these people, but even with the greatest good will in the world we cannot serve them properly.”
The people arriving have absolutely no furniture, said McLeod, noting the refugees generally come with just enough money to pay for a roof of their heads for a year. After they rent an apartment, they are forced “to sleep on the floor,” and “this should not happen in this country: there should be enough to go around. We as a population, not only Agape, should make sure that if we are going to accept these people, we are going to supply for their needs.”
Food running out
According to McLeod, Agape was fortunate at the end of 2015 to have an abundance of food for families and toys for kids around Christmas. “But we’re burning it all out right now,” she said regarding the crisis they’re now facing.
“We’re giving everything we have and we’re going to run out of food. It’s just a matter of time. We’re probably going to run out of food within a month.” For those interested in helping Agape at this particular time of crisis, donations can be brought to the organization’s offices at 3950 Notre Dame Blvd. in Chomedey.
Martin C. Barry
Laval city councillor for Souvenir-Labelle Jean Coupal, who was elected with the victorious Mouvement Lavallois in the 2013 municipal election, has decided to leave the governing party.
Coupal joins the ranks of a growing number of disaffected city councillors who prefer sitting as independents rather than with the council majority or the official opposition, which is perceived by some former members and critics as ineffective.
Mayor Demers reacts
“Mr. Coupal had views which were very much his own on a number of subjects,” Mayor Marc Demers said in a statement to the Laval News reacting to Coupal’s decision. “He had difficulty staying with the majority, which ended up isolating him within the team. I believe he will be more at ease as an independent and I wish him good luck. However, it’s still a fact that the citizens of his district voted for a candidate from the Mouvement Lavallois, which they no longer have.”
Was critical of ML
In a statement Coupal issued last Monday, he said he has been sitting as an independent since December. Coupal said he did this “in order to better represent the interests of the residents” of his district, as well as the interests of all Laval residents, and “not just from behind the closed doors of the Mouvement Lavallois caucus.”
Coupal said what ultimately made him decide to leave the ML was Laval city council’s recent awarding of a sole bidder computer services contract to an IT consultant who will be receiving nearly $3,000 a day for a total of more than $400,000 for 1,000 hours of work.
History repeating?
“In the beginning, the Mouvement Lavallois was created to oust Mayor Vaillancourt’s PRO des Lavallois,” Coupal said, referring to the former mayor’s defunct municipal party. “This was carried off with brilliance in November 2013.
“Since then, unfortunately, the Mouvement Lavallois has been determined to repeat the era of one-party rule in council,” he added, “by means of money which allows it to eliminate all opposition and to manage public funds without having to worry about the capacity of taxpayers to pay and the equity between them and public servants.”
Keeping count
Immediately following the 2013 election, the Mouvement Lavallois held 17 of the 21 council seats. Action Laval won two (Aglaia Revelakis in Chomedey and Paolo Galati in St-Vincent-de-Paul) and formed the official opposition, while Jacques St-Jean (Saint-François) and Michel Trottier (Fabreville) sat as independents.
In August 2014, Galati decided he was no longer interested in Action Laval and formally joined the Mouvement Lavallois. Since then, he’s been prominent at a good number of public functions where he’s visibly become close to the second most powerful elected official in Laval: executive-committee vice-president David De Cotis.
Trottier forms new party
While Jacques St-Jean remained steadily independent during this time, Michel Trottier – who was one of the most outspoken, demonstrative and vocal council members from the beginning – decided to forego his autonomy in July 2014 and join Action Laval which was and continues to be led by 2013 mayoral candidate Jean-Claude Gobé, who has said he intends to run for mayor again in 2017.
For the opposition party, this made up for the loss of Galati. Then in September 2015, Trottier decided he’d had enough with Action Laval and announced he would be sitting again as an independent, leaving Aglaia Revelakis as the only Action Laval member sitting on city council. By last month, Trottier was announcing the creation of a new political party, the Parti Laval, in preparation for the November 2017 municipal elections. For the time being, he is the interim leader of the party.
ML loses three more
In the meantime, the Mouvement Lavallois has lost the support of three other councillors who were originally elected under the party’s banner. In September 2014, Laval-des-Rapides city councillor Pierre Anthian decided to leave the ML to sit as an independent. But he was present alongside Michel Trottier in December when the latter announced the formation of his new party.
In November 2014, Councillor Alain Lecompte (l’Orée-des-Bois) also decided to quit the ML, citing a climate of distrust within the ruling party, to sit as an independent. Councillor Jean Coupal is the latest member of Laval city council to go down the same route.
For over three decades, Stephanie Seneff, PhD, has researched biology and technology, over the years publishing over 170 scholarly peer-reviewed articles. In recent years she has concentrated on the relationship between nutrition and health, tackling such topics as Alzheimer’s, autism, and cardiovascular diseases, as well as the impact of nutritional deficiencies and environmental toxins on human health.
At a conference last Thursday, in a special panel discussion about GMOs, she took the audience by surprise when she declared, “At today’s rate, by 2025, one in two children will be autistic.” She noted that the side effects of autism closely mimic those of glyphosate toxicity, and presented data showing a remarkably consistent correlation between the use of Roundup on crops (and the creation of Roundup-ready GMO crop seeds) with rising rates of autism. Children with autism have biomarkers indicative of excessive glyphosate, including zinc and iron deficiency, low serum sulfate, seizures, and mitochondrial disorder.
A fellow panelist reported that after Dr. Seneff’s presentation, “All of the 70 or so people in attendance were squirming, likely because they now had serious misgivings about serving their kids, or themselves, anything with corn or soy, which are nearly all genetically modified and thus tainted with Roundup and its glyphosate.”
Dr. Seneff noted the ubiquity of glyphosate’s use. Because it is used on corn and soy, all soft drinks and candies sweetened with corn syrup and all chips and cereals that contain soy fillers have small amounts of glyphosate in them, as do our beef and poultry since cattle and chicken are fed GMO corn or soy. Wheat is often sprayed with Roundup just prior to being harvested, which means that all non-organic bread and wheat products would also be sources of glyphosate toxicity. The amount of glyphosate in each product may not be large, but the cumulative effect (especially with as much processed food as Americans eat) could be devastating. A recent study shows that pregnant women living near farms where pesticides are applied have a 60% increased risk of children having an autism spectrum disorder.
Other toxic substances may also be autism-inducing. You may recall our story on the CDC whistleblower who revealed the government’s deliberate concealment of the link between the MMR vaccine (for measles, mumps, and rubella) and a sharply increased risk of autism, particularly in African American boys. Other studies now show a link between children’s exposure to pesticides and autism. Children who live in homes with vinyl floors, which can emit phthalate chemicals, are more likely to have autism. Children whose mothers smoked were also twice as likely to have autism. Research now acknowledges that environmental contaminants such as PCBs, PBDEs, and mercury can alter brain neuron functioning even before a child is born.
This month, the USDA released a study finding that although there were detectable levels of pesticide residue in more than half of food tested by the agency, 99% of samples taken were found to be within levels the government deems safe, and 40% were found to have no detectable trace of pesticides at all. The USDA added, however, that due to “cost concerns,” it did not test for residues of glyphosate. Let’s repeat that: they never tested for the active ingredient in the most widely used herbicide in the world. “Cost concerns”? How absurd—unless they mean it will cost them too much in terms of the special relationship between the USDA and Monsanto. You may recall the revolving door between Monsanto and the federal government, with agency officials becoming high-paying executives—and vice versa! Money, power, prestige: it’s all there. Monsanto and the USDA love to scratch each others’ backs. Clearly this omission was purposeful.
In addition, as we have previously reported, the number of adverse reactions from vaccines can be correlated as well with autism, though Seneff says it doesn’t correlate quite as closely as with Roundup. The same correlations between applications of glyphosate and autism show up in deaths from senility.
Of course, autism is a complex problem with many potential causes. Dr. Seneff’s data, however, is particularly important considering how close the correlation is—and because it is coming from a scientist with impeccable credentials. Earlier this year, she spoke at the Autism One conference and presented many of the same facts; that presentation is available on YouTube.
Monsanto claims that Roundup is harmless to humans. Bacteria, fungi, algae, parasites, and plants use a seven-step metabolic route known as the shikimate pathway for the biosynthesis of aromatic amino acids; glyphosate inhibits this pathway, causing the plant to die, which is why it’s so effective as an herbicide. Monsanto says humans don’t have this shikimate pathway, so it’s perfectly safe.
Dr. Seneff points out, however, that our gut bacteria do have this pathway, and that’s crucial because these bacteria supply our body with crucial amino acids. Roundup thus kills beneficial gut bacteria, allowing pathogens to grow; interferes with the synthesis of amino acids including methionine, which leads to shortages in critical neurotransmitters and folate; chelates (removes) important minerals like iron, cobalt and manganese; and much more.
Even worse, she notes, additional chemicals in Roundup are untested because they’re classified as“inert,” yet according to a 2014 study in BioMed Research International, these chemicals are capable of amplifying the toxic effects of Roundup hundreds of times over.
Glyphosate is present in unusually high quantities in the breast milk of American mothers, at anywhere from 760 to 1,600 times the allowable limits in European drinking water. Urine testing shows Americans have ten times the glyphosate accumulation as Europeans.
“In my view, the situation is almost beyond repair,” Dr. Seneff said after her presentation. “We need to do something drastic.”
