I'm sorry; maybe I'll just move forward a little more quickly.
There was federal granting agency significantly funding both the graduate student, at one point, and the process. NSERC could have actually awarded this study a Synergy Award, which is one of their very reputable awards. All attempts for the graduate student to request an investigation, both at the university level and to the granting agency, were denied. He was never afforded an opportunity to even make any kind of testimony to any sort of committee, and at one point the university's senior legal counsel also wrote to him and threatened him with a defamation suit if he was going to be talking to any more third parties regarding the case.
We find this really problematic. Health Canada has now made reference to some of these publications for their review of their drinking water quality guidelines on the byproducts of this particular chemical. Approximately a year ago we stepped in to try to, first of all, take the granting council to task for the fact that a proper investigation was in the public interest. We felt frustration that there really hasn't been any kind of mechanism to address the fact that the student has been threatened and that this research continues to go on without any kind of scrutiny.