Mr. Speaker, on March 5, I raised the issue of charges pending against Mike Kipling and the pursuit of these charges against this man.
There are many issues surrounding the government's administration of the anthrax vaccine to Canadian forces personnel last spring in the Persian Gulf. A vaccine researcher corresponded with my office earlier this year and raised some very interesting issues.
This researcher was informed by the Department of National Defence that it was a matter of military policy that forces personnel were to be provided with specific written disclosure of contraindications and possible adverse effects associated with immunization. As well, prior to immunization, forces personnel should be briefed as to the risks of the diseases the vaccination is supposed to prevent.
Sergeant Kipling was left with serious and unanswered questions after reading the acknowledgement form. This vaccine researcher claims that there is no data addressing how carcinogenic this vaccine may be nor about any possible reproductive effects.
The Nuremberg Code of 1947 clearly states that in terms of following orders:
The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential.
Is the government able to say without a doubt that voluntary consent was given? I think not.
I would like to hear from the government, in response to my comments, why the Liberal administration supports people losing their right to decide what goes into their bodies simply by virtue of the fact that they have joined the Canadian forces?
It appears, from the Food and Drug Administration in the United States, that the company which provided the anthrax vaccine in question may have re-labelled a lot of outdated drugs. Furthermore, the government did no independent testing of the chemical package it wanted so desperately to inject into the body of Sergeant Kipling and other Canadian forces personnel.
Will the government commit here and now that it will review policies concerning vaccinations to allow for individual choice and the possibility of waiving vaccinations and whether some quarantine during testing might suffice to meet the goal of protecting the population at large?