Had a long interesting phone conversation with Health Canada today. A lady working there, under its 'access to information act' called up, to check on my still pending request for Health Canada to disclose to me, copies of direct safety tests and data on glyphosate that it saw before approving glyphosate for use in Canadian agriculture. She asked if I was still interested to pursue my request. I said yes. She informed there were over 130,000 pages of data - and if I was willing to take up Health Canada's offer to visit their office in Ottawa and read all that sitting at their library. I said no - because that would take me ten years of stay in Ottawa and was simply not practical. I wanted the copies to be sent to me, and that I was ready to sign a non-disclosure agreement if required, in order to get the copies. I was then informed that her office has gone through the 130,000 plus pages, and thinks that some 27,000 pages actually relate to my request. However, all these tests were done by third party firms, many located outside of Canada, and not by Health Canada itself, and there is a confidentiality clause involved - so she would need to check with each and every firm, about each and every page of the data I am asking for, to check if these data can be sent to me, even if I agreed to a non-disclosure agreement. She said it would take several months to go through these discussions. She wanted to know if I was still interested to go through that process and delay, to find out if I could or could not get the data and documents requested by me, under "Access to Information Act". I said "yes", I was willing to wait as long as it takes to pursue this request, and that I would like to get a follow up email from her, covering todays discussion.

 I also requested that should it be possible, I would like to receive interim copies of records when a response to our consultations are received, rather than having to wait until all consultations have been received, and that a  note of this request be entered in the case file. We also took time, each of us explaining to the other what we meant by "third party" tests and opinions, regarding safety of Glyphosate. Both of us understand the other party now, so there is hopefully no confusion on what exactly I am asking for. She will send me an email, and thus, we enter the second phase of waiting game, for a request make last year, a few days after Justin Trudeau became the Prime Minister, for the Govt to disclose what safety test it has seen before deciding to approve Glyphosate for use in Canadian Agriculture. Stay tuned.