Jimmy Savile scandal: 'celebrity hedonism no excuse for child abuse' - The Guardian

Publicist Max Clifford says he has been contacted by stars from the 1960s and 70s who say they are frightened of being implicated in the Jimmy Savile scandal. Link to this video

A child protection expert has rejected the assertion of pop stars of the 1960s and 1970s that the "hedonism" of the era was an excuse for having sex with children.

Paul Roffey said that the pop stars used their position to manipulate young women to carry out acts which were as illegal then as they are now.

The PR guru Max Clifford said he had been approached by dozens of celebrities from the 60s and 70s who are "frightened to death" that they will be implicated in the Jimmy Savile child abuse scandal.

He said the stars, some of whom were still big names, had approached him to handle any fallout from inquiries. He said they were worried because at their peak they had "never asked for anybody's birth certificate" while living a hedonistic lifestyle in which young girls threw themselves at them.

Roffey said: "There is obviously much greater awareness of paedophilia today but in the 1960s everyone knew about the age of consent and people were regularly tried for breaking the law over it. The fact that someone may have looked 16 or 21 if they were male may be mitigation but it is no defence."

Paedophilia became a subject of national concern in the 1970s as it emerged as a civil rights issue. In 1974, paedophiles set up the Paedophile Information Exchange to lobby for the abolition of the age of consent and to oppose the banning of child pornography. The group operated openly until 1978 when the police arrested and charged some of its members. The group was the subject of newspaper exposés and criticism by campaigners including Mary Whitehouse.

On Friday, Clifford said young pop stars at the time had gone from working in a factory one week to performing in front of thousands of people, "and girls are screaming and throwing themselves at them then".

He told LBC radio: "I am hoping that the real predators are the ones we are going to find out about: the Glitters of this world, the Saviles of this world, not people that were randy young pop stars in the 1960s, 70s and 80s even, that had women throwing themselves at them everywhere they went, because that is a whole different area and a whole different situation. No one had heard the word paedophile in those days, the 60s and 70s," he said.

"They never asked for anybody's birth certificate and they were young lads … suddenly everyone's dream was a reality.We are talking about a lot of people that were huge names in the 60s and 70s and a lot of them barely remember what they did last week, genuinely. For them to try and recount what happened in a dressing room in 1965 or 1968 or 1972, genuinely they are frightened to death."

Roffey remains unimpressed by such special pleading. "You don't need a birth certificate to realise the age of a girl even if she looks older than her age. People invariably know they are breaking the law and they still know now," he said.

Clifford's comments came as it emerged that the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichol, has written to the Pope to ask him to consider removing Savile's papal knighthood in recognition of the distress caused to his victims.

Scotland Yard is leading the current investigation into accusations of abuse by the former BBC DJ and presenter Savile, which now involves around 300 possible victims.

Officers have searched a cottage belonging to Savile in Allt na Reigh in Glencoe, Scotland, to look for "any evidence of any others being involved in any offending with him".

In Leeds, members of Savile's family issued a statement expressing their bewilderment at his crimes and their sympathy for his victims. In the statement, the family said their "thoughts" and "prayers" were with those who had suffered abuse.

29 Arrested In Multi-State Drug Trafficking - NewsChannel5.com

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A six month long investigation has led to the arrest of 29 people involved in a multi-state drug trafficking conspiracy.

Police said the investigation revealed that hundreds of pounds of high grade marijuana were being shipped from California, Arizona, and Nevada to two men in Nashville.

"This investigation is noteworthy in that, while 21 of the defendants are from the Nashville area, 3 are from Nevada, 2 are from California, 2 are from New Mexico and 1 is from Arizona," Chief Steve Anderson said. "The message being sent is that drug trafficking involving Nashville is very much on the radar of our detectives, regardless of where the defendants live. Serious conduct will be met with serious charges, including engaging in a marijuana conspiracy, money laundering and the requested judicial forfeiture of property."

The two main distributors of the drugs were found to be James E. Roberts Jr., 55, William Gupton III, 28. Roberts was also a volunteer assistant basketball coach at Martin Luther King, Jr. Magnet High School, but police said there was no evidence that he was disturbing the drugs at school. Police estimated that both Roberts and Gupton had been working in the Nashville area since 2008.

A local Nashville relator was also found to be involved in the nationwide trafficking. Police said that 60-year-old Alexis Mayes used homes that were for sale in the Nashville area as a place to received drug shipments.

A Nashville's General Sessions Court drug treatment manager was also alleged to have been involved. Officials said that William Scott Ross, 44, was charged with engaging in a marijuana conspiracy after it was discovered that he had tipped off a co-defendant about the drug investigation. Ross later resigned his position within the courts.

Other persons charged in this case are:

• Tifphany Wilson, 39, Roberts's girlfriend, of Candlewood Drive, Nashville. She is accused maintaining a stash house.

• Shelly Roberts, 48, Roberts' wife, of Hawkins Street, Nashville. She is accused of taking part in the marijuana conspiracy.

• Vanessa Roberts-Fuqua, 48, Roberts' sister, of Meharry Boulevard, Nashville. She is alleged to have accepted marijuana parcels on behalf of Roberts.

• Markia Gupton, 36, Gupton's wife, of Riverchase Boulevard, Madison. She is accused of engaging in the marijuana conspiracy, attempting to take part in a money laundering conspiracy and attempted forgery.

• Matthew Hoffman, 37, of Strada Mia Court, Las Vegas, Nevada. He is alleged to be one of the Nevada suppliers of marijuana that was shipped to Nashville.

• Crystal Zornes, 27, Hoffman's fiancée, of Strada Mia Court, Las Vegas, Nevada. She is accused of assisting Hoffman in supplying marijuana to Nashville from Las Vegas.

• Enrique Gomez "Pig" Ahumada, 39, of Fillmore Street, Phoenix, Arizona. He is alleged to be an Arizona supplier of marijuana that was shipped to Nashville.

• Anthony Guajardo, 28, of Waterlilly View Street, Henderson, Nevada. He is alleged to be a Nevada supplier of marijuana that was shipped to Nashville.

• Richard (Rick) Valmonte, 35, of Medinah Street, Fontana, California. He is alleged to be a California supplier of marijuana that was shipped to Nashville.

• Michael Hummer, 29, of Lyndie Lane, Temecula, California. He was arrested with Valmonte after a parcel of marijuana was sent to Gupton.

• David Davis, 30, of Packard Drive, Antioch. He is alleged to be a local distributor of marijuana received from Gupton.

• Carl Dunn, 40, of Saunders Avenue, Nashville. He is alleged to have received marijuana parcels on behalf of Gupton.

• Mark Gerald, 45, of West Yorkshire Court, Old Hickory. He is alleged to have bought large amounts of marijuana from Roberts.

• Antonio Swinger, 32, of Blackstone Avenue, Madison. He is accused of buying large quantities of marijuana from Roberts.

• Mamie Brinkley, 59, of Kirkwood Avenue, Nashville. She is charged with accepting marijuana parcels on behalf of Roberts.

• Mable Anita Sowell, 55, of N. 2nd Street, Nashville. She is alleged to have accepted marijuana parcels on behalf of the organization.

• Joseph Travierso, 48, of Green Harbor Court, Old Hickory. He is accused of buying marijuana from Roberts and investing in the organization.

• Rudolph Woodberry, 55, of Chateau Valley Drive, Nashville. He is charged with buying large amounts of marijuana from Roberts.

• Michael Phillips, 54, of Setter Court, Nashville. He is accused of picking up marijuana parcels on behalf of Roberts.

• Jubal Boyce, 34, of Wright Avenue, Alamogordo, New Mexico. He is charged with driving marijuana to shipment points on behalf of Roberts.

• Jennifer Boyce, 26, Jubal Boyce's wife, of Wright Avenue, Alamogordo, New Mexico. She is accused of accompanying her husband in the transportation of marijuana to shipment points.

• James Keith Kephart, 53, of Old Horton Highway, Nolensville. He is accused of buying large amounts of marijuana from Roberts.

• Corey Clemons, 36, of Apple Valley Road, Madison. He is charged with buying large amounts of marijuana from Gupton.

• John Scott Orr, 52, of Illinois Avenue, Nashville. He is charged with taking part in the marijuana conspiracy.

• Donald Halbert Lauderdale, 65, of Sam Davis Boulevard, Smyrna. He is accused of taking part in the marijuana conspiracy.

Jimmy Savile scandal 'frightening celebrities to death', says Max Clifford - The Guardian

Publicist Max Clifford says he has been contacted by stars from the 1960s and 70s who say they are frightened of being implicated in the Jimmy Savile scandal. Link to this video

Dozens of celebrities from the 1960s and 70s are "frightened to death" they will be implicated in the Jimmy Savile child abuse scandal, according to public relations guru Max Clifford.

He said the stars, some of whom were still big names, had approached him to handle any fallout from inquiries. He said they were worried because at their peak they had lived a hedonistic lifestyle where young girls threw themselves at them but they "never asked for anybody's birth certificate".

Clifford's comments came as it emerged that the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster has written to the Pope to ask him to consider removing Savile's papal knighthood in recognition of the distress caused to his victims.

Scotland Yard is leading the current investigation into accusations of abuse by former BBC DJ and presenter Savile, which now involves around 300 possible victims.

Officers have searched a cottage belonging to Savile in Allt na Reigh in Glencoe, Scotland, to look for "any evidence of any others being involved in any offending with him".

In Leeds, members of Savile's family issued a statement expressing their bewilderment at his crimes and their sympathy for his victims. In the statement, the family said their "thoughts" and "prayers" were with those who had suffered abuse.

On Friday, Clifford said young pop stars at the time had gone from working in a factory one week to performing in front of thousands of people "and girls are screaming and throwing themselves at them then".

"All kinds of things went on and I do mean young girls throwing themselves at them in their dressing rooms at concert halls, at gigs, whatever," he said.

"They never asked for anybody's birth certificate and they were young lads … suddenly everyone's dream was a reality.

"We are talking about a lot of people that were huge names in the 60s and 70s and a lot of them barely remember what they did last week, genuinely.

"For them to try and recount what happened in a dressing room in 1965 or 1968 or 1972, genuinely they are frightened to death."

He said the investigation needed to focus on the "facilitators" who lurked on the periphery and had had years to cover their backs.

"I am hoping that the real predators are the ones we are going to find out about: the Glitters of this world, the Saviles of this world, not people that were randy young pop stars in the 1960s, 70s and 80s even, that had women throwing themselves at them everywhere they went, because that is a whole different area and a whole different situation. No one had heard the word paedophile in those days, the 60s and 70s," he said.

Seven alleged victims of Savile made complaints to four separate police forces, Surrey, London, Sussex and Jersey, while the television presenter was alive but it was decided that no further action should be taken.

Scotland Yard said on Friday that a retired officer had told them he had investigated Savile in the 1980s while based in west London but did not have the evidence to proceed.

Metropolitan police commander Peter Spindler said he believed the allegation was of an indecent assault, possibly in a caravan on BBC premises in west London, but officers have still not found the original file.

Another allegation, of inappropriate touching dating back to the 1970s, was made by a woman in 2003, but this was treated as "intelligence" by police because the victim did not want to take action.

Surrey police submitted a file to the Crown Prosecution Service containing references to four potential offences, including an allegation of indecent assault on a young girl at a children's home.

The allegations related to three potential victims in Surrey and another in Sussex, and Savile was interviewed under caution in 2009, but prosecutors decided there was insufficient evidence to bring charges.

The seventh allegation emerged in 2008 when Jersey police received a claim that an indecent assault occurred at the children's home Haut de la Garenne in the 1970s. Again it was decided that there was insufficient evidence to proceed.

Spindler said Savile was "undoubtedly" one of the most prolific sex offenders he had encountered and that Operation Yewtree, looking into Savile's crimes, would be a "watershed moment" for child abuse investigations.

The Catholic Church of England says it has contacted the Holy See to ask if the papal knighthood awarded to late television star Jimmy Savile could be removed following sexual abuse allegations.

Police say 300 potential victims have come forward with abuse allegations against Savile, a well-known BBC children's television host who died last year. Most of them say they were abused by Savile, but some say they were abused by other people, police said Friday.

The Catholic church said on Saturday that Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichol wrote to Vatican officials last week, asking the Holy See to investigate the possibility of posthumously removing Savile's honour in recognition of the "deep distress" of the alleged victims.

Smoking will 'kill up to a billion people worldwide this century' - The Independent

These are the words of John Seffrin, chief executive of the American Cancer Society, who was speaking this weekend at a high-level forum of the world's 100 leading cancer experts gathered in the Swiss resort of Lugano, who issued a stark warning to governments worldwide. They said governments must do far more than they have done to control the global tobacco industry, either by raising cigarette prices dramatically, outlawing tobacco marketing or by taxing the multinational profits of the big cigarette firms.

Smoking kills more than half of all smokers, mostly from cancer, and yet despite it being the single biggest avoidable risk of premature death, there are about 30 million new smokers a year, scientists have calculated.

If current trends continue, with cigarette companies targeting the non-smoking populations of the developing world, then hundreds of millions of people will be dying of cancer in the second half of this century, they said.

Some of the experts attending the World Oncology Forum went further by calling for an outright ban on cigarettes and for the tobacco industry to be treated as a terrorist movement for the way it targets new markets with a product that it knows to be deadly when used as intended.

"We have a major global industry producing a product that is lethal to at least half the people who use it. It will kill, if current trends continue, a billion people this century," said Dr Seffrin, who leads the US national society dedicated to eliminating cancer.

"It killed 100 million in the last century and we thought that was outrageous, but this will be the biggest public health disaster in the history of the world, bar none. It all could be avoided if we could prevent the terroristic tactics of the tobacco industry in marketing its products to children," Dr Seffrin told The Independent.

"There is a purposeful intent to market a product that they know full well will harm their customers and over time will kill more than half of them. The industry needs to be reined in and regulated," he said.

The science showing that tobacco is the single biggest cause of cancer is now well established, following the publication of the earliest evidence in the 1950s by the late Sir Richard Doll, the Oxford epidemiologist who was born 100 years ago yesterday.

Worldwide, tobacco causes about 22 per cent of cancer deaths each year, killing some 1.7 million people, with almost 1 million of them dying from lung cancer. Yet the numbers of new smokers among the young is rising faster than the numbers giving up.

The latest study into the health effects of smoking, published last Saturday in The Lancet, involved 1.3 million women. It showed tobacco is even more dangerous than previously supposed, but the benefits of giving up smoking are greater than expected.

Sir Richard Peto of Oxford University, a co-author of the Million Women study who worked closely with Sir Richard Doll, is also the scientist who first calculated how many people this century will die from tobacco-induced cancers. "We have about 30 million new smokers a year in the world. On present patterns, most of them are not going to stop, and if they don't stop, and if half of them die from it, then that means more than 10 million a year will die – that's 100 million a decade in the second half of the century," said Professor Peto.

"So this century we're going to see something like a billion deaths from smoking if we carry on as we are. In Europe we have about 1.3 million premature deaths per year now, of which about 0.3 million are deaths by tobacco. There's nothing else as big as that," he added. "If you put all causes together, you wouldn't get a total that's half of that caused by tobacco, and tobacco kills more people by cancer than other diseases. Smoking is still the most important cause of cancer… If you smoke a few cigarettes a day, it will be the most dangerous thing you do."

European countries need to raise cigarette prices significantly because this is the one proven method of reducing consumption, Sir Richard said. They should adopt a "triple-half-double" strategy, which was tried in France in the 1990s, when cigarette prices were tripled, consumption halved and the tobacco tax revenues to the French government doubled.

"The governments of Europe desperately need to be able to raise taxes and to do so in politically acceptable ways. Doing it for health reasons, by tripling the price of cigarettes and halving the consumption, is a way of doing both," Professor Peto said.

"If we are talking of prevention in Europe then a quarter of all cancer deaths are due to tobacco. In many countries, the numbers of women dying of tobacco are rising."

Asked whether a policy of tripling cigarette prices would hit poor smokers harder than the rich, Sir Richard said: "They are hit hardest already. Almost half of the social inequality in death is tobacco deaths. If you can help them to stop, then you are doing them and their families a favour."

The World Oncology Forum, organised by the European School of Oncology, agreed governments must do more to combat tobacco marketing, especially when directed at younger non-smokers. One suggestion was that the profits of multinationals should be taxed globally so they cannot exploit national differences in revenue collection. There was agreement among the experts that more legislation and controls were needed to stop the "global scandal" of tobacco marketing.

Professor Paolo Vineis of Imperial College London said the developing world will see an explosion in cancer in the coming decades as the disease suffers from "globalisation" caused in a large part by smoking.

"It is a scandal that tobacco is the biggest risk factor for cancer, and that more people will be smoking next year. And yet we know that some things will make a really big difference at very little cost," Professor Vineis said.

Stubbing out: France

The French government implemented a series of sharp price rises for cigarettes in 2003 and 2004 in a bid to slash the numbers of smokers. The rises pushed up the price of smoking by 40 per cent and led to nearly 2 million quitting smoking in France. The Government also introduced legislation to prevent the sale of cigarettes to children aged under 16. This month, François Hollande's government is further hiking the price of tobacco by 6 per cent, following similar rises in the past two years. Other measures planned include a €200 million tax on tobacco companies, extending no-smoking zones, introducing blank packets and more health campaigns.

5-year-old's murder lays bare a circle of violence - Aurora Beacon News

By Dave Gathman dgathman@stmedianetwork.com October 29, 2012 5:24PM

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Eric M. Galarza, Sr.

Updated: October 29, 2012 9:40PM

A little more than a year has passed since the evening of Oct. 7, 2011, when someone pumped a half-dozen or so bullets into a car-full of women and children pulling out of a driveway on Elgin's northeast side, killing 5-year-old Eric Galarza Jr.

Five days later Eric's parents, Eric Galarza Sr. and Denisse Ignacio, walked behind the tiny white casket carrying their tiny son out of a funeral service attended by 300 mourners, many wearing white T-shirts bearing little Eric's face.

And two days later, on Oct. 14, 2011, Elgin police announced that after one of the most intense investigations in their history, they had charged Miguel Hernandez Jr. of Aurora with first-degree murder.

A year later, Hernandez remains in the Cook County Jail. He attended his most recent court hearing earlier this month, as the laborious legal dance that precedes a major murder trial crawls its way toward a trial date no one can even yet estimate.

And in the most surprising twist, the slain boy's father has become a much-wanted fugitive from the law.

Eric M. Galarza Sr., now 31, is no stranger to violence. Police say he has been a longtime member of the Latin Kings street gang, probably since he was a student at Elgin High School. At age 19 he was charged with firing a shotgun into two homes in Elgin as part of a gang operation. In 2001 he negotiated a guilty plea and was sentenced to nine years in prison, though he was paroled early.

A string of run-ins with the law preceded and followed, many involving battery cases or drinking.

Shots in the night

At 7:10 p.m. on Oct. 7, 2011, the Galarza family piled into their car and began backing out of the driveway in their home in the generally quiet middle-class neighborhood called Blackhawk Manor, bound for a Friday-night dinner with the children's grandparents.

According to police, Denisse's sister was at the steering wheel. Riding along were Eric Sr., Denisse, Eric Jr. and the couple's two other children, a 2-year-old boy and a 5-month-old girl. As the car pulled out, five to seven shots rang out from the darkness behind them.

Young Eric Jr. was the only one injured — he was hit in the head by a bullet, just above one eye. He was taken to Sherman Hospital, where he died about three hours later.

The next Friday, Elgin police announced they had charged Miguel Hernandez Jr., then 27, of the 1100 block of Maple Street in Aurora, with first-degree murder.

According to various court documents, detectives believe that Hernandez Jr. and another man rode to the shooting scene in a black Toyota Tundra pickup that was owned and driven by his father. All three, police claim, were members of the Latin Kings. Hernandez's father and the other man in the car have not been charged.

Hernandez Jr., too, has a lengthy criminal record. He was sentenced to 4-1/2 years in prison for attempted murder and aggravated discharge of a firearm in 2004; to three years in prison for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon in 2002; and to 11 months of conditional discharge for possession of marijuana in 2010.

His attorney said Hernandez Jr. was single but had two children — one a baby and one, ironically, 5-years-old, the same age as Eric Galarza Jr.

The accused killer had worked at a factory as a machine operator for four years, the attorney said. Though living in Aurora at the time, Hernandez Jr. was born in Elgin, is a U.S. citizen and had spent his life in the Fox Valley.

Something police and prosecutors have not revealed is the alleged motive for the shooting, though investigators say they're sure Eric Sr. was the gunman's real target, and gang problems may have been involved.

Going on the lam

In the most striking development in the case, Eric Galarza Sr. would allegedly turn his proclivity for violence against his wife and then disappear, taking with him any testimony he could offer against Hernandez Jr.

According to Wayne Police Chief Dan Callahan and court records, Eric Sr. was driving his wife from their Elgin home to her job in St. Charles on the morning of June 21, 2012. As they drove, they began arguing, and Eric Sr. "punched and choked" his wife, according to a court document. After she threatened to tell the police, she said, he pulled a handgun from under the seat of the car and said he would kill her if she did. He then dropped her off at work.

Callahan said that over her lunch hour, Denisse Galarza had a co-worker drive her to the Wayne police station and reported what had happened. Callahan said officers decided the safest way to arrest Eric Sr. was to stake out the business on Kirk Road where Denisse worked, because he was expected to return there at 4 p.m. to take her home.

"She said he normally backed into a handicapped parking space and waited for her to come out," Callahan said. "But he must have sensed that police were around, because all of a sudden he just took off."

A high-speed chase was soon under way along Kirk Road, then Dunham Road, until Galarza hit a curb, rupturing the car's front tires. Ditching the car, he ran into the nearby heavily wooded Pate Philip State Park, according to police.

And that was the last time anybody has been known to have seen Eric Galarza Sr.

"We have reason to believe he has fled from Illinois, and there is thought that he may have gone to Mexico," Callahan said.

Like most murder cases, the one against Hernandez Jr. has continued through one pretrial hearing after another as prosecutors and defense attorneys seek to find out each other's evidence and argue legal points. The Aurora man's next court hearing is set for Nov. 26.

As for Eric Sr. disappearing and being unavailable to testify, Cook County Assistant State's Attorney David Weiner said, "We'd prefer to have him but we can proceed without him. Not having him testify is not fatal to our case."

Conservatives' obscene proposed grey-seal slaughter should be made an ... - Straight.com

The recent recommendation by a Senate committee that the federal government should pay hunters to slaughter grey seals in Canada's Maritime region is beyond stupid.

It is rushed, ill-advised, ideologically suspect, and flies in the face of what evidence is available. It also disregards scientific submissions presented to the Standing Senate Committee on Fisheries and Oceans after the Conservative government asked it to look into its proposal to kill about 70 percent—as many as 70,000--of the grey seals living in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence.

British Columbia's sole committee representative, Nancy Greene Raine, should hang her head in shame, or at least be prepared to explain, in detail and with evidentiary exactitude, why she is in favour of this obscene October 23 recommendation.

The fact that she is an appointed lapdog for the ruling Conservatives should be no grounds for apology.

That is not to say that the federal Liberals' hands are clean when it comes to logic-defying decisions regarding marine-mammal culls in Canada's Maritimes. The shameful harp-seal hunt has been condemned worldwide for decades but it has been enabled—in actuality, subsidized—by successive Liberal and Conservative governments falsely hiding behind the twin shields of aboriginal sovereignty and regional employment.

Neither of those positions holds up under even cursory scrutiny, the kind that a 12-year-old with access to the Internet could muster.

Few Canadians are opposed to a limited Native hunt for ceremonial and subsistence purposes, even for a measure of economic betterment. As well, the number of Maritimers employed for a few weeks per year in the seal hunt—as well as the per-capita income derived from same—has plummeted to insignificant numbers in the face of almost nonexistent international markets for seal products following many years of well-organized protests and boycotts. The European Union, the U.S., and Russia have banned seal products from Canada, and China, our only real remaining customer, seems to be wavering in its support.

The price for seal pelts fell to an all-time low only a few years ago, and other than a disappearing dog-food market for the meat and a relatively small Asian "aphrodisiac" market for seal penises, there appears to be almost no justification remaining to prop up the barbaric "hunt".

Most seal carcasses are left to rot on the ice or sink in the cold depths of the ocean. And the number of people who think "flipper pie" is actually a mainstay of Maritimers' diet is probably fewer than those who believe shark-fin soup to be essential to the health and well-being of the Chinese.

But now the Conservatives are pretending to be supporting the almost nonexistent East Coast cod fishery in their zeal to slaughter seals, in this case the grey seal. This is the same superabundant fishery that was destroyed by overfishing under Ottawa's watchful gaze.

In actuality, all federal governments are terrified of alienating Maritime voters. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of seals have died, sometimes in inconceivably violent and cruel fashion, to preserve seats in Parliament for the ruling party of the day. The fact that even a shallow exploration of their reasoning proves its falsehoods seems to matter not a whit to them. What this says about their contempt for the Canadian voter, of whatever political stripe, should be a sobering insight.

The Senate committee recognized in its recommendation, after conducting hearings in the matter for the better part of a year, that there were "ecological risks raised by some witnesses" during presentations. A 2011 letter released by Dalhousie University marine scientists said that no scientific evidence existed to justify the proposed cull, and that it could even further deplete cod stacks.

David Lavigne is the science advisor to the International Fund for Animal Welfare. He has studied seals and fisheries for more than four decades, and he concluded his presentation to the committee last February with these words, among many others: "The scientific information currently available does not allow us to reject the hypothesis that seals generally, and grey seals in particular, are NOT [emphasis his] impeding the recovery of cod and other groundfish stocks. Nor does it allow us to reject the hypothesis that a massive grey seal cull could be detrimental, not only to grey seals but to the ecosystem and to the interests of commercial fisheries….The body of scientific evidence simply does not support or justify a decision to cull tens of thousands of grey seals off the East coast of Canada."

A Fisheries and Oceans Canada (formerly the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, or DFO) research paper supplied to the Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat in 2011 studied the effectiveness, efficiency, costs, and benefits of predator-control, or culling, programs in Canada and around the world.

Seal slaughters in the name of fish conservation in Africa, Iceland, Norway, the U.K., the U.S., and Canada, with reduction in the marine-mammal populations of up to 80 percent, had, almost invariably, no measurable success, with fish-recovery rates either "unknown" or with "no formal evaluation".

The reasons for the lack of follow-up studies are not provided, but it requires little imagination to figure out that political expediency would be primary among them.

Even the committee chair, Newfoundland's Senator Fabian Manning, said at an October 23 Ottawa news conference that "there's no really solid research anywhere that shows us exactly" what benefits or harm might come from a grey-seal cull. But, like the Japanese whalers cowering from international condemnation behind the bogus banner of "scientific research", Manning said that "at the end of the [four-year] period, we will have gained that research".

Nonsense.

They will have gained another election's worth of bought-off votes. And then they will say they need to study the situation further.

Fisheries and Oceans has been studying the contents of seal stomachs for more than three decades. The remains of more than 10,000 seals' meals now constitute what FOC calls, on its own website, "without question, one of the best data sets of marine mammal consumption in the world. It is a particularly valuable resource for the study of fish such as cod".

However, for various reasons, and despite the preponderance of data, researchers have been unable to come to any definitive conclusions about how many cod are eaten by seals. Therefore, scientists are now utilizing new, sometimes groundbreaking, methods to analyze seal diet, including fatty-acid signatures in blubber, DNA evidence, and satellite telemetry.

FOC research scientist (and UBC grad) Garry Stenson has studied North Atlantic marine mammals for more than a quarter-century and has been involved in extensive research to determine the proportion of cod in the diet of different species of seals. He is quoted on FOC's website as saying of this area of research: "Ecology isn't simple, and the complexity of what appears to be a straightforward question is much greater than most people think."

In other words, don't hold your breath waiting for answers from scientists who work for the federal government. At least for another few decades.

And because the Conservatives under Stephen Harper are known for their willingness to muzzle government scientists and label environmental critics as "extremists" in the pay of foreign agitators, we shouldn't even have any confidence in the ability or willingness of FOC to release any research that might prove that seals do not represent an unnaturally high source of cod mortality.

Cod, seals, and aboriginal inhabitants coexisted in amazing abundance in the North Atlantic before European explorers and settlers came along. Massive mismanagement and overfishing have created the situation with the fisheries resources that we see today.

The unconscionable desire to retain or grab political power at any cost should not be allowed to be the hidden reason for the slaughter of tens of thousands of marine mammals in this country.

If the Conservatives go ahead with the proposed grey-seal hunt, every bounty paid to a Maritime hunter should be regarded as a bribe for a vote. The program should be turned into an election issue. And it should be made clear to both the Liberals and the New Democrats that any support for the measure on their parts will make them targets as well.

This pathetic, ethically challenged political charade has gone on long enough.

FBI Reports More Than 1.5 Million Drug Arrests Last Year - Drug War Chronicle

Drug War Issues

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