Schmeiser stands up to biotech tyrants.

• Author: Fanning, Uncle Don
• Position: Biodevastation 7; Percy Schmeiser

Defendant Percy Schmeiser began a second appeal in January 2004 in the highest court of his nation, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC). Monsanto first accused Schmeiser of growing canola from Roundup Ready seeds that he had not paid royalties on in 1997 and he has been entangled in expensive legal battles ever since. Schmeiser insists that he is the victim of Monsanto; canola seeds he has saved and selected for generations are contaminated by the inevitable spread of their GE product via the movement of pollen and spillage from trucks transporting their seed--hence, no guaranteed containment of the GE crop seeds and no security for the living seed investment of farmers like Schmeiser.

This time Schmeiser's case is bolstered by a recent ruling against another biotech warlord and an alignment of interests between Schmeiser, an international coalition of NGOs and the province of Ontario. These factors plus the appeal's focus on whether Monsanto's patent should be honored under Canadian law (rather than whether Schmeiser owes Monsanto royalties on their patent) are key in determining not only whether Schmeiser overturns the rulings against him by lower courts but also literally whether the growing tyranny of species ownership terrorism is overthrown and biodemocracy restored to the planet.

Schmeiser's case is also important because he shouldered great personal risk while others knuckled under to Monsanto;s (and other NGO giants') brutal tactics. Monsanto's initial threats against Schmeiser in 1997, the abortive "mediation talks" of August 1999 and a trial and appeal in June 2000 and May 2002 are the milestones (or millstones) in a 6 to 7 year case which would wear down most plaintiffs. Monsanto even secured a Federal Court of Appeals ruling against Schmeiser making him responsible for its own legal expenses plus fines totaling over a million dollars (at the same time that mega-corporations like Monsanto push for "tort reform" protections). According to Schmeiser, "It has been stressful but we just made up our minds that we're not going to give up." Without Schmeiser's stand against Monsanto, the corporation would be one giant step nearer winning monopolistic control of our food supply.

Reinforcements are on the horizon.

In December of 2002, the SCC ruled on Harvard University's OncoMouse patent. (The OncoMouse is a GM mouse that quickly develops cancer.) Their ruling stated that, "Patentable microorganisms are formed in such large numbers that...