Pesticide Industry Unnerved by A Chemical Reaction

I’m not sure if it was my father, or grandfather, or some other wise figure in my life who first told me that threats are a childish form of flattery. That’s my take on some of the rhetoric coming from the chemical industry about our movie, A Chemical Reaction, which has been the focus of the wrath of one William H. Gathercole, among others.

Gathercole, who is apparently a degreed horticulturist from Canada, has been taking dead aim at anyone and everyone who suggests that lawn chemicals might be even remotely dangerous. In his daily blog called Force of Nature, at times he claims to speak for the entire pesticide industry and at other times he admits he’s only speaking for himself. Either way, his rants are usually good for a chuckle when the arrive in my Inbox each day.

Last week he called me “America’s Most Wanted Environmental Terrorist.” Today, with the March 11 premiere of the movie approaching at the University of Ottawa, Gathercole was calling A Chemical Reaction an “amateur video” and even offered up a new title: “A Terrorist Reaction.” Among his demands today were these:

1) A Terrorist Reaction must be prohibited from PUBLIC PRESENTATIONS in Canada.

2) A Terrorist Reaction must be prohibited from RETAIL SALE in Canada.

3) Paul Tukey, the promoter of the video, and his associates, must be reined and prohibited from ENTERING CANADA.

4) uOttawa–Ecojustice Environmental Law Clinic, UOttawa Ecojustice Clinic, and University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law must be CHARGED WITH FRAUD and CONSPIRACY under the Crimi-
nal Code of Canada.

5) Claire L’Heureux–Dubé must be reined and prohibited from making PUBLIC STATEMENTS.

The fact that a Supreme Court justice has agreed to appear in public in support of the Canadian pesticide bans is a particularly painful reality for the chemical industry, which would prefer to paint people like me as fringe activists. It should be a hell of a showdown in Ottawa when Justice Dube and Stewart Elgie, the attorney who argued the case for the town of Hudson, Quebec, in 2000, are in the room together March 13 with Mr. Gathercole and his brethren.

I’m looking forward to all the screenings in March . . . but maybe Ottawa most of all.