Charges laid in blood probe

Globe and Mail Update ^ | Wednesday, November 20 – Online Edition, Posted at 5:39 PM EST | DARREN YOURK and ANDRÉ PICARD

[Weirdad]

Charges laid in blood probe

By DARREN YOURK and ANDRÉ PICARD
Globe and Mail Update
Wednesday, November 20 – Online Edition, Posted at 5:39 PM EST

The RCMP has laid criminal charges against the Canadian Red Cross Society, four doctors and a pharmaceutical company after a five-year investigation into the tainted-blood scandal of the 1980s.

At a press conference in Toronto on Wednesday, the RCMP Blood Task Force announced charges of criminal negligence causing bodily harm under Section 221 of the Criminal Code of Canada, charges of common nuisance by endangering the public under Section 180 of the Criminal Code of Canada, as well as a charge of failure to notify under the Food and Drugs Act Regulations.

Please see also:
• Krever commission report
• RCMP Blood Task Force

"The responsibility of the RCMP as Canada's national police service is to ensure safe homes and safe communities," said superintendent Rod Knecht, officer in charge of the Toronto-based RCMP Blood Task Force.

"In fulfilling this mandate, the primary responsibility of the RCMP Blood Task Force was to gather the facts on behalf of the Canadian public, and to lay criminal charges if the evidence supported reasonable grounds that a criminal offence had occurred."

The Red Cross — through its former Blood Transfusion and Blood Donor Recruitment Services in Ottawa — is charged with six counts of common nuisance by endangering the public.

Roger Perrault, 66, an Ottawa doctor and the former director of the Red Cross Society's Blood Transfusion Service, is charged with three counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm and seven counts of common nuisance by endangering the public.

John Furesz, 75, an Ottawa doctor is charged with three counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm and one count of common nuisance by endangering the public.

Nepean, Ont., doctor Wark Boucher, 62, is charged with three counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm and one count of common nuisance by endangering the public. Dr. Boucher was the former chief of the Blood Products Division of the Bureau of Biologics at the federal government's Health Protection Branch.

The Armour Pharmaceutical Company, a Delaware Corporation, based in Bridgewater, N.J., is charged with three counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm and one count of common nuisance by endangering the public under the Criminal Code of Canada, as well as one count of failure to notify under the Food and Drugs Act Regulations.

"The charges we have announced today reflect the fact that our investigation has met the requirements to lay these particular charges," Mr. Knecht said. "It is important to note that there are specific aspects of this investigation that we continue to pursue. The possibility exists that we will be laying further charges."

Pierre Duplessis, secretary-general and chief executive officer of the Canadian Red Cross, said Wednesday that his agency is not the same agency it was 20 years ago.

"We have taken our responsibilities seriously. Since 1998, we have transferred the blood program, restructured the society, settled all civil claims, and provided compensation," Mr. Duplessis said at a news conference on Wednesday.

"Today we cannot respond in a formal way, as we have not yet had an opportunity to review the charge carefully. In the weeks ahead, we will be determining our course of action in consultation with our board of governors and legal counsel."

But as a humanitarian organization, Mr. Duplessis said "our first thoughts are with those people affected by this tragedy and their families."

He reiterated that the agency is "terribly sorry" for its part in the tragedy and the pain caused to those affected.

An estimated 2,000 recipients of blood and blood products were infected with the AIDS virus between 1980 and 1985. Another 60,000 transfusion recipients contracted the potentially debilitating hepatitis C virus between 1980 and 1990.

In an exhaustive 1,138-page report on the tragedy released in November of 1997, Mr. Justice Horace Krever concluded that a significant number of those infections were preventable and chronicled a series of failures, both institutional and individual, that contributed to one of Canada's worst public-health tragedies.

Under the terms of his mandate, Judge Krever was not permitted to make findings of criminal or civil liability, but he was able, after a long court battle, to single out individuals for allegations of wrongdoing.

In a letter sent to the RCMP a few days after the report's release, the Canadian Hemophilia Society asked investigators to focus on four principal areas of failure that caused "needless waste of innocent lives":

• The decision not to introduce surrogate testing for the hepatitis C virus between 1986 and 1990. In his report, Judge Krever said that failure led to the infection of 28,600 Canadians and that 85 per cent of those cases were preventable.
• Delays in introducing testing for the human immunodeficiency virus in the blood supply. A test was available March 2, 1985, but universal testing was not in place until Nov. 1 of that year. The report concluded that at least 133 people contracted HIV in that period.

• Delays in the introduction of concentrates that were heat-treated to kill the AIDS virus. A decision was made in November, 1984, to make the switch to the safer product, but it was not completed until July, 1985. Judge Krever concluded that the inventory of unheated products was deliberately exhausted and, had blood-system officials acted properly, "some of the hemophiliacs would have avoided being infected."

• The continued use of heat-treated products that proved ineffective as late as 1987. After the belated switch to heat-treated concentrates, questions remained about the efficiency of heating methods to kill the virus; that, coupled with the fact that manufacturers continued to use plasma that was not tested for the AIDS virus, led to the infection of a number of other hemophiliacs in 1986-87, after the products were declared free of HIV.

  With a report from Allison Lawlor

[Weirdad]

For discussion.

Other interesting links: FreeRepublic (1998) re the Krever Commission Report

These chickens are taking their time coming home to roost--no surprise since some of the chickens are from Arkansas's X42 era.

[kayak]

ping

[secretagent]

FYI

[Brian Mosely]

• Budge's Links to the Tainted Arkansas Prison Blood Story
  • Page One
  • Page Two
  • Page Three
  • Page Four

• SEARCH: "Blood Trail" ... "Tainted Blood"

---

• Clinton Timeline
• Blood Trail Timeline
• Who, What, Where …

---

• Posts by adanaC:
  • BLOOD MONEY: What Canadian Donors Didn't Know (1976)
  • HEPATITIS AGENT: They've Named It For What It Isn't (1978)
  • Poisoned Blood Left Thousands to Suffer Unaided (early 1970's)
  • RCMP Will Not Lay Charges Against Government Bureaucrats Who Destroyed Crucial Evidence

• LIDDY DOLE'S RED CROSS RUNS AMOK (New American)
  • THE BLOOD BROKERS PART 1 -- HOW BLOOD, THE 'GIFT OF LIFE,' BECAME A BILLION-DOLLAR BUSINESS
  • THE LOOSE WAY THE FDA REGULATES BLOOD INDUSTRY
  • FEAR OF AIDS SPURS CHANGE
  • RED CROSS: FROM DISASTER RELIEF TO BLOOD
  • AMERICA: THE OPEC OF THE GLOBAL PLASMA
    Series Source: PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Published: September, 1989 Author: Gilbert M. Gaul Posted on 07/12/1999 22:14:30 PDT by Wallaby
  
  

• MUST READ: Is the Blood Trade Responsible for the AIDS Epidemic? (Compiled by Wallaby)
  

[Rockitz]

When I saw the title, I recalled there was a Clinton connection here.

[Brian Mosely]

Follow those links. Freepers have been on top of this for YEARS....

[StopGlobalWhining]

See the link "The Clinton Timeline" in post #4 by Brian Mosley. Clinton and his cronies are into this up to their ears. What they did to those poor, dumb prisoners (3D types - Dumb, Dependent, Democrat) is unconscionable. A snippet from that thread follows:

1982-00-00 through ?? - Timothy Wheeler, Washington Weekly, 1/18/99

?The market for under-the-table plasma was brisk because AIDS already stalked the international blood market ? [prison blood] was a reliable source and it could be prettied up with names out of the phone book. From these larger revenues [estimated at 10,000,000-20,000,000 per year from each prison], minor sums on the order of $50,000 trickled back to the prison, the inmates got their pocket money. The rest presumably went to HMA, state politicians and Good Old Boys, along the usual lines of ?doing bidness? in Arkansas. Bud Henderson, on camera, admitted to making $500,000 a year. Other payouts are so far speculative, but the more one knows Arkansas, the more one is certain that Bill Clinton got a cut in cash or favors or both. His agent in these dealings (as in all such business) was Vincent W. Foster.

1982-00-00 through 1994 - Michael Galster, Washington Weekly, Magnussen & Lee, 1/25/99

?Most of the blood-letting was done at another facility, it was kept extremely quiet, out of public view, and no one wanted anyone to know ? the reasons were that [HMA] was shut down four different times by the FDA. The other reasons were that it was illegal and unethical to sell prison blood in the United States. So it was very important for the prison to keep this quiet ? and ? during these years, the early 80?s and mid-80?s, the AIDS epidemic was soaring and there was all different kinds of information about ? how deadly it was. At the same time, the media was telling how the prison population, because of its homosexual-type sex activity and IV drug use was one of the worst places, and that AIDS was running around the prison populations. So it was important to the Arkansas administration, the Clinton administration, to keep their blood-letting very quiet.

1985-00-00 -- Suzy Parker, SALON, 12/2/98

Woody Walker, Chairman of the Arkansas Department of Corrections in 1985 who claims the idea of hiring an ?ombudsman? to smooth problems between HMA and the State Police investigation. ?The governor [Clinton] was deeply concerned with HMA?s past performance,? Walker told investigators, and Clinton said that ?I would be held personally responsible for the performance of whatever medical provider was chosen.?

1985-00-00 - State Police Investigation of HMA Associates

The prison system had been ?studied to death? according to Governor Clinton.

1985-00-00 - State Police Investigation of HMA, Leonard Dunn

Although Dunn is now modest about his role as President of HMA, notes from the 1985 State Police investigation of HMA differ and show that Dunn ?advised that he had been a former member of the State Claims commission under Gov. Pryor and that he was close to Governor Clinton as well as the majority of state politicians presently in office. Mr. Dunn explained that he was very fond of politics.? Dunn added that the was ?the financial portion of the corporation as well as the political arm.?

Although he now disclaims any day-to-day role in HMA?s operations, it was Dunn who took the leading role in negotiating an ?ombudsman? or compliance controller to smooth problems between HMA and the state in 1985 and told investigators that both CLINTON and ADC Chairman WOODSON WALKER told him to hire RICHARD MAYS.[Suzy Parker, SALON, 12/24/98]

[Diver Dave]

The drops of blood may have dried up long ago, but they lead right to the Arkansas State Capitol and State Prison.

Follow the drip drip drip. Time to call on Grissom with his "blue light" and CSI staff.

[Jean S]

ping

[NormsRevenge]

Bump

[Alamo-Girl]

Bump!

[Mia T]

 

[T'wit]

Thanks for the alert, JeanS. I'll pass it on to Michael Sullivan.

[tgslTakoma]

.

[backhoe]

Many here are Old Hands at the Blood Trail series of scandals, but many people have never heard of it.

Like all things clintonian, the deeper you look, the worse it gets- just when you think it can't sink any deeper into the mire, you learn more, the bottom drops out once again, and you find yourself stuck in yet another lower level of corruption, crime, and sleaze.

The "keyword" database near the end of the article provides invaluable references; others will be found here:

Bloodhounds:

To find all articles tagged or indexed using Bloodhounds, click below:
	click here >>>	Bloodhounds	<<< click here
(To view all FR Bump Lists, click here)

[Askel5]

Thanks ... I've been out of touch but did hear of it.

Thanks for posting the box, Brian.

[Askel5]

Thanks to you too for the flag. (still catching up ...)