Posted on 01/18/2006 8:53:58 PM PST by llevrok
OTTAWA (CP) - A new Hollywood film will dramatize the story of how contaminated blood from Arkansas prisoners found its way into the veins of thousands of Canadian hemophiliacs, killing many.
Blood Trail will make revelations that point to criminal negligence and raise suspicions of murder, says Elizabeth Fowler of Clear Pictures Entertainment
"There's bits here and bits there and that's how they managed to get away with it. You put it all together and you go, 'Whoa!' "
An RCMP investigation has been underway for close to five years, but no charges have been laid in connection with the prison blood.
Charges have been filed against leading figures in the Canadian Red Cross and the federal Bureau of Biologics but they don't involve the Arkansas connection.
Fowler said Blood Trail, which is expected to be released in about a year, will feature some prominent characters: Bill Clinton and Paul Martin.
Clinton, who went on to become U.S. president, was Arkansas governor in the 1980s when inmates in a state prison were allowed to run their own blood program without screening for infections.
A now-defunct Montreal company, Continental Pharma, bought the blood from Arkansas, then sold it to Connaught Laboratories of Toronto.
Connaught was controlled at the time by a Crown corporation, Canada Development Corp. (CDC), of which Martin was a director.
CDC minutes from the time went missing but some reappeared in the files of a Calgary chemical company.
The story is marked by many strange coincidences. On the same night in May 1999, Galster's clinic in Arkansas was firebombed and the offices of the Canadian Hemophilia Society were burgled.
An Arkansas prison warden was found murdered just as he was about to talk about the story, said Fowler.
(Excerpt) Read more at canada.com ...
Thanks for the ping, NJAPF. Looks like the Tainted Blood archive on FR is defunct. The links on Budge's page, at least the ones I tried, are now dead.
See #34.
Hey Budge, good to see your post. Your blood site has proven extremely useful in educating the media on the scandal.
bump and a drip!
Back in 2002 Budge sent me a cd of the posted stories and much of your research and investigation has been saved. If you need a copy let me know and I'll send it down for you.
cheers
BigM
I've got a copy of that CD too, and I'll bet Alamo-Girl has a lot of the material. Askel, if you're cruising the neighborhood, you worked on this a lot, do you still have the files?
Maybe Pierre Bourque has some of the material.
Best personal regards!
I don't think so. He still has a link to the site. can't complain about the media we've gotten out of the story in Canada. Hope the cops make some arrests soon. criminal trails for the Red Cross and Health Canada starts on feb 6th.
bump
I never pitch documentary files, and I tried to save all the Blood Trail material at the time. Chances are, I have BT threads growing like so many toadstools in my back-ups. I'd better go see what I can unearth. Maybe a new CD would be advisable.
This forthcoming movie could reanimate the whole question. Let's hope that the victims of this heartless Clinton scheme to sell diseased blood may yet see justice.
I just skimmed the pertinent section of DSL, read some pieces at random, and wanted to say -- that material is spot on. Good job, A-G!
Thank you so much for the kudos, T'wit!
I don't remember when the test was developed to detect HIV in blood, but at least by 1984 the Red Cross knew enough to try to screen out high-risk types. The company that sold this blood in Canada did so precisely because it had become difficult to sell such blood in the US.
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