Dr. Roger Perrault Posted on 02/06/2006 2:54:12 PM PST by neverdem
Dr. Roger Perrault
The trial of the doctor at the centre of the tainted blood scandal is set to begin Monday after months of legal wrangling and delays.
Dr. Roger Perrault, former national medical director of the Canadian Red Cross, faces criminal charges for his alleged role in allowing hemophilia patients to receive tainted blood products in the 1980s and early 1990s.
The incident is widely considered to be Canada's worst medical disaster of the last century.
More than 1,000 Canadians were infected with HIV and as many as 20,000 contracted hepatitis C after receiving the blood.
It's not clear how many people have died as a result, but the death toll was 3,000 as of 1997.
Perrault, 68, and other medical officials at the Red Cross and Health Canada have been accused of failing to screen blood products and not stopping people with HIV from donating blood.
Perrault has been charged with four counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm and one count of common nuisance endangering the public.
His trial in Toronto could last for several months.
Heart attacks
Lawyers for Perrault tried to convince the court that he wasn't well enough to stand trial. Perrault has had two heart attacks and open heart surgery.
Perrault's lawyer, Edward Greenspan, argued the stress of a trial could place unbearable strain on his client and kill him.
But in August 2005, Justice Mary Lou Benotto rejected the arguments, saying Perrault had failed to show that the court proceeding would likely pose a "real or substantial" risk to his health.
John Plater, president of Hemophilia Ontario, said Perrault's trial will test the accountability of the government and the health-care system.
"It's important that we see what the courts are prepared to do in terms of (acting) when government regulators ... don't do their jobs properly," said Plater, who is a hemophiliac, HIV-positive and has hepatitis C.
"It'll be a reminder to people in the system that that's how important what they do is, and that's the kind of scrutiny they're under."
Apology
Control of the Canadian blood supply was taken away from the Red Cross, and Canadian Blood Services was established in 1998.
In May 2005, the Canadian Red Cross apologized and pleaded guilty to violating the Food and Drug Regulation Act by distributing tainted blood products between 1983 and 1990.
Charges of criminal negligence causing bodily harm and common nuisance were withdrawn in exchange for the guilty plea.
The charity paid a $5,000 fine and agreed to give $1.5 million to the University of Ottawa for a research endowment fund and scholarship for the families of those affected.
I think he got very large under-the-table payments for years. Educated guess by an Arkansan: the governor got one-third. Cummins cranked out 8,000 units a week (remember, this is plasma, not whole blood) at $50 or more per unit. Do the math. Speculation also had it that Hillary was the family money handler and that Vince Foster may have delivered cash from this operation to the Clintons.
Thanks for the ping, Maddie.
We can only hope...
LOL! Thanks for the links.
I have speculated that Foster killed himself because of this scandal. He would have to cover it for them, and he couldn't live with it. Yes, I believe Vince probably killed himself --- on White House grounds. His body was then moved so that the FBI would not seal off his office as a crime scene.
Maybe it is time to hear from us and bring to trial the former Arkansas governor.
Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. /sarc
According to other sources, a frantic burst of activity by the old Arkansas hands at the White House surrounded Foster the weekend before he died. Strong speculation: he told them he was going to go public with the tainted blood matter and they tried everything to talk him out of it. Monday night Foster was invited to the White House and turned it down. It could have been the last straw. Tuesday he was dead.
I don't think it was suicide. Somebody FINALLY persuaded me that it could have been done at Fort Marcy after all. (It took a lot of persuading :-) )
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a39e65b283813.htm
BLOOD TRAIL -- Clinton
FR Bloodhounds
SUNDAY 6/6/99 FR Bloodhounds
Clinton Quotes and Direct Links
0000-00-00 – Free Republic, WALLABY
The allegation is that throughout his years as Governor of Arkansas, Clinton sustained a prison plasma program, run by his close friends and political contributors, that poisoned hemophiliacs and recipients of blood transfusions around the world. Here's some of the case in support of that allegation:
(1) The Arkansas Department of Correction was under the Governor's jurisdiction. He appointed the members of the Board of Prisons.
(2) The news stories we've posted on FR tie him and his predecessors into the daily affairs at the prison and the controversies surrounding the medical care provided by HMA.
(3) Clinton read a copy of his own state police report on the prisons. In that report, there was evidence of corruption in the prisons and in the plasma program that would have justified firing Art Lockhart, Director of Prisons. Yet Clinton continued to defend Lockhart.
(4) Clinton received campaign contributions from the pharmaceuticals that were buying the prison plasma.
(5) Clinton's friend, Richard Mays, was given at least $25,000 in a shadowy deal, supposedly to serve as ombudsman over HMA's operations.
(6) Clinton's friend, Leonard Dunn, was the President of HMA.
(7) A mysterious caller phoned a White House private number, soon after Vince Foster's death, to report that Foster had been greatly upset about a "tainted blood" matter: something that both he and Clinton knew about.
1982-00-00 – 1992 – Galster’s Press Kit, National Press Club, 2/24/99
The Clinton connection: Mr. Clinton was governor of Arkansas when the Canadian blood supply was contaminated in the mid-‘80s. HMA's president in the mid-1980s, Leonard Dunn, was a personal friend of Mr. Clinton's and a political ally. Mr. Clinton was generally familiar with the operations of HMA, the Arkansas firm that was given a contract by Mr. Clinton's own state administration to provide medical care to prisoners. In the process, HMA was also permitted by the state to collect prisoners' blood and sell it elsewhere. Later, Mr. Dunn was a Clinton appointee to the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission and he was among the senior members of Mr. Clinton's 1990 re-election team.
1982-00-00
“Well, there were people around who certainly didn’t want to believe another bad story about Clinton. I always [say] ‘Forget Clinton, forget him. The important thing are the victims … that’s what I live with every day. Let’s not approach it from a Clinton standpoint, let’s approach it from who was involved, who created these victims?’ His name will come into it and the truth is that without his support for it, this group would have been shut down in 1982 when the FDA first came down on them. And if that had happened, if they had ceased operation in ’82, thousands and thousands of people would have been spared. Now that is the truth. So is he responsible? yes. Yes he’s responsible and so are a lot of other people.”
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]
1993-01-19 – Orlando Sentinel Tribune
Among the “FACES OF HOPE” attending the Clinton inaugural were the parents of deceased hemophiliac Ricky Ray (and two other hemophiliac sons infected with AIDS by tainted blood products). Louise Ray, a nurse, has traveled the country preaching compassion, asking for research money and stressing “the need for a congressional probe of who is to blame for the formerly AIDS-tainted blood supply”.
During Monday's luncheon, the president-elect noted that everyone he had invited had been able to come - except for Ricky. The Rays, he added, were famous because they had been "subject to incredible discrimination and bigotry and prejudice from people who didn't understand the first thing about AIDS."
Clinton said he would remember that Washington and its politics don't "amount to one hill of beans unless we are spending all the money that you send us to try to help deal with your problems in an honest and forthright way."
"I will make my mistakes," he said, standing before a fireplace at the Folger Shakespeare Library, "but I also want you to know that every day I'll remember you, and I'll remember who sent us here."
Clinton clearly remembered many of the individuals and their stories as he, his wife and the Gores spent several moments with each guest - talking, hugging and posing for pictures. […]
While the Rays dined Monday on beef tenderloin and shrimp, another Floridian was across town also talking about AIDS. Leanza Cornett of Winter Park - the reigning Miss America and the first Miss Florida to win the crown - stopped by the office of the Names Project, which coordinates the AIDS quilt, to rally a roomful of volunteers. Cornett, who made AIDS awareness her "cause" during last year's pageant competition, will march in Wednesday's parade with other AIDS activists. On Monday she told three dozen quilt volunteers that her title provides her with a vast audience to educate about the disease.
"I do think the Clinton administration will do more" than other administrations for AIDS, said Cornett. "They almost don't have a choice at this point. The activism is at an all-time high."
THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION PASSED THE RICKY RAY HEMOPHILIA RELIEF ACT ON THE FINAL DAY OF THE 1998 SESSION … See, Who’s Who for more information.
1993-07-23 (or thereabouts) – The New York Post, Maggie Gallagher 9/25/98
Once upon a time – in fact a day or two after Vince Foster died – a man called up the White House Counsel’s office. “This was not a line that kooks typically rang us up on,” my source told me. Lunatics call the main office number. This guy called one of Vince’s Assistants directly. The man said he had some information that might be important. Something had upset Vince Foster greatly just days before he died. Something about “TAINTED BLOOD” that both Vince Foster and President Clinton knew about … “I’m only telling you this now because Vince Foster was very distressed about this just days before his death,” the mysterious caller … said.
1994-02-05 – The Washington Times
Decried by AIDS activists. Speaking to students and Washington’s Kramer High School Clinton said, “AIDS is spread in primarily two ways: because of drug users using unsafe needs and because of unsafe sex. Primarily homosexual sex, but not exclusively. The only way to avoid dying from AIDS that we know of right now is not to get it.” Outraged activists Steve Michael states “Clinton wraps himself up in red ribbons and quilt panels on World AIDS Day and then attacks us a la Falwell or Robertson. We can’t survive three more years of the same failed AIDS policies. Clinton is George Bush with Big Hair.” See article http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a367465335fbb.htm
1995-05-25 – The Washington Weekly, 1/25/99, Ricki Magnussen, Marvin Lee
“[in the days following the report of Canada’s link to Cummins Prison] I finally realized that nothing was going to be done, I told my wife that I really needed to do something and she said, ‘You know it will be really dangerous to undertake an investigation the way things are in Arkansas,’ and I said, ‘Yes.’ Without getting into a lot of conspiracy theories … there have been a lot of people associated with the Clinton administration who have tried to speak out and they have been eliminated. They’ve suffered an unfortunate death, let’s put it that way. Many of these people I knew quite well. And it was obviously a concern of mine.”
1996-00-00 – Starr Investigation; Branscum Trial
“It was strongly alleged by Starr investigators in the Branscum case that Clinton sold those state board positions. Fifteen thou, something like that -- in cash. Bill Clinton loves his friends {cough}, but he doesn't give that kind of asset away. We ought to check his testimony in that trial -- he mentioned many names -- … When we get a little further into these matters, we should ask why anyone would purchase a state board position. Funny place, Arkansas. – T’wit. For more information on BRANSCUM, go HERE (http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a365e5be85819.htm)
1997-10-00 – “BYNON”, A Canadian TV Program
Allegations of Gov. Clinton's involvement surfaced on the Canadian TV program "Bynon" on Oct. 15. Paul Craig Roberts, The Cato Institute Article HERE http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3675d9bc4b83.htm
1998-01-15 – Human Events (Paul Craig Roberts)
“According to Dr. Galster, a 1986 public inquiry into HMA’s operations produced a deposition that HMA was kept in business by Clinton’s intervention on its behalf … one deposition alleges that Clinton told HMA officials, who boasted of their contacts to him, that if they would pay $100,000 to a designated judge [MAYS?], ‘he would see to it that their contract would be renewed for the next two years’. Dr. Galster says that new reports show that Clinton defended HMA on dozens of occasions from media attacks on its practices.”
1998-10-18 – Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Joe Stumpe
Clinton had Some Blood Connection, Some Claim -- http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a367541a863f4.htm
1999-01-12 – “Bullwhiz”, an Arkansas Media Gossip Rag
Following Salon’s publication of Suzy Parker’s tell-all on the Blood Trail, the “Bullwhiz” had the following to say …
THAT'S OUR STORY AND WE ARE STICKING TO IT
1) Read Ace Reporter Suzi Parker's article on the 'Arkansas Prison Scandal'. Once again, what the heck is the D*G doing? Why didn't they jump on this story since they are such a big-well-oiled-news-machine? Sure strikes us this is too big a story for it to have gotten away from them. Maybe they're too busy trying to dig up anything to write about from NW Arkansas (to increase their circulation in that region). Oh no, not so fast; the D*G DID cover the story, with a little two-bit piece in which they dismissed it as kookery and which they buried deep in the bowels of the paper. And oh by the way, they're all in an uproar at Parker for having the indecency to cover the story since "they already did." Shame on them.
No, the truth is that Leonard Dunn got to somebody over there, because he knows he's toast if this story gets any play. And it *is* getting play. If MAX BRANTLY has any sense at all, he'll reprint Parker's story yesterday, and show who's *really* interested in covering the big stories. [MAX BRANTLY did … Boyd]
5) If the Democrat or Gazette or others had done a full job of asking the obvious questions and following the money in the eighties, they'd have printed a world class story and would have very likely eliminated the chances of a second rate scumbag from going to the White House and embarrassing every "thinking class" Arkansan for eight years. (When does our deeply rooted sense of Southern honor make its long awaited and much talked about appearance?)
Not only that, but if they had followed up on the stories early on instead of rolling over in front of the Clinton machine, they may have prevented a massive loss of life. Suzi Parker's story was the first in the US to make that link. It was a link the media should have made in 1982 when the FDA first shut down the blood-letting at Cummins and the Clinton camp opened the shuttlecock back up under a different name. ADC Plasma...ABC Plasma...Varner Plasma...HMA Plasma...Pine Bluff Biologicals...etc. Gee, didn't anyone wonder at the names?
Rule # 4; If a money making scheme changes its name more than twice in a single year you have a high probability of a scam. I dare the person who diddled this story as a political rehash of a "dead story" to do this:
(1. Read and educate yourself on the background.(HMA sold to sick plasma to Cryosan. Cryosan was shut down in the US for buying blood taken from cadavers in 1978. The international blood brokers were among the largest donators to Clinton's Arkansas and Presidential campaigns...etc.)
(2. Talk to the victims(There are plenty in Arkansas) Sit on their bedside and hold their hand and look into their bloodtinged yellow eyes and tell them how this couldn't have been prevented, no one is really responsible and if they believe in Medicaid, the tooth fairy and the dream of a democratic congress, maybe they will get a new liver he wanted their blood. HMA told them it was going to make women's cosmetics. Several wrote to B. Clinton asking him to look into this issue.)
(3. Put themselves in the all too familiar situation of being a parent who injected this contaminated Arkansas blood-product into the arms of their own children telling them, "Honey, it'll be better soon. Don't worry. This will make you all well." And then being that parent three agonizing years later, standing at the head of a coffin trying to find a way to get through the next two hours, much less the next two days.
(4. Talk to the author of Blood Trail to find out how much has been risked to bring this "buried" story to light. Ask to see his information and ask about his eyewitness accounts from living with this story for years. Ask to see his accounting. Ask to see his connection to the huge Right Wing Conspiracy and his Nazi decoder ring. Then that person will have a right, in my opinion, to disclaim the efforts of those trying to report this issue. This is not about dumbwaiters in the Governor's office or cigars in bizarre places. Who really gives a s???? That's credible, investigative, substantial reporting? Give me a break!
1999-01-24 – “Verde”
I was watching the news in Buffalo when the President went to his little pep rally there. The reporter pointed out that the President travels everywhere with his own blood supply for emergencies. Now I know why ..
1999-02-10 – James Ridgeway, The Village Voice
"When this case first came to light some 15-plus years ago," a White House spokesman said on Canadian TV last week, "there was no testing being done to detect the AIDS virus. It is impossible to say that the president knew [the danger]. The accusations that President Clinton knew the blood was tainted are wrong."
1999-02-24 – Canadian Press, Robert Russo
“We intend to seek a deposition from the President,” said [David] Harvey, “at that point we will consider naming him as defendant.”
White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said he was unaware of the issue when he asked about it [sic] earlier this week.
1999-02-24 – Galster, National Press Club, 2/24/99
Clinton kept letting HMA re-open it's doors no less than 3 times after the FDA shut them down. There was just too much money to be made...Check the Washington Times (http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a36d522201545.htm) article from this morning. " During a press conference at the National Press Club, Mr. Galster accused Mr. Clinton of "personally withholding 400 cases of documents" describing how the Arkansas blood program -- run by a Clinton political supporter -- was allowed to continue to ship blood to Canada even after the FDA shut down the program for U.S. blood buyers in 1983."
Then you have Budge's Links.(http://www.seark.net/~budge/page29.htm)..which track the posts and progress that's been made since last year. -- From: Brian Mosely
1999-02-24 – Pete Yost, AP, 2/24/99
“There is no credible suggestion of any involvement by the president when he was governor,” said White House spokesman Jim Kennedy, “Any issues relating to how the State of Arkansas death with this matter should be referred to the relevant agencies. Any suggestion of any possible future legal action involving the President are at this point hypothetical, and unless and until legal action is taken, we’re not going to comment on hypothetical legal actions.”
1999-02-25 – Calgary Herald, Hilary MacKenzie, 2/25/99
In a bid to attract a scandal-obsessed Washington media to the news conference, Michael Galster, a medical practitioner in prosthetics, alleged ties between the Arkansas firm and then governor Bill Clinton. ''It is not about sexual improprieties in the Oval Office, taped personal messages or phone sex,'' said Galster. ''But it is about the same reckless, careless and irresponsible behaviour that has become the trademark of the present administration.'' [Perhaps unaware, as yet, of 1985-86 documents and quotations by WALKER, DUNN and JORDISON evidencing clear involvement by Clinton] Galster admitted there was no proof of any ties between President Clinton and the Arkansas firm that managed the plasma program in the jail. ''With Mr. Clinton it's difficult to see what he ever knew because he seems to forget a lot of that,'' Galster said. ''We don't have Bill Clinton drawing blood out of inmates arms, no,'' he said. ''And we don't have Bill Clinton making an absolute statement about the plasma program at that time. He was very carefully avoiding that.''
1999-02-25 – Salon, Suzy Parker
P.J. Crowley, a spokesman for the White House, said, "In the early '80s, there was no testing for hepatitis C or AIDS. Those kind of testing methods came into being much later, so there was no way that the president could have known that the blood was tainted." Crowley added, "Whatever the arrangement was between the Arkansas prison system [and] HMA, I would defer to the state of Arkansas to comment." Crowley would not say whether the president was even aware of the plasma program's existence. [1985 – Clinton ordered a state police investigation of HMA contemporaneously with the ILPP (Berkeley) investigation. Just months later, stating the prison system “had been studied to death”, Clinton AGAIN renewed HMA’s license to bleed.]
1999-05-00 – POZ, RonniLyn Pustil, Gabi Horn “In Cold Blood”
Rising above the chimp choir, last February hundreds of Canadian hemophiliacs with HIV gathered in Washington, DC, to blame the First Monkey for slipping them the virus in the early '80s. Alleging that then-governor Bill Clinton allowed HIV-tainted plasma from Arkansas inmates to be sold to Canadian blood banks, angry Canucks ordered the U.S. Justice Department to investigate the prez's role in a prison program that they say violated a 1983 FDA ban on the use of blood from behind bars.
For information on “POZ”, go HERE
1999-06-05 – Free Republic
> Why can't Clintons Govenor records be FOI'd?
Clinton took them with him when he left, claiming that under Arkansas law, they were his. That question has been researched. It was another Billy lie. There is no such law. He was just covering up. He is thought to have hundreds of boxes of the documents hidden somewhere, under lock and key. For this reason, and because they are not in the public record, they are beyond the reach of FOIA suits.
> I wonder who the patsy is going to be? Hecht? Henderson? Dunn?
Hecht and Henderson were highly active participants, and both made a ton of money selling diseased blood. Dunn, perhaps less knowingly involved. If justice is served, it won't be that they are the patsies, but that they deserve everything they get and more.
Is there a connection between Continental Pharma and Arkansas?
Yes. All the big fractionaters, American and Canadian, were buyers of prison plasma, at least for a time, and when that web is unraveled, the lock on Clinton's documents won't do him any good. Many, many people were involved, and yes, they operated with political protection. If you really want to explore the role of Continental Pharma, Wallaby may have information somewhere within reach; I do not. --- T'wit
1999-06-06 – Free Republic – On the Investigation of the FDA's Complicity
Since 1992, the IRS at the Clinton Machine's direction, was singling out Republicans, anyone that publicly opposed the Clinton Machine, and large donors to the Republican party. Once we brought that misuse of power to the front pages, the Clinton Democrats acted swiftly, bringing forth "victims" of the IRS. Not Republicans, donors to the Republican party, anti-democrat activists, or members of "the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy", but the common guy. And the entire media buried Clinton's misuse of power of directing the IRS at Clinton's foes, to simply the "runaway IRS"...
With HIV and AIDS infected blood having been sold to Canada after having been collected from HIV and AIDS infected prisoners of the Arkansas Correctional system during the Clinton governorship, we are seeing a replay of the IRS/Republican situation. Rather than have the public be outraged at Clinton and the Democrats, they are showing the public how it's an FDA problem. And we fall for it EVERY time.
After the failed removal of this president, Mr. Carville said:"The WAH has just begun". And so it has. Deep_6 5/10/99 04:28:20 PDT
I still think he was rolled up in the carpet and taken over to Ft. Marcy Park.
Thanks for the ping!
Thanks for the ping!
Rikki Magnussen, "we're all Danish" these days. If you ever think of your Bloodhound friends, stop by Free Republic and say hello.
For my part, I have trouble figuring how it could have been done on the sly. The White House is such a beehive, if something memorable happens, everybody knows about it in five minutes. But who knows.
I wonder if anyone will ever talk.
Ping for our northern neighbors
Canada Ping!
Please FReepmail me to get on or off this Canada ping list.
-
Indeed. I've been flying the Danish flag in front of my house these last few days.
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