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Trent University

Trent Strangely Silent about anti-Viral Symposium: Why?

By Our Trent
Tuesday, October 4, 2005

always quick to shine the media spotlight on President Bonnie Patterson and itself, Trent has been uncharacteristically silent about the recent "Public Symposium" billed to be attended by 130 of the world's top scientists, researchers and medical experts. Following a kick-off reception and hobnob at the Canadian Canoe Museum Thursday evening, the agenda scheduled Patterson to be the first speaker on Friday morning. Trent Chancellor and board member Dr. Roberta Bondar was to deliver the welcoming address following Patterson. Trent's efforts to inform the public in advance of the symposium appear to be limited to a scant notation in the "Upcoming Events" section of Focus Trent on September 8, 2005. That announcement conveniently left he word "public" out, provided no detail and simply pointed readers to the International Consortium on anti-Virals (ICaV) website. Given Trent's normal predilection for publicity, one has to wonder why the silence in this case? Could this have been to deflect attention from some issues Trent would rather not have the public be informed about?

There are many curious facts threading their way in and around Trent's association with the ICaV which are noteworthy and deserving of further investigation and ongoing discussion. We'll look at a few of these facts and then review the efficacy of ICaV's efforts to secure millions of dollars of taxpayers' money. Perhaps this will shed some light on Trent's uncharacteristic silence?

The ICaV press release of September 15 was titled 'Bird Flu is Just the Beginning…' International Scientists gather at Trent University to Combat Global Pandemic. ICaV press releases of September 19 and 20 both highlight Trent. The ICaV website features photographs of Trent and uses Trent's copyrighted logo. The local paper, the Peterborough Examiner, carried a short story on September 17 story announcing the symposium which was clearly based upon the ICaV press release and not a Trent announcement. Other than the Focus Trent issue mentioned above, we were unable to find any other reference from Trent announcing ICaV symposium, the use of Trent's facilities or Trent's relationship with the ICaV. The symposium was not listed in Trent's on-line calendar of events.

Only after the end of the first day (Friday September 23) when students, staff and professors head away for the weekend, did Trent publish a story on its website. That story was largely a rehash of ICaV symposium promotional material. However, it did mention in passing the interesting fact that "ICaV was founded in 2004 and is affiliated with Trent University". This affiliation has never been explained and we at OurTrent are concerned it may have important implications for Trent.

Dr. Jeremy Carver is the CEO/CSO and a founding member of ICaV, which hosted the "public" symposium. Last year, when Trent was lobbying the City of Peterborough for $2-million for its controversial DNa cluster project, Bonnie Patterson brought Carver to City Council to speak in favour of Trent getting the money, never mind that the DNa cluster project was without a business plan. (Trent has not yet shown the public a business plan, if indeed one exists today). Carver explained to council that the ICaV might be interested in renting office space from the cluster for administrative purposes.

Having used Carver and the ICaV to enhance the impression of support for the DNa cluster to City Council, it is odd indeed that Trent would be so mute in advance of the ICaV conference. What would explain that silence? If indeed the ICaV obtains taxpayer funding it seeks and locates some administrative offices at Trent's yet-to-be-built DNa cluster, would it not be disingenuous to consider the ICaV a private partner of the cluster? Can a publicly funded body be considered private partner?

We are not alone in wondering what possible attraction ICaV has for yet-to-be-built office space at Trent when a plethora of existing space is available not only locally, but in other centers where biotech resources have been established and other firms have located. Carver recently moved to cottage country just north of Peterborough which may have formed the basis for his interest in Trent. This seems to be confirmed in a publication by Re$earch Money Inc. (see Volume 19, Number 8 May 18, 2005);

a seemingly odd aspect of the ICaV initiative is its proposed headquarters at Trent Univ in Peterborough ON, a small city north of Toronto. Trent Univ is home to an emerging DNa Cluster project, which aspires to be a major centre for DNa profiling, automation, molecular diagnostics, geomatics and forensics. It's also close to where Carver lives.

‚äúIt was a condition for whether I got involved or not,‚äù he says. ‚äúTrent University is on the (highspeed, fibre-optic) ORION network so distance isn‚äôt a problem.‚äù

Trent's silence in advance of the ICaV symposium might be explained by controversies around the the nature of the fundraising activities of the ICaV. Perhaps Trent wants to distance itself from such tactics?

Carver is saying, as Trent itself reported after Friday's activities, that there will be a bird flu pandemic, its not a matter of if but when. He tells us that current anti-virals won't be sufficient to deal with the coming pandemic and goes even further to instill fear in the public by saying;

Unless we have some other means of defense there'll be millions of people who will die.

That's pretty frightening.

according to Carver the government needs to immediately invest at least $70-million of taxpayer's money over seven years, presumably into the ICaV, to spur development of new antiviral drugs. He refers to $70-million for this purpose as "peanuts". We, on the other hand, think that's rather a lot of money, particularly if it is dispersed without public scrutiny or oversight. Incidentally, $70-million of taxpayer's money is a 25% increase from the $56-million that ICaV was reported to be needing just last May, roughly 4 months ago.

Some of the likely targets of funding campaigns by ICaV are federal foundations that are not subject to access to Information legislation, such as the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI). The CFI was among those foundations blasted by auditor-General Sheila Frazer in February 2005 for their lack of accountability. Not to mention that Trent, like all Ontario universities, is not itself subject to provincial Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation. If CFI gives money to ICaV and ICaV is affiliated with Trent, what does that mean with respect to ICaV and FOI legislation?

It is logical to assume that the ICaV would target Ottawa's controversial Technology Partnership Canada (TPC) program as a possible source of taxpayer funds. Recently Industry Canada froze federal financing for research projects by Bioniche, an Belleville Ontario biotechnology firm, while an investigation into the company's agreement to pay $350,000 in lobbying fees to former Liberal cabinet minister David Dingwall takes place. The investigation is reported to be part of a probe a number of high-tech companies that may have hired unregistered lobbyists, or allegedly paid improper contingency fees to lobbyists to help secure federal financing under the TPC program. Belleville is about an hour's drive from Peterborough.

It is particularly interesting to note that Dr. Michel Chrétien is on the executive of ICaV and is responsible for International Partnerships and Networking. astute readers will have noticed that Michel Chrétien is indeed the brother of former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien.

Multi-billion dollar multi-national drug companies have the money, business acumen and research facilities necessary to exploit any commercial opportunity to produce products such as the anti-virals Carver speaks of. Why, if there is such a looming and immediate need for anti-virals to stem the coming pandemic, have the big drug companies apparently not jumped on this bandwagon? Do they not see a commercial opportunity based on the pandemic coming? Perhaps they just don't have the evidence to justify the investment?

The Canadian military (Defence Research and Development Canada) is reported to be working on drugs to combat avian flu at the agency's high-level biosecurity laboratory housed at CFB Suffield in alberta. But Carver is reported to be skeptical of this work.

There are others who question the viability of Carver's claims. Some, like Dr. Marc Siegel, are concerned about ramifications of living in a time of pervasive fear, and fear itself is most damaging.

In his recent article Why we shouldn't fear bird flu Siegel says the science behind all the worry over a pandemic of avian flu is questionable and rests on the unproven claim that the avian flu will develop exactly like the strain that caused the flu pandemic of 1918. a group critical of ICaV using fear tactics to get public tax dollars made a similar observation in a recent press release;

However, no real evidence is produced by ICaV to back the assertion and to justify enormous expenditures of public research dollars to combat the mythical enemy

If Carver and the ICaV have hard evidence to back up their claims of a pending pandemic we would hope they would immediately publish them and subject them to peer review. If proven to be valid we can only imagine there would be overwhelming support for ICaV and other similar organizations.

Carver say the ICaV's public focus on a looming pandemic is geniune and "not a device" to get money.

Trent's silence surrounding the ICaV symposium raises a number of questions about transparency and accountability in university governance. arthur, Trent's student newspaper, notes that Trent's silence in the handling of matters like the ICaV symposium, the DNa cluster and the secretive proposed legal agreement the Office of Student affairs is proposing to establish between the universeity and student groups, has become a traditional cause for concern. We at OurTrent agree with the suggestion of the editors of arthur that it is time for Trent to adopt a new approach, open and honest dialogue. Perhaps arthur said it best:

In the meanwhile, it's simple enough, here is our offering to the university administrators: let's talk, okay? It's a new tactic to try, as the old one is becoming so very passe: feign some proper communication skills, and then we'll have no reason to believe you're hiding something dramatic and maliciously evil. It would at least make us less irritated all the time.


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