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Thursday. May 29.1980. THE MEDICINE HAT NEWS-3News of biological tests worries mayor- Fears that biological tests might still be going on at Suffield military base have prompted a letter of concern from Mayor Milt Reinhardt to the minister of national defence.In a letter to Defence Minister Gilles Lamontagne the mayor notes recent revelations of biological warfare experiments conducted at Suffield 30 years ago have alarmed citizens inMedicine Hat and southeastern Alberta.The information brought to light under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act by the American Citizens for Honesty in Government indicates . the Canadian government in February, 1950, co-operated with the U.S. in testing biological warfare agents designed to kill, paralyse or infect humans with diseases like typhoid andundulant fever.“Some 30 years later,” Reinhardt writes, “there is little more known of the types of tests that are being conducted in this same area in the British Block by our government and-or in cooperation with other governments.” Noting the necessities of national security, Reinhardt says his first concern must be for the citizens of the city.For that reason the mayorhas asked the ministry for more details on the 1950 experiments and requested it inform Alberta Environment and the surrounding municipal governments of “any potential dangers and-or precautions that may be necessary at this time.” “Information that is not absolutely essential to be secret in the light of national defence and security must be shared with the citizens of this• —country. It goes without saying that I am shocked and disillusioned that information pertaining to in-house Canadian government operations appears to be accessible from U.S. sources, and not from within the ranks of our own government in our own country.”Reinhardt ends the letter by demanding information on “programs that are being undertaken now, programs that in the eyes and minds of many Albertans could be injurious to their way of life and the health security of their families.”
Newspaper Details
Medicine Hat News
Medicine Hat, Alberta, CA
Thu, May 29, 1980
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Alta N.
NA, CA 28 May 2018
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