The Real Board of Directors: the Construction Biotechnology Policy in Canada, 1980-2002 — Devlin Kuyek
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The Real Board of Directors: the construction biotechnology policy in Canada, 1980-2002 — Devlin Kuyek The Real Board of Directors The Construction of Biotechnology Policy in Canada, 1980-2002 Devlin Kuyek Publication information © Devlin Kuyek, May 2002. All rights reserved. Cover and interior graphic by Cathleen Kneen. Layout and design by Rebecca Kneen. Published by The Ram’s Horn S-6, C-27, RR#1 Sorrento, BC V0E 2W0 Canada This document is available in PDF format at www.ramshorn.bc.ca Order from the publisher: $10 plus $3 postage and handling per copy. Credit cards not accepted. The Real Board of Directors The Construction of Biotechnology Policy in Canada, 1980-2002 Devlin Kuyek The voices of elected officials are excluded. The voices of self-serving non-elected officials set public policy. Acknowledgements This book was produced through a collective effort. Brewster Kneen, Cathleen Kneen and I were the central collaborators and a third Kneen, Rebecca, pieced it all together at the end. Alisha Piercy was my con- stant teammate, lover, and companion. Karl Flecker, Elisabeth Abergel, and Colleen Fuller lent invaluable wisdom and encouragement. Michèle Brill-Edwards gave up many afternoons for long conversations rich with insights that make up much of this book. And so many others – family, friends, and colleagues (some who have passed away, many who are alive, and one that is nearly born) – are responsible for this work, including my Baba and Gido, who drove me to the Kneens’ one fateful day. — DK The Real Board of Directors Table of Contents Introduction 3 It’s all a matter of context 3 A note about ‘information’ 7 PART ONE: The Early Years 8 Baby biotech (1979-1982) 8 Enter the profit motive (1982-1985) 9 Connaught 9 Allelix 10 Dr. John Evans 10 Paladin Hybrids and the NRC-PILP program 12 Lean and mean: the political machine gets going (1985-1992) 13 The “private sector” during the Mulroney years 14 Gordon Capital 14 Alan Nymark, Connaught-Mérieux, and Investment Canada 16 Industry takes the Science & Technology helm 17 The centres of biotech research 19 International Context 24 Transnational Corporations (TNCs) take over 24 The MRC/PMAC Health Program 29 The Domestic Lobby 29 The biotech bureaucracy 31 Table 1. Federal Biotechnology Expenditures and Person-Years 1989-90 ($000) 31 Table 2. Federal Biotechnology Expenditures and Person-Years 1990-91 ($000) 32 Table 3. Federal Biotechnology Expenditures and Person-Years 1991-92 ($000) 33 PART TWO: Biotech in the Chrétien Era 38 Enter the Innovation Agenda 38 Force feeding biotech 41 Genome Canada 41 Looking at the Biotech Lobby from the Inside Out 43 The Inner Circle 43 The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIAR) 44 Ministers and Ministries 47 Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada 48 Health Canada 51 Kevin Keough 54 The Department of Finance 55 Industry Canada 57 Environment Canada 58 The Granting Councils: New and Old 59 The Big Picture on R&D in Canada 62 How Queen’s, the Royal Bank and the corporate elite take from the public teat 64 The Re-organisation of Health Research: The path to privatisation 66 The Lobby 70 Conclusion 77 Cast of Characters 85 The Real Board of Directors Page 1 Page 2 The Real Board of Directors Introduction Brewster Kneen & Devlin Kuyek It’s all a matter of context Gaining the upper hand over nature has long been a project of Western Civilization. Controlling nature for corporate profit is a more recent elaboration of this project. In recent years techniques of genetic manipulation have been developed enabling capital to gain control of life — plant, animal and human — by inserting the (patented) mechanisms of control with- in the subject organisms themselves. the biotech industry is a Canada has all the trappings of a democracy: an elected parliament; a largely literate electorate; a market economy; more than one political big drain on public party; local/national/global electronic and print media (albeit owned resources and controlled by a few corporations and individuals) and freedom of speech. One could reasonably assume that public policy is made by the public, utilizing the acknowledged tools of democracy, in the public interest, particularly regarding something as essential and personal as food and health. We should expect to find a long record of public debate and parliamen- tary discussion on issues such as agricultural policy, biotechnology poli- cy and corporate control, as well as a clear record of how the govern- ment of Canada and most of its provinces came to be so deeply com- mitted to the promotion and financing of the biotech industry. However, there is no such record. There has been no such discussion, yet it is said that 75% of our food is derived from genetically engineered crops. How did this come to pass? If not formulated and implemented democratically, how and by whom was Canada’s biotechnology policy constructed and implemented? What is the real system of governance of the biotech industry in Canada? Who is the real board of directors and where are they taking us? These are some of the questions addressed in this study. As thoughtful citizens, we had for some time puzzled over the Chrétien government’s aggressive support for the biotech industry when there were so many reasons to back away: the vast majority of Canadians do not want to eat genetically modified organisms (GMOs); there is a good deal of international support, even within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), for a precautionary approach; and, most importantly, the biotech industry is a big drain on public resources — only 14 biotech companies in North America are even profitable.1 So why, at the national and international level, are the Liberals prepared to face the potential political fallout for such a risky and financially unsound industry? We had our suspicions: a revolving door between industry and government and US influence over Canadian policy. But we were also aware that something deeper 1 Paul Hastings, CEO of Vancouver-based was going on. Quadra Logic Technologies, cited in David Paddon, “US biotech industry hotshot takes North American materialist culture is strikingly in thrall to technology, over as chief executive of Quadra Logic”, Canadian Press, December 19, 2001. which is always presented as mysteriously, if not mystically, emerging http://ca.news.yahoo.com/011219/6/fy2e.html The Real Board of Directors Page 3 without context as the promise of progress, if not salvation. Technology is ‘coming down the road’ or, in the case of biotechnology, out of the labs, ‘promising’ all kinds of ‘benefits,’ but it is coming at us without agency, out of nowhere, though it is, at times, presented as arising in response to consumer demand for new products. We have been long and systematically conditioned to accept whatever is defined as tech- nology as a means of progress. Not believing in such magic or mythology, we decided to undertake, through this research, an exploration of the specific human agency responsible for Canada’s plunge into biotechnology. To do so, we sur- mised that figuring this out requires a historical look at the develop- ment of this nation’s biotech industry and the public policy surround- ing it. We should note at this point (see also footnote 21) that there is a differ- ence between recombinant DNA techniques and other forms of genetic modification that some consider to be biotechnology or ‘modern biotechnology.’ The definition used by the government says that biotechnology is “the application of science and engineering in the direct or indirect use of living organisms in their natural or modified forms.” Throughout this paper, however, ‘biotechnology’ refers only to recombinant DNA techniques. The first part of this paper looks at the formative period of the biotech industry and biotech policy in Canada. By the 1970s, the world’s industrial elite had already pegged biotech as the technology of the future; the gene revolution, they believed, would replace the aging chemical revolution. (The atomic revolution never did live up to its advance billing — now it is focussed on irradiating meat and preparing for nuclear annihilation.) But technological shifts are expensive and time consuming and, as history demonstrates, they only come about with massive government investment, usually through the military. Biotech was no different; in the 1980s, governments in the richest OECD countries spent billions of dollars trying to kick start their biotech companies and secure competitive advantages. Where it differs from the chemical revolution, however, is that this government intru- sion occurred as governments swept to power calling for a seemingly contradictory return to laissez-faire economics. The new politics are referred to as ‘neo-liberal’ and they generally involve: increased free- dom of movement for capital, goods and services; budget cuts for social welfare programs and budget increases for programs that support industry; deregulation; privatisation of government enterprises, agen- cies and services; and the elimination or privatisation of ‘public goods’, such as biodiversity or community practices. The dominance of neo-lib- eralism, as both the first and second parts of this book will show, has profoundly influenced the development of the biotech industry in Canada and the nation’s so-called ‘Innovation’ policy. The record reveals that biotechnology policy has been the private domain of a small number of corporate executives, the offices of the Prime Minister and the Privy Council, a selection of senior government bureaucrats (we reserve the term ‘civil servants’ for those deserving of the title) university presidents and board members of governmental/industry promotion and granting agencies. The persons occupying any one of these positions, we have found, may reappear in Page 4 The Real Board of Directors any number of other roles within the same play, either simultaneously or at different times.