Curious Illness Killing Young New Brunswickers - Government Refuses to Recognize Its Existence

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Bizarre neurological illness plagues young Canadians

Otherwise healthy young adults in New Brunswick are falling ill with crippling symptoms

FILE PHOTO © AFP / Dr. Timothy Rittman, University of Cambridge

Dozens of young people with no preexisting conditions are developing symptoms of a new disease as activists and families suspect a cover-up on the part of the local government.

A whistleblower with Vitalité Health Network in New Brunswick told The Guardian on Sunday that symptoms include hallucinations, difficulty thinking, limited mobility, insomnia, and rapid weight loss. Local government has reportedly struggled to dismiss the growing number of cases as Alzheimer’s or other neurological diseases uncommon outside the elderly.

While the official number of cases recorded since the mystery illness was first publicly acknowledged in early spring has not budged upward from 48, multiple sources told The Guardian that as many as 150 people may have contracted the fast-moving illness. Still more young people require assessment, and several have died.

“I’m truly concerned about these cases because they seem to evolve so fast,” the source told the outlet, acknowledging that “we owe them some kind of explanation.”

One of the more disturbing elements of the condition is how little is known regarding transmission. In at least nine cases, caretakers and others in close contact with sick individuals have developed similar symptoms to the ailing party, suggesting the illness not only spreads readily between unrelated individuals but that there may be environmental factors involved. Some have compared the illness to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a fatal brain disease caused by misshapen proteins called prions, though screening reportedly produced no confirmed CJD cases.

The province has struggled to keep the cases under wraps – the case cluster only became public last year when a memo was leaked to the media, and the government has insisted the “cluster” itself is merely the result of “misdiagnoses” grouping unrelated illnesses together. Officials declared in October that eight fatal cases were due to “known and unrelated pathologies,” rather than a shared and unknown illness. An epidemiological report released in October supposedly ruled out any food, behavioral, or environmental exposure that could explain the problem.

However, another public health scientist who sought to remain anonymous suggested the government was covering something up. “The fact that we have a younger spectrum of patients here argues very strongly against what appears to be the preferred position of the government of New Brunswick – that the cases in this cluster are being mistakenly lumped together.”

Tim Beatty, whose father Laurie died with similar symptoms only to be posthumously declared an Alzheimer’s case, is attempting to have his father’s remains tested for neurotoxins, including β-Methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA), a suspected trigger for the illness. The local economy relies heavily on lobster fishing, and the chemical can be found in high concentrations in lobster, according to a study cited by The Guardian. Beatty and other families who’ve lost loved ones to the mysterious illness have speculated that the government’s refusal to acknowledge the possible existence of the disease cluster in the region could be politically or economically motivated.

“If a group of people wanted to breed conspiracy theorists, then our government has done a wonderful job at promoting it,” Beatty told The Guardian. “Are they just trying to create a narrative for the public that they hope we’ll absorb and walk away from? I just don’t understand it.”

Has anyone attempted to associate the disease with Covid-19 vaccines?

Corruption is Everywhere - Even in Canadian Politics, eh?

Dominic LeBlanc's family, friends, neighbour win 5 of 6 recent judicial appointments

'All judicial appointments are made on the basis of merit,'

says office of federal justice minister

Robert Jones · CBC News 

Federal Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc, a New Brunswick MP, is connected to

five of the six most recent judicial appointments in the province. (Matt Smith/Canadian Press)

Federal Liberals have been promising to appoint the "most meritorious jurists" to judicial vacancies across Canada, but most candidates winning judicial appointments in New Brunswick over the last year have had something else going for them — personal connections to senior Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc.

Five of the last six federal appointments announced in New Brunswick include Leblanc's neighbour, a LeBlanc family relation and three lawyers who helped retire debts from his unsuccessful 2008 leadership bid. LeBlanc is currently minister of intergovernmental affairs, northern affairs and internal trade.

Erin Crandall, a professor at Acadia University who has written extensively on the politics of judicial appointments in Canada, said patronage is still a significant force in provinces like New Brunswick, despite reforms to curb its use in the selection of judges.

"It's more prominent in smaller provinces," Crandall said.

Erin Crandall, a professor at Acadia University, says patronage is still a significant force in provinces like New Brunswick. (Acadia University)

"It's less of an issue today than it was, for example, five decades ago, when it was much more blatant. But we can still see that it certainly does happen."

In the latest judicial appointments in New Brunswick announced last month, federal Justice Minister David Lametti named Moncton lawyer Robert M. Dysart and Saint John lawyer Arthur T. Doyle to the trial division of the Court of Queen's Bench.  

Moncton lawyer Robert Dysart was named to the trial division of Court of Queen's Bench in June. He is a regular donor to the Liberal Party, according to Elections Canada records. (CBC)

According to financial records on file with Elections Canada, both men have been regular donors to the Liberal Party, including to LeBlanc's Beauséjour riding association, even though in Doyle's case he lives 100 kilometres away.

Saint John lawyer Arthur Doyle was appointed to the trial division of the Court of Queen's Bench in June. (Cox & Palmer)

The two were also among a group of 50 donors who gave money in 2009 to help LeBlanc retire about $31,000 in debts from his unsuccessful 2008 federal Liberal leadership campaign, according to records filed with Elections Canada.

Also helping with that leadership debt was lawyer Charles LeBlond and businessman Jacques Pinet, both from Moncton.

Charles LeBlond was appointed a judge of the New Brunswick Court of Appeal in March. (Michel Nogue/Radio-Canada)

LeBlond won an appointment to be a judge on the Court of Appeal in March.

Pinet is married to Justice Tracey Deware.  She was named chief justice of New Brunswick's Court of Queen's Bench trial division by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in early June.

Court of Queen's Bench Chief Justice Tracey DeWare at her swearing-in ceremony with

New Brunswick Court of Appeal Chief Justice Marc Richard. (Submitted by Tracey DeWare)

DeWare herself was a Conservative Party donor and originally appointed to the bench in 2012 by the Conservative government of Stephen Harper. But she and Pinet are also neighbours of LeBlanc.   

In 2013, they bought a seaside property in Grande-Digue from LeBlanc next to his own summerhouse. Property records show they paid $430,000.

Moncton family lawyer Marie-Claude Belanger-Richard, who is married to Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc's brother-in-law, was picked to fill a judicial vacancy in Saint John. (Veritas Law)

In a fifth appointment last year, Moncton family lawyer Marie-Claude Belanger-Richard was picked to fill a judicial vacancy in Saint John. She is married to LeBlanc's brother-in-law.

Belanger-Richard is the only one of the five justices who responded to attempts to contact them about the string of appointments and their connection to LeBlanc. Through a court clerk, she declined to comment.

LeBlanc's office referred questions about the judicial appointments to Lametti.

Lametti's office declined an interview request, but his press secretary, Rachel Rappaport, issued a statement denying favouritism and political patronage in any of the New Brunswick appointments.

"All judicial appointments are made on the basis of merit," Rappaport wrote. "As with all Canadian citizens, judicial candidates are free to engage personally in political activities. The appointments process neither disqualifies nor privileges an applicant on the basis of political association."

Patronage prominent in province

Several academic studies have shown New Brunswick has traditionally owned one of Canada's most patronage-tinged judiciaries and little has changed in recent years, despite Liberal promises to inject more merit into the selection system.

A 2010 study that looked at 856 judicial appointments in Canada over a 15-year period found "major" political connections were involved in New Brunswick appointments nearly 77 per cent of the time — double the national average and more than five times the rate politically connected people won federal judgeships in provinces such as British Columbia and Ontario.

Lori Hausegger, director of Canadian Studies at Boise State University in Idaho, was one of the lead academics on that study.   

Lori Hausegger, director of Canadian Studies at Boise State University, worked on a 2010 study that found major political connections were involved in New Brunswick judicial appointments nearly 77 per cent of the time. (Boise State University)

She said the problem with judges appointed because of political connections is not their qualifications — all potential federal judges in Canada are vetted for competence by independent panels — it's the possibility they use connections to take spots from better candidates.

"The problem is whether or not that [connected] person is different from the other ones that they didn't pick in terms of their decision-making," said Hausegger. "There is not a lot of transparency in the system. We don't actually know a lot in terms of how the minister is finally choosing."

Likely several applications for a vacancy

Canada's Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs will not say how many lawyers applied for the judicial positions in New Brunswick that were eventually awarded to those connected to LeBlanc, although it is likely there were several.

Across the country last year, it reports 257 qualified lawyers were considered for 79 vacancies.

The commissioner will also not reveal if any of the unsuccessful candidates in New Brunswick scored higher than the winning candidates on assessments of their ability and qualifications to be a judge.

"Assessment results are confidential and solely for the minister's use," Philippe Lacasse, executive director of judicial appointments for the commissioner, said in an email to CBC News. 

"In fact, candidates themselves are not informed of the results of their assessment."

Former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould promised in 2016 that improvements would be made

in judicial appointments based on transparency, merit and diversity. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

In 2016, Jody Wilson-Raybould, the justice minister at the time, promised major improvements in the quality of how judges are selected in Canada.

"We are committed to ensuring that we make substantive and thoughtful appointments to the judiciary, based on the principles of openness transparency merit and diversity," Wilson-Raybould told Parliament in May 2016.

Since 2017, there have been 10 federal judicial appointments or elevations in New Brunswick. In addition to the five most recent connected to LeBlanc, at least three other appointees were past political donors to the Liberal Party. 

Jody, however, was fired for having too much integrity for the very Liberal Party of Canada.

Life Was so Simple When There Were Only 2 Sexes - Now It Just Gets More and More Bizarre

Two-spirit father says First Nation's membership code requiring paternity testing is discriminatory

Only 1 of Wayne Wallace's twin sons has membership status

Lenard Monkman · CBC News 

Wayne Wallace, a father of twins, says the band membership code for a New Brunswick First Nation is discriminatory because it only grants membership to his biological child. (Submitted)

A two-spirit father in New Brunswick says he and his children are being discriminated against because his First Nation requires paternity DNA testing for his children to become members.

The term 'two-spirit' was adopted by consensus in 1990 at an Indigenous lesbian and gay international gathering to encourage the replacement of the outdated, and now seen as inappropriate, anthropological term berdache. The term 'berdache' means, 'passive partner in sodomy, boy prostitute.' - Wikipedia.

Wayne Wallace is a status Indian and a band member of the Madawaska Maliseet First Nation in New Brunswick. He and his husband have four-year-old twins through a surrogate mother, but only one of the twins is allowed membership in the First Nation.

"The twins share the same mother, and we fertilized each of our share of the eggs and implanted into our surrogate, one embryo each, and they both took," said Wallace.

Both twins are status Indians under the Indian Act, but since only one of the twins is biologically his, that child is the only one considered a member of the Madawaska First Nation.

In 2014, the Maliseet community of Madawaska voted on a membership code that allows the band to decide who will become a member of the community.

Under the policy, the children of any mothers who are from the band are automatically members of the First Nation.

Fathers from the band who want to register their children as members must take DNA tests to prove they are biological parents.

"When the child is born, you apply to the community to become a member," said Wallace.

"And then if you're a male, they will ask to you to go to their preferred trusted source to undergo DNA testing. And if you refuse, then you're basically not allowed to register that child."

Brothers with different membership status

This policy is creating a division in his own family based on the technicality.

"You have a brother who's a member and a brother who is not a member. So if you were living in the community, one of them would be getting all the benefits of being a member of the community, one would get nothing," said Wallace.

Wallace said the policy creates uncertainties for people who are transgender, have fertility issues or want to adopt.

He argues the policy discriminates against his own family based on his sexual orientation. Wallace said if he were married to a woman, this would be a non-issue.

It would seem that if he had used a 1st Nations woman as a surrogate, there should be no issue, but it appears he didn't. To make matters worse, each son has a different father - an utterly unnatural occurrence that the band should not be expected to abandon their sensible membership requirements for.

Last year, he filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission alleging discrimination on the basis of sex, family status, genetic makeup and sexual orientation.

According to Wallace, the human rights complaint is still in its early stages, and the first step is to go to mediation with the leadership of the community.

"They contacted the chief requesting if they would be willing to do that, and that request was denied with the explanation that it's not within [the chief's] power to change the code because it's voted on [by the community]."

Discrimination or act of self governance?

At last count, the Madawaska First Nation had a total of 557 members. The band recently won a land-claims case with the federal government and is negotiating compensation — a figure that could potentially reach $150 million.

That's over a quarter of a million dollars for each member if divided evenly. Making this case worth a lot of money for Mr Wallace.

According to Chief Patricia Bernard, the First Nation first enacted its own membership code in 1986.

The band wanted to make changes to the code to determine its own members and ensure that people who were not descendants did not become members.

Patricia Bernard, chief of Madawaska Maliseet First Nation in New Brunswick, says the First Nation enacted its own membership code in 1986. (Julia Wright / CBC)

"Our community has a lot of benefits and advantages and a couple of scenarios arose where — we're a small community so everybody knows pretty much everything — there was a situation where people were claiming that the child was theirs and it was pretty obvious that it wasn't.

"So in order to to eliminate that uncertainty we placed this criteria on on our members. The membership themselves asked for this to secure a sort of certainty with respect to the descendancy."

The band decided to amend the code after two years of community consultations and a referendum vote.

'You either are a descendant or you're not'

Bernard said she does not believe the membership code is a form of discrimination, but rather a protection of culture and identity.

"For me specifically if you want to talk about discrimination, it's a very difficult, complex concept especially when it comes to Aboriginal people and Aboriginal communities," said Bernard.

"There's a lot of deeper sort of issues surrounding that with respect to the membership. I wouldn't say it's discriminatory, it's you either are a descendant or you're not."

Wallace acknowledges that the chief and council do not have the power to change the policy on their own, but he hopes they can use their influence to lead the discussion and help resolve the issue of his sons becoming members.

"At the end of the day all I want is my child to be treated like any other members that are members within our community, because if you apply this code retroactively there'd be a lot of people that would lose their membership," said Wallace.