GIAN TURCI - A CHAMPION AND A HERO

Gian Turci

1950 - 2009

In the greatly varied world of public activism, the people who really stand out can often be qualified as either Champions or as Heroes. Champions are people who choose their causes, and apply their considerable skills and abilities to trying to bring about change, to improve a situation, to fight an injustice and ultimately, to create in the world a better place.

Heroes are those who, when confronted by adversity, stand up for themselves and for their fellows, particularly in cases where most people would not dare speak up or challenge that which affronts them. Often at great risk, or great cost, or both, Heroes have the courage to defy even seemingly unsurmountable powers, to draw a line in the sand and to stand by their principles no matter how daunting the challenge may seem.

Gian Turci was both a Hero and Champion for causes no less important than those of individual liberty, truth, integrity, and fundamental justice. One of the many things that made Gian such a great man was that he was able to see both the forest and the trees. He understood that the assault on smoker’s rights was an assault on people’s rights, and he saw the dangers of allowing well-funded interest groups and overly-powerful governments run rampant with the weapons of junk science, absolute healthism, and sycophantic media.

Gian’s specific involvement in smoker’s rights began when he was living in Canada and his children came home complaining that at school, all of the students had been made to line up while a health official proceeded to smell each of them in search of the tell-tale odour of tobacco. Students guilty of having the smell of cigarettes on their clothes were taken aside and interrogated, and notices were eventually sent to the parents. Where most modern parents would have bowed their heads in shame and accepted the dogma that they should feel guilty for smoking around their children, or for having failed to prevent their children from becoming smokers, Gian reacted in righteous outrage over this grossly insulting treatment, and he decided to react rather than allow himself and his family to be walked upon.

With over a decade of activism in the name of personal liberties, Gian was a central figure in FORCES International, and more recently, The International Coalition Against Prohibition – possibly the world’s two most important movements in the fight against health-totalitarianism. What Gian hated the most in his opponents was dishonesty and hypocrisy, two unendearing characteristics that were manifested most clearly in the “anti” movement’s heavy dependence upon junk science to justify their outrageous assertions. What Gian tolerated the least among his own allies was the self-delusional belief that the battle against health-totalitarianism could be won without concerted, unified, dedicated commitment to a sound strategy and an effective long-term plan. He spoke up clearly, strongly and consistently to broadcast both of these messages in a coherent and intelligent manner that few can match and that all with any integrity had no choice but to respect.

What made Gian a Hero was that he fought against what he understood to be a very hypocritical attack on his rights to do with his body as he pleased, to enjoy life in the manner of his choice, to raise his children according to his best judgment, and to live free of state-sponsored and corporate-financed attacks on his lifestyle. What made him a Champion was that he remained committed to his cause, shared his vision, and taught what he had learned to those around him with an enormous generosity of time and effort. What will make us miss him so much was that he was also an enormously warm and passionate individual who truly understood the meaning of integrity and of friendship.

With Gian’s passing, we who knew him and had the pleasure of working and interacting with him suffer a great loss. We who did not know him personally suffer an even greater loss – that of never having the opportunity to meet the man and feel the passion that drove him to such great efforts and such endurance in the face of a world-wide bureaucratic juggernaut.

None of us were ready to carry on the fight without him .... not now, not yet! But we all know that there is absolutely nothing in the world Gian Turci would want more than for us to do exactly that – to continue. And as we do exactly that, as we continue to fight the good fight, we can all be thankful for the legacy of well reasoned argument and analysis that Gian has left behind, for the innumerable networks and contacts that were brought together by him, for the solid foundations he helped lay beneath our arguments and self-doubts, and for the role model of integrity and passionate dedication that he was to his cause – to our cause.

May each of us carry a little bit of Gian Turci in our hearts as we too raise our heads and refuse to bow down when confronted by lies, insults and ridicule. May each of us successfully emulate him in blending pride, passion, dedication, integrity, intelligence and reason as we speak up to claim and reclaim our own rights, and to defend the rights of others.

THE ''FORBIDDEN CONFERENCE'' VIDEOS

FORCES has now posted most of the videos of the speeches at the ‘’Forbidden Conference’’. You can find them at this link.

Enjoy but most of all use this educational material to educate others!

ABOUT WIKIPEDIA

Most internet users know what Wikipedia is but if there are still some who don’t, please enter ‘’what is Wikipedia’’ in Google to read about this online encyclopedia.

In their own site, Wikipedia claims that ‘’12 million articles (2.75 million in English) have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world, and almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone who can access the Wikipedia website.’’ This of course sounds great in theory but how true is it in reality?

We recently submitted some facts about unintended consequences of comprehensive smoking bans in Canada and we cited sources such as Statistics Canada and the RCMP to back up our addition to their own definition of smoking bans. We were simply and objectively attempting to bring to the attention of the Wikipedia readers that comprehensive smoking bans caused a serious contraband problem in Canada especially in Ontario and Quebec while not making any dent in the smoking prevalence. We believe that citizens and governments throughout the world should be informed on all sides of the issue and be made aware that comprehensive smoking bans can and, more often than not, do bring about serious perverse side effects.

Here’s exactly what our addition to the Wikipedia smoking bans definition stated and the sources:

In Canada, while smoking prevalence was steadily decreasing up to and including 2004, it [http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/080825/d080825b.htm] stalled since 2005 the same year the two biggest provinces (Ontario and Quebec) adopted some of the world's toughest legislations to be implemented in 2006. [http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/fio/tobacco_strategy_2008_e.htm contraband tobacco] has reached alarming proportions since the ban, selling at a fraction of the price of the legal products.

The Wikipedia engine hardly had time to digest our entry and the web crawlers to detect it, that it was already taken down from the Wikipedia website with the following notation: (→Effects on tobacco use: Removed Canada info. Unfortunately the cites did not say this and it looks like a case of synthesis.)

We will let our readers be the judge if the Statistics Canada and the RCMP ‘’cites’’ did not say what we reported but we nevertheless did not argue this decision since it is apparently a waste of precious time to get Wikipedia to report without a bias. In fact after reading articles in FORCES about this very same problem we tend to agree with them that ‘’ Wikipedia, like most of the mass media, is not a genuine information source on such issues, but rather an indoctrination tool’’.

You can read FORCES and Dave Hitt’s experiences with Wikipedia at: Wikipedia Hijacked by Antitobacco and Hijacking of Wikipedia Confirmed

DENYING THE UNDENIABLE: FORCES RESPONSE TO ''NICOTINE NAZIS STRIKE AGAIN''

FORCES and many pro-liberty groups and activists have been often accused of being extreme in their assessment and characterization of anti-smoking proponents and other issue healthists such as anti-obesity, anti-alcohol or even anti-drug. Extreme healthists and public health in general have indeed often been described as the nico Nazis, the nico Talibans or Ayatollahs by their opponents. This characterization is so wide-spread now, (it can be read even in some of the more politically correct mainstream media) that one of the leading actors of modern anti-tobacco, Stanton Glantz (read more about him at DEBUNKING GLANTZ and at Stanton Glantz: Then and now ) co-authored a paper: "Nicotine Nazis strike again": a brief analysis of the use of Nazi rhetoric in attacking tobacco control advocacy, on this very subject.

As we have learnt to expect, the authors of the study, unwilling to let on that there are dissenting views from grass root groups with no ties to the tobacco industry, imply that any comparison to a totalitarian or fascist regime is directly or indirectly tobacco funded, thus outright dismissing with a stroke of their pen, the ever growing number of independent groups or citizens who disagree with the anti-tobacco heavy artillery war and other modern day exaggerated health crusades. Without even looking further into their paper one must concede that this tactic alone is totalitarian and typical of any great dictator.

FORCES has published a well articulated12 page response to the Schneider/Glantz paper outlining all the healthist similarities and lessons learnt from the Nazi regime that justify the characterization of public health and pharmaceutical funded modern day eugenicists as ‘’Nico Nazis’’.

Read it at:

DENYING THE UNDENIABLE: A RESPONSE TO “NICOTINE NAZIS STRIKE AGAIN”

A PUBLIC MESSAGE PAID BY BIG PHARMA

As we commented on our French post below, the following press release is a paid message from your friendly legal drug dealers Pfizer, using the Lung Association as their mouthpiece. Read it by clicking on the title:

The Lung Association Calls for Improved Support to Help Smokers Butt Out for Good

Don’t believe us? Read the ‘’NOTE TO EDITOR’’ near the bottom of the press release:
''About The Report
- Making Quit Happen: Canada's Challenges to Smoking Cessation was sponsored by an unrestricted educational grant from Pfizer.''

From our observations on what has happened in other countries, we are convinced that this piece of propaganda has only one purpose: It is a marketing tool to lobby governments to reimburse smokers for the purchase of nicotine replacement therapy, a very lucrative market for Big Pharma especially that the very low rate of success keeps customers coming back for more again and again. An excellent source of repeat business to be paid with both smokers’ and non-smokers’ taxes!

Yet the Canadian Press who picked up on the press release that was also parroted by Canoë, never published this blatant conflict of interest in their article. They left readers with the impression that the initiative was a well-intentioned call from the oh so charitable Lung Association.

FORCES has coincidentally reposted on their website today, a 2001 report by Wanda Hamilton titled ‘’Big Drug's Nicotine War’’ which brilliantly illustrates the Big Pharma tactics and strategies to gain control over the very lucrative nicotine market. That was in 2001 and their ways were already obvious back then. Today they have become so blatant, only those who have stakes in the issue still pretend they don’t exist.

Read Wanda Hamilton’s analysis at: Big Drug's Nicotine War

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY

Dr. Michael Siegel was once again the guest of a FORCES round table interview. This time the discussion evolved around the unfair discrimination of smokers.

Indeed smokers have not only been de-normalized socially, they are increasingly discriminated against for employment and healthcare. Although we believe that private employers should have the right to make their own rules when it comes to ‘’on the job’’ smoking and they should have the privilege to decide who they feel is the ‘’best’’ man or woman for the job, we are unfortunately very much against the developing trend where employers are relying on political correctness and public support to discriminate a group of people that they believe is costing them more money. As we see it, if obese people, alcoholics, the handicapped and other groups of people, had public opinion against them the way smokers do, employers would not hesitate to also refuse employment to these groups of people. What is even more repulsive is that public opinion against smokers is the result of government approved insistent propaganda that encourages hostility towards smokers. This resembles a modern form of eugenics whereby only the flawless and the healthiest are deserving citizens.

Even more scandalous is the trend of the medical community who are now starting to refuse to treat smokers for ailments completely unrelated to smoking. This trend is quite spread in the UK where the health system is public and in a financial crisis. This refusal to operate has even been extended to obese people. Many have opined that it simply has to do with saving money. Much like employers, the public healthcare system relies mostly on a complaisant public who remain silent and untouched by such practices because they were conditioned to believe that smokers and the obese brought it upon themselves.

One important point that all should pay close attention when listening to this interview, is the groupthink mentality of tobacco control. Dr. Siegel believes that change towards more ethical and fair policies will not happen from within because the careers and livelihoods of tobacco control professionals would be destroyed if they dared express dissent. There are less than a handful of very wealthy groups that set the agenda for the whole movement and distribute the funds to all the smaller ones who must obey to the dogmatic tobacco control philosophy or see any future grants denied. After having unsuccessfully attempted for seven years to reason with his tobacco control colleagues, Dr. Siegel decided to take it to the public because he felt that the only way to hold the tobacco control movement accountable, is to reveal the truth publicly.

You will have heard it from someone from within: Spread the truth.


Listen to the interview at: How ‘’They’’ Are Treated

THE MEDIA AND US

More on the biased media issue, during a FORCES multi-media round table discussion with Iro Cyr from C.A.G.E., Arminda Mota from mychoice.ca and Gian Turci from FORCES on how to react to media bias and hostility when it comes to the smoking issue.

The Media and Us

DISSIDENCE OR ORTHODOXY?

Dr Michael Siegel, prominent anti-tobacco activist, was recently the guest of Mr. Gian Turci at a FORCES round table discussion on the present state of tobacco control.

During the 35 minute discussion, Dr Siegel gave his insightful opinion on how his movement shifted from tobacco control to smoker control, how his disagreement with some of the more extreme tactics of a movement he helped create has cost him human and financial damages and how tobacco control is making it impossible for tobacco companies to research for new technologies towards a less harmful cigarette.

Listen to the discussion at: Dissidence or Orthodoxy ?

Read Dr Siegel’s take of the interview: Dissidence or Orthodoxy? My Interview on FORCES International Roundtable

THE PASSIVE SMOKING SWINDLE

On January 17th, we published in French a link to an interview with Dr. Philippe Even. For those who understand French you can refer to it here: L'ARNAQUE DU TABAGISME PASSIF . Freely translated as ‘’The Passive Smoking Swindle’’.

For those that don’t, FORCES has written a good English summary of what was discussed in that interview that you can read on their website at: Pulmonologist Exposes ETS Scam.

THE VICTIMS OF INTOLERANCE

Four people in Canada have tragically died since the advent of comprehensive smoking bans.

Unlike the anti-tobacco ‘’garbage in = garbage out’’ computer generated statistics, these people had names, families and probably many years ahead of them had it not been for the inhuman treatment to which the Canadian politicians and bureaucrats submitted them. All these deaths and many injuries could have been avoided if these unfortunate people had a remote indoor area where they could have smoked. Read their stories here:

Mr. Bill Leblanc
Mr. Barry Collen
Mr. Murray Miles Patterson
Mr. Eric Whitehouse

Last year, C.A.G.E. , Citizens for Civil Liberties and FORCES issued a press release calling on society to stand up for these new targets of intolerance. The mainstream media, as we have gotten used to expect, totally ignored the press release. We are publishing an updated version here inviting everyone to spread it far and wide. If society starts listening, perhaps we can avoid some future unnecessary life losses. The government must be held accountable for these lives and they must be forced to protect human lives instead of destroying them.

Attention News Editors:

A Call to Society to stand up for the new targets of intolerance

January 13, 2008 - In Canada, terminally ill patients and handicapped senior citizens in nursing homes are being left to fend for themselves out in the cold winter months. Three have died of hypothermia and one under other unfortunate circumstances, since last year.

In the U.K. a 17 year old girl with a learning disability was beaten and tortured for four hours, resulting in a burnt body, a broken nose, a perforated ear-drum and inestimable psychological
damage. Across North America, nurses and other employees are more and more easily targeted for muggings and other forms of violence while they are forced to take their work breaks outside. The important story lies not in the tragic sufferings of these individuals, but rather in the calculated media campaign that has led these victims to be categorized as acceptable targets for the cruelty of their peers and the self-righteous sadism of their caretakers and protectors, for the simple crime of having one trait in common.

What do these people have in common? They are smokers. As such, they are the natural victims and predictable casualties of a well-planned and well-financed campaign to "denormalize" smokers. This campaign was begun in the late 1980's by certain anti-smoking activists and resulted in much relatively benign and well-balanced non-smokers' rights legislation in the
1990's. Unfortunately, these groups needed to justify their continued existence and the salaries of their directors and personnel, and have since become far more radical in their portrayal of the dangers of tobacco smoke.

Unsatisfied with their success in the 1990's and benefitting from generous grants from our federal and provincial governments and from many pharmaceutical companies, anti-smoking groups are now proceeding with the final stages of their denormalization campaign and strategy for completely marginalizing the remaining smokers. They are now touting such irrational and unsubstantiated views of the relative risks of secondary smoke, that the public is led to believe ridiculous statements such as that only 30 seconds of exposure is sufficient to cause severe physical reactions, or that diluted smoke molecules may drift away from a smoker's apartment and contaminate the air space of a non-smoker's apartment.

Absurd statements like these, repeated and cited from one anti-smoking organization to another over and over again, are not only being believed but are being used to justify the expulsion of harmless, law-abiding individuals from their own homes. In an extreme case, we have an ignorant and unsubstantiated comment by a health authority who claimed that too much nicotine in the
blood of an alleged non-smoker caused her to miscarry. This irresponsible claim, when combined with over a decade of denormalization and demonization campaigns against smokers, resulted in the bereaved mother and her friends feeling justified in "punishing" by torture a completely innocent 17-year old girl because she smoked in their vicinity.

Although tobacco smoke may be an irritant and a nuisance to some, and those who are intolerant of it should be able to avoid it, it is clear that the claims of the anti-tobacco activists are grossly exaggerating the epidemiological studies upon which they are based. Studies, we may add, that are not without biases or serious flaws. This makes those who propagate these claims, guilty of hate propaganda against a specific and identifiable minority of our population. When those claims result in vigilante justice, or absurd draconian laws that expose victims of this propaganda to danger, pain and humiliation, then there is cause for both criminal and civil pursuit of those formulating and promulgating the propaganda.

C.A.G.E. (Citizens Against Government Encroachment), Citizens for Civil Liberties, and FORCES International, have adopted the plight of smokers ever since governments began embracing a one sided and completely unbalanced approach to the control of tobacco use and the sanctity of personal choice both with regard to one's health and one's business. Now that the worst-case scenarios that were predicted years ago are beginning to come to pass, our respective organizations call for the following on behalf of our membership:

- We call upon journalists to look into the billion dollar anti-tobacco
industry and reality of the propaganda campaign that it is waging;

- We call upon all concerned individuals to look at the actual science
and research that has been done on the subjects of primary and
secondary tobacco smoke, or at least engage in an open minded debate on
the topic;

- We call upon our government to recognize smokers as an identifiable
class of people;

- We call upon our society to recognize that the hatred and demonization
to which smokers are being subjected is unwarranted, unjustified, and
highly damaging;

- We call upon our legal system to recognize that unsubstantiated and/or
grossly exaggerated claims made against any class of people consists of
hate propaganda and the perpetrators should be prosecuted;

- We call upon smokers and non-smokers alike to support private and
public initiatives to restore scientific integrity and to sue for
damages those who make demonstrably false claims that result in
material and or moral damages.

We remain available for comments, questions and release of documents in our possession to substantiate our claims.

C.A.G.E. (Citizens Against Government Encroachment) is a Quebec based
national grassroots organization that represents citizens who envision a
society where the dignity, sovereignty and liberty of all individuals are
treated with the utmost respect.

Citizens for Civil Liberties is an Ontario based national grassroots
organization founded by citizens who believe that no one living in a
democratic society should be treated differently because of their personal
lifestyle choices.

FORCES Inc., with chapters worldwide, is an educational charitable status
organization, in support of human rights and - in particular, but not limited
to - in defense of those who expect from life the freedom to enjoy personal
lifestyle choices without restrictions and state interference.

SLANDER AND IGNORE

Dan Romano and Iro Cyr, C.A.G.E. president and vice-president respectively, were the guests of Maryetta Ables, president of FORCES, for a ‘’round table’’ discussion on the topic of slander, libel and defamation.

The discussion evolved around why grass roots organizations such as C.A.G.E., FORCES and even some more reasonable anti-tobacco advocates such as Dr. Michael Siegel, are falsely accused of being tobacco funded, who funds many anti-tobacco and other interest groups and why, and what you as an individual can do to help gain back some of the civil liberties you have lost and are continually losing.

We would like to extend our thanks to FORCES for inviting us to express our point of view on this very important topic and invite everyone to listen to this round table discussion at: Slander and Ignore and their other round table discussions at: http://www.forces.org/Multimedia_Portal/category.php?section=Interviews

FROM THE FORCES MULTI-MEDIA PORTAL

Please read, listen and distribute at will, the educational article and video that FORCES has just produced on epidemiological studies that deal with the second hand smoke issue which summarizes quite eloquently much of what we have posted in our C.A.G.E. tobacco case study section:

Educational

PASSIVE SMOKING: An Institutional Problem – Fabricated Risks Attributed to Passive Smoking