That is the reason I am not going to deal with the details of the widespread abuses of the 'private contract' in the name of the 'Rule of Law.'

Specifically, I am not going to digress with Minister of Health Alan Rock's decisions first to contract out the production of a generic cipro from Apotex and then later to back off from this commitment and buy directly the patented cipro from Bayer. Also, I find repugnant that at this time of growing fear for biological and chemical warfare, we have US Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson boasting his negotiating abilities for hoarding cipro at a much lower price than Health Canada did.

The message here is that life is more important than money, and another message is that the 'private contract' along with the so called 'Rule of Law' to protect transnationals' copyrights is another vicious scandalous social problem as under Free Trade the same transnationals can sue the 'Rule of Law' of governments for eventual lost transnationals' profits, not to speak that our own governments, such as the one in Saskatchewan, have become private contractual deals.

Again, life is more important than money, and as our governments are defending our way of life they are forgetting what democracy is like.

References

Pertinent articles as published by Ensign

Rock accuses Bayer of playing games, CBC Canada, October 24, 2001 http://www.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/2001/10/23/rock_cipro011023

U.S. set on getting Cipro for under $1 a pill, CNN, October 23, 2001 http://www.cnn.com/2001/HEALTH/conditions/10/23/cipro.thompson