To see a stakeholder in agriculture stoop so low is disappointing.

The very appropriately-named Stephen Denys, VP of Sales & Marketing in
Canada for PRIDE Seeds (sometimes, jokes just write themselves!) said in an
op-ed piece in the (Canadian) "Financial Post":

"Where beekeepers had a healthy hive and split it in the spring to become
nuclei for new hives, the beekeepers could then report the nuclei hives with
four frames or less as non-viable, eligible for the announced compensation
program for overwintering losses and a count in the dead hive category."

Clearly, the accusation is that beekeepers are defrauding the compensation
program.  He also accused the province of Ontario of fraud:

"...there is now a cover up occurring around the way the provincial
government now measures overwintering losses. In all other provinces,
overwintering losses are measured using the standard of viability where if
three frames or less in a hive of 10 frames are viable, it is considered a
non-viable hive. Ontario unilaterally changed the measurement in Ontario
last spring to four frames or less as a viability measure. This inflated
losses to the 58% numbers so often espoused by the government - but the
measure became incomparable to surrounding provinces and states."

http://business.financialpost.com/2015/03/05/junk-science-week-2015-governme
nt-honey-for-beekeepers/
http://tinyurl.com/kxwjmts

Now, I understand that these seed companies are going to do whatever they
can to avoid any and all liability, but this is a bit much.  

Does anyone think that this is going to help any sort of rational
cooperation between growers, pesticide companies, seed-drill equipment
makers, and beekeepers to work to reduce the "toxic planting-dust" problem?
Does Mr. Denys think that he has any more credibility as a result of
accusing not just beekeepers, but an entire province of fraud?  With
Canada's fine healthcare system, is enough being done to treat paranoid
delusions?  Will Pride Seeds work on developing a non-defective product
where the pesticide actually stays ON the seeds, rather than coming off in
the seed-drill hoppers?

Wikipedia claims that such libel against beekeepers is a possible criminal
offense:

In Canada, the so-called "blasphemous libel" is a crime punished with a
maximum term of two years in prison, according to Article 296-1 of the
Canadian Criminal Code, as well as the crime of "defamatory libel" (Article
298), which receives the same penalty (see Article 301). In the specific
case of a "libel known to be false" (Article 300), the prison term increases
to a maximum of five years. According to Article 298, a defamatory libel "is
matter published, without lawful justification or excuse, that is likely to
injure the reputation of any person by exposing him to hatred, contempt or
ridicule, or that is designed to insult the person of or concerning whom it
is published".

A copy of this post has been sent to Mr. Denys' email address at Pride seeds
per their website.  Perhaps he will explain his puzzling claims to us.

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