VISA-Mauritius President, Véronique Le Clézio announces VISA will not attend the IDRC meeting in Dakar

Véronique Le Clézio commends ATCA's decision not to attend the meeting and seconds it by announcing the Mauritian NGO will not go to Dakar, stating that  "IDRC, the organizer of this meeting of Dakar has hidden for years the real identity of its Chair Ms McDougall who was CSR at BAT... IDRC is totally disqualified for tobacco control and for any health and poverty reduction agenda."

Following the courageous stand of ATCA, ViSa has the honor to announce that it chooses to turn down the invitation to the would-be tobacco control meeting of Dakar that will take place from April 20-22, 2010.

As an honorable NGO member of ATCA, ACTRI and FCA that have a common goal to fight the tobacco industry to prevent the tobacco epidemic, we consider that participating in an antitobacco meeting that smells tobacco (apparently the atmosphere is still poisonous even after the smell has gone) is fundamentally irreconcilable and unethical.

IDRC, the organizer of this meeting of Dakar has hidden for years the real identity of its Chair Ms McDougall who was CSR at BAT. In fact, for the tobacco industry, this double-headed situation is a golden opportunity to infiltrate all CSR issues in the world, including health, poverty, gender, pollution, alimentation crisis etc. All the issues that the tobacco industry pretends to solve by causing hunger, deforestation, pollution, disease and death for the sake of profit.

It makes no difference if Ms McDougall is ending her involvement with Big Tobacco, her reputation is tarnished for good. Her company has manufactured deadly products for years under her tenure. And IDRC has worked with her at a very high position.

IDRC is therefore totally disqualified for tobacco control and for any health and poverty reduction agenda.

 

The guests of IDRC at this meeting of Dakar, coming mainly from governmental or para-statal bodies, will certainly feel most uncomfortable with the spirit of (recently ex)-Big Tobacco CSR Ms McDougall lingering around during any “industry watch” session forexamining what the tobacco industry is doing to advance its reputation, wreck effective tobacco control, promote ineffective tobacco control, etc. !!!

We can just hope that the participants to the Dakar meeting will not try to make the rest of the world believe that tobacco products are just merely “controversial” and that the tobacco industry “has changed”, that it is now “responsible”. Indeed! Just more than 5 million deaths a year and $200 billion profit!

Sincerely,

 

Véronique LE CLEZIO
President of ViSa
2, John Kennedy avenue
Floréal
Mauritius
Tel: (230) 698 3258
Fax: (230) 686 4498
http://www.veronique-leclezio.com/
http://blogsofbainbridge.typepad.com/warnings