MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

Although many right wingers in the US think of Canada as some sort of socialized government, outside of its universal healthcare system and some other programs, it is on a rightward trajectory under conservative rule.

Given Obama's Wall Street neo-liberal consensus on free trade, oil, the environment (in practice as compared to lofty speeches), and global corporations, Canada and the United States bed down every night right next to each other on economic issues.

So, it was an uplifting moment to see a 14-year old young Canadian woman, Rachel Parent, take on a right wing "business" talk show host, Kevin O'Leary -- of the Canadian Broadcasting Company's (CBC) "The Lang and O'Leary Exchange" -- and decimate his defense of GMO's and Monsanto. Rachel Parent, in a 14-minute CBC segment of the show that aired recently left O'Leary looking like a blow-up doll that had just been deflated and crumpled to the ground.

You can watch the full destruction of a pro-GMO advocate by a young teen (and receive some additional background) by clicking here.

As a 12-year-old, Parent founded a Canadian youth advocacy campaign to require the labeling of GMO foods sold in Canada. (They are not labeled, as our readers know, in the US either.) Her group and efforts can be found on the Facebook page, "Kids Right to Know Club."

At one point, O'Leary -- who has that supercilious thuggish air of a business talk show Bill O'Reilly -- accused the young teen of being a lobbyist. Parent's poise never faltered as O'Leary tried one brutish line of attack after another, leaving him finally to turn over the show to his more professional, but nonetheless right wing, sidekick, Amanda Lang, who did her best to get O'Leary off the mat after Parent's knock out blows on behalf of labeling GMO's and letting consumers decide their food preferences.

At one point, O'Leary trotted out the canard that GMO's will vastly increase yield and feed the world and save children from starving. He didn't mention that farmers in India are committing large numbers of suicides because their crops are falling prey to predatory practices by GMO companies, nor that the claims of higher yields has been repeatedly challenged based on many criteria.

According to a 2012 article on the site Mercola:

The introduction of genetically engineered seeds, and the coercion of Indian farmers to use them, has led to the largest wave of recorded suicides in human history

More than a quarter of a million Indian farmers have committed suicide over the past 16 years as their crops have failed, leaving them in financial ruin, largely as a result of Monsanto’s genetically engineered seeds (especially Bt cotton); an Indian farmer commits suicide every 30 minutes, typically by ingesting his own pesticides

Bt cotton is much more expensive than traditional cotton seed, requires more water and pesticides, and has failed to produce the increased crop yields promised by Monsanto

India’s government has largely abandoned small farmers, discontinuing support programs and failing to address factors such as lack of rural credit and access to irrigation, among others, and new government programs have barely scratched the surface of this crisis.

Paul Jay, founder and CEO of The Real News, was executive producer of a CBC program "Counterspin" for ten years.

Jay watched the segment of Parent giving O'Leary (and Lang) a total thrashing on GMO's. Jay commented to Truthout:

O'Leary is a well-known defender of all things capitalistic. One should ask him what he would say to a dying child around the world. One should ask him if he is even willing to question how food is owned, hoarded, and distributed around the world [not to mention the GMO companies attempting to globally own the crops through patenting seeds]. What role does this increasingly consolidated private ownership of the food supply play in starving children? But such questions of ownership are off the table for O'Leary.

On her Facebook site, Parent has a poster mocking O'Leary and Lang, when Parent was lectured: "Rachel, we're in a long-term study, you're eating genetically modified foods whether you like it or not."

Rachel Parent responded on Facebook: "We are not your lab rats."

(Photo: Rachel Parent)