Tom Arnold, with files from Kate Jennison National Post
University academic staff and researchers who work with animals in Canadian medical schools are being warned they could be targets of an animal rights terrorism campaign that uses postal packages booby-trapped with razor blades.
The institutions that were notified are McGill University, Queen's University, the University of Toronto, the University of Western Ontario, and the universities of Manitoba, Calgary, Alberta, Ottawa and Guelph.
An extremist faction of the animal rights movement -- which calls itself the "Justice Department" -- has declared it has hidden razor blades in envelopes and mailed them to more than 80 American researchers working with non-human primates to find vaccines and treatments for cancer, AIDS and other diseases.
The group claims that in 1995 and 1996, it sent packages containing razor blades laced with rat poison, and others with AIDS-infected blood, to some Canadians.
Last month, the same group mailed envelopes packed with razor blades to furriers in Canada -- some of them laced with rat poison -- and to furriers in the U.S. and the United Kingdom.
In the last two months at least 21 Canadian fur farmers and employees of related businesses in B.C., Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia have received razor-blade packages, although there have been no reports of injuries.
"Had I opened the letter my usual way, with my thumb, there is no doubt I would have been cut to the bone," said June Sykes, who received one of the packages despite the fact she retired from mink and fox farming in Hudson Hope, B.C., two years ago.
"These guys are professionals. The razor blades were glued to something resembling a recipe card, arranged right at the top."
The wife of a New York animal trapper was cut after opening a letter that contained four double-edged razor blades.
In each envelope a letter stated: "You have been targeted. You have until autumn of the year 2000 to release all of your animal captives and get out of the bloody fur trade. If you do not heed our warning your violence will be turned back upon you."
The envelopes were all mailed from New York.
Carol and Fred Rippin, mink farmers in Aldergrove, B.C., were warned before they received a suspicious package in the mail. "We're always on the alert because these people have a definite agenda," said Ms. Rippin.
Although no Canadian health researchers at universities have yet received the packages, a circular sent to Canadian institutions within the last two weeks warns of "an underground animal rights group calling itself the 'Justice Department' " and its "envelopes booby-trapped with razor blades.
"Coupled with the growing militancy in the animal rights movement, particularly evident in the U.S., this seemed like a good time to send out a reminder of the need for animal users to be vigilant in their security precautions," reads the circular, issued by Canadians for Health Research, a national advocacy group promoting health research.
The memo asks that the issue be kept out of the public eye.
At the University of Toronto, Dr. Cecil Yip, vice dean of research of faculty of medicine, issued an alert to his department heads. "If you don't take any action somebody could be hurt and we could be blamed for being negligent.
"I don't want to make a major alarm of it. We don't necessarily believe it is going to happen, but we do want to be careful."
Most other universities, when contacted yesterday, said they were not aware of the circular.
Though the "Justice Department" is believed to be the militant arm of the Animal Liberation Front, David Barbarash, an ALF spokesman, denied the link.Mr. Barbarash, who served four months in an Alberta jail for damaging a university lab, was charged last year in connection with mailing booby-trapped letters.
