It's rare that a reporter gets a scoop so big that it causes officials to literally turn their backs during a public meeting, but that's what happened to award-winning Canadian journalist Rodney Palmer.
In 2009, Palmer, an investigative journalist for 20 years, including eight years working as a foreign correspondent for Canadian Television News, discovered and exposed the disabling effects of Wi-Fi on students.
At the time, nearly a third of the students in his children's school were daily complaining of a grab bag of neurological and dermatological symptoms. The symptoms would disappear on the weekends and return on Monday.
Having suffered chronic illness of his own after moving to a new building in Toronto, he suspected that the cause could be environmental but renovations, mold, and new construction were not factors at the school.
Palmer's investigation turned to the school's new Wi-Fi system as a probable cause.
"What happened next was extraordinary. A group of parents formed countywide, as all the schools in the region had recently been equipped with super-powered Wi-Fi. We learned about dozens of children wearing cardiac halter monitors to school and four cases of juvenile cardiac arrest including two deaths, countywide. Each class had a new wireless modem that is strong enough to power 30 computers at once downloading video as a maximum possible usage. At our school, these were in a kindergarten class with no computers. There were only seven computers in use in the school. It was not necessary," he said.
Palmer filmed testimonials from schoolkids and their parents and presented it to the county school board.
"The key staff charged with directing the Wi-Fi to be installed or removed made a display of spinning their chairs around and showing their back to the screen. This was at a full public meeting of the county school board with the video being played on a 15-foot screen on the wall. It was a sign that they would ignore all complaints," he said.
Join EHT Executive Director Theodora Scarato as Rodney Palmer tells her what happened next! You can ask your questions to Palmer directly at this Patreon event.
