It seems that in May of this year the Harper govt. wanted the CFIA to change the the phrase in any correspondence from "Government of Canada" to "Conservative Government". That looks like Steve wanted to eliminate every other party in Canada & make us "a country under him". What a sick bobblehead he appears to have become.
Read about it here.
Showing posts with label CFIA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CFIA. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Monday, October 6, 2008
Listeria "reporting rule" dropped
"Four months before the Maple Leaf outbreak started claiming lives, Canada's food safety agency quietly dropped its rule requiring meat-processing companies to alert the agency about listeria-tainted meat, a Toronto Star/CBC investigation has found."
"One Toronto inspector said there had been a "trend" in positive listeria tests leading up to the outbreak that was never reported by the plant to federal inspectors. The inspector, and three others across the country, spoke on condition of anonymity because they fear disciplinary action if they spoke publicly. "There's something wrong, that an inspector isn't aware of a trend in their own plant," the inspector said.
So the Listeria problem was well known before the outbreak occured. Self-regulation by industry does NOT work & Harper has plans to continue deregulation of the food industry & who knows what else.
Electing Harper & his Cons is a recipe for death - no doubt of that in my mind.
You can read the entire article here.
"One Toronto inspector said there had been a "trend" in positive listeria tests leading up to the outbreak that was never reported by the plant to federal inspectors. The inspector, and three others across the country, spoke on condition of anonymity because they fear disciplinary action if they spoke publicly. "There's something wrong, that an inspector isn't aware of a trend in their own plant," the inspector said.
So the Listeria problem was well known before the outbreak occured. Self-regulation by industry does NOT work & Harper has plans to continue deregulation of the food industry & who knows what else.
Electing Harper & his Cons is a recipe for death - no doubt of that in my mind.
You can read the entire article here.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
MORE self-policing by food industry
On Fri. there was an article in the Ottawa citizen that seemed to drop off the radar right afterwards & wasn't picked up by any other MSM. The CFIA is in the midst of rolling out self-inspection to the abattoir industry - after already doing a test-run for 3 months earlier this year.
"Meanwhile, government veterinarians stationed at hog slaughterhouses are no longer responsible for inspecting stool samples; this responsibility has been transferred to plant staff under a program known as HIP-HOG, with vets required to check twice over an eight-hour shift to see if company employees are doing it properly.
These incremental changes to the way food inspection is done in Canada, quietly made during the past year, are being implemented as the country wrestles with a food-borne outbreak traced to the listeria bacterium at a federally regulated meat-processing plant in Toronto."
So it seems even more has been implemented by the Con govt. than has been revealed since the Listeria outbreak. Disgusting! Read the complete article for yourself. It's more proof of the underhanded way this Harper led govt. is "cost-cutting" in favour of big business. Privatizing parts of it in a sense.
In even more news on the LISTERIA outbreak the Fed. govt. & the Ont. govt. knew back in mid-July about the Listeria problem but kept it to themselves, no notification to the public until at least a month later.
" When Canadian public health officials first twigged to a listeria problem in mid-July, they weren't so forthcoming with the public. It would be another month of testing, conference calls and quiet deliberation before Canadians would know anything about it. Officials now say there was miscommunication between levels of government that delayed the message.
All the while, Canadians continued to consume deli meat we now know to be potentially deadly."
This is a travesty of epic proportions. As we continued to consume all these tainted meat products & more people became sick, with some dying, it would have been possible to stop this sooner - causing less danger to the public. The incubation period for Listeria is 3 months, so we are looking ahead to seeing more sickness & possible deaths. Read about it here.
This focus on changing rules to the CFIA without consultation in Parliament, or with the public, shows the utter contempt Harper & his Cabinet, etc., have with democracy. He governs as though he has a majority & makes changes in secret because he has a minority. No one gets in HIS way.
"Meanwhile, government veterinarians stationed at hog slaughterhouses are no longer responsible for inspecting stool samples; this responsibility has been transferred to plant staff under a program known as HIP-HOG, with vets required to check twice over an eight-hour shift to see if company employees are doing it properly.
These incremental changes to the way food inspection is done in Canada, quietly made during the past year, are being implemented as the country wrestles with a food-borne outbreak traced to the listeria bacterium at a federally regulated meat-processing plant in Toronto."
So it seems even more has been implemented by the Con govt. than has been revealed since the Listeria outbreak. Disgusting! Read the complete article for yourself. It's more proof of the underhanded way this Harper led govt. is "cost-cutting" in favour of big business. Privatizing parts of it in a sense.
In even more news on the LISTERIA outbreak the Fed. govt. & the Ont. govt. knew back in mid-July about the Listeria problem but kept it to themselves, no notification to the public until at least a month later.
" When Canadian public health officials first twigged to a listeria problem in mid-July, they weren't so forthcoming with the public. It would be another month of testing, conference calls and quiet deliberation before Canadians would know anything about it. Officials now say there was miscommunication between levels of government that delayed the message.
All the while, Canadians continued to consume deli meat we now know to be potentially deadly."
This is a travesty of epic proportions. As we continued to consume all these tainted meat products & more people became sick, with some dying, it would have been possible to stop this sooner - causing less danger to the public. The incubation period for Listeria is 3 months, so we are looking ahead to seeing more sickness & possible deaths. Read about it here.
This focus on changing rules to the CFIA without consultation in Parliament, or with the public, shows the utter contempt Harper & his Cabinet, etc., have with democracy. He governs as though he has a majority & makes changes in secret because he has a minority. No one gets in HIS way.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Meat Recall - & the Ag Dept.
First, here is a link to the list of meat recalls: http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/corpaffr/recarapp/2008/20080819e.shtml
This comes just a few days after there were 2 hearings at the Ag Committee on a leaked document that had the Cons specifying cuts to the Food Inspection Agency.
For more info you can go here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080821.RECALLOTTAWA21/TPStory/TPNational/Politics/
and here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080820.wmeatrecall0820/BNStory/National/home?cid=al_gam_mostview
This document was so-called "leaked" by scientist & food safety inspector Luc Pomerleau, who actually brought it to the attention of his union boss. The document had been left on the CFIA's computer network that many people had access too. M. Pomerleau was subsequently fired from his job for his action. Here is a link to more on that: http://www.canadians.org/action/2008/28-Jul-08.html
Last week at the hearings the opposition was asking to see the document as it still has not been released. And it still hasn't.
You can read about the 2 hearings at Kady O'Malley's (ITQ) Liveblogging the events.
Meeting 1: http://blog.macleans.ca/2008/08/18/liveblogging-the-agriculture-committee-good-things-grow-in-ontario-and-were-hoping-it-stays-that-way/
Meeting 2: http://blog.macleans.ca/2008/08/19/liveblogging-the-agriculture-committee-we-join-this-three-way-stare-down-between-the-union-the-government-and-the-opposition-already-in-progress/
They both make for interesting reading, for some it may be boring, but it's just another look at how the disruptive Cons work.
After the horrifying events that happened in Walkerton, ON. under the cuts to the Food Inspection Agency here under the Mike Harris govt., it just re-inforces the danger of making cuts on the federal level as well.
And in Steve's cabinet are 3 Ministers who were also ministers at that time in Harris's govt.: Jim Flaherty, John Baird, & Tony Clement. This is like deja vu all over again.
In the next election, which will be happening soon according to Steve's threats of one, it is time to demolish the Cons before they demolish us.
Update: There are now more than 200 meat recalls. Here is the updated list: http://files.newswire.ca/464/RecallList.pdf
Another update: Here is an interesting article on the changes that the govt. made to the CFIA. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080827.wmeat27/BNStory/National/home
Now these changes have not yet been made public nor made available to the opposition. Done in secret AGAIN. Here is one quote from the article:
"A leaked cabinet document that outlined plans for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to give the food industry a greater role in the inspection process raised the ire of opposition politicians last week.
However, some of the plans have been in place since March 31, according to a CFIA manager and an official from the union that represents the federal inspectors."
So some of these changes have ALREADY been implemented without anyone knowing - other than the govt. & the CFIA. There is something very, very wrong with this "behind-closed-doors" attitude of the Con govt. & this is only one area where changes are being slowly being revealed.
This comes just a few days after there were 2 hearings at the Ag Committee on a leaked document that had the Cons specifying cuts to the Food Inspection Agency.
For more info you can go here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080821.RECALLOTTAWA21/TPStory/TPNational/Politics/
and here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080820.wmeatrecall0820/BNStory/National/home?cid=al_gam_mostview
This document was so-called "leaked" by scientist & food safety inspector Luc Pomerleau, who actually brought it to the attention of his union boss. The document had been left on the CFIA's computer network that many people had access too. M. Pomerleau was subsequently fired from his job for his action. Here is a link to more on that: http://www.canadians.org/action/2008/28-Jul-08.html
Last week at the hearings the opposition was asking to see the document as it still has not been released. And it still hasn't.
You can read about the 2 hearings at Kady O'Malley's (ITQ) Liveblogging the events.
Meeting 1: http://blog.macleans.ca/2008/08/18/liveblogging-the-agriculture-committee-good-things-grow-in-ontario-and-were-hoping-it-stays-that-way/
Meeting 2: http://blog.macleans.ca/2008/08/19/liveblogging-the-agriculture-committee-we-join-this-three-way-stare-down-between-the-union-the-government-and-the-opposition-already-in-progress/
They both make for interesting reading, for some it may be boring, but it's just another look at how the disruptive Cons work.
After the horrifying events that happened in Walkerton, ON. under the cuts to the Food Inspection Agency here under the Mike Harris govt., it just re-inforces the danger of making cuts on the federal level as well.
And in Steve's cabinet are 3 Ministers who were also ministers at that time in Harris's govt.: Jim Flaherty, John Baird, & Tony Clement. This is like deja vu all over again.
In the next election, which will be happening soon according to Steve's threats of one, it is time to demolish the Cons before they demolish us.
Update: There are now more than 200 meat recalls. Here is the updated list: http://files.newswire.ca/464/RecallList.pdf
Another update: Here is an interesting article on the changes that the govt. made to the CFIA. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080827.wmeat27/BNStory/National/home
Now these changes have not yet been made public nor made available to the opposition. Done in secret AGAIN. Here is one quote from the article:
"A leaked cabinet document that outlined plans for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to give the food industry a greater role in the inspection process raised the ire of opposition politicians last week.
However, some of the plans have been in place since March 31, according to a CFIA manager and an official from the union that represents the federal inspectors."
So some of these changes have ALREADY been implemented without anyone knowing - other than the govt. & the CFIA. There is something very, very wrong with this "behind-closed-doors" attitude of the Con govt. & this is only one area where changes are being slowly being revealed.
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