The Canadian government is facing calls for an inquiry into the country’s food safety protection system amid accusations that existing rules are inadequate and the food inspection system may have been politicized.
“There is a problem here that has to be looked at,” New Democrat health critic Judy Wasylycia-Leis, a Winnipeg MP, said Feb. 8.
“The government cannot continue to hide. There seems to be a bunker mentality in the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and that is part of the problem.”
She said in an interview that at the least, there should be a special parliamentary committee established to hold wide-ranging hearings on the adequacy of the existing system.
Read Also
Why feds imposed EV tariffs
Moe and Kinew have a fight on their hands when it comes to eliminating the EV tariff. Canada has to worry about pissing off the U.S. and Mexico and hundreds of thousands of auto workers.
“The public has questions, legitimate questions,” she said. “This requires an airing.”
She spoke at the end of a week during which the reputation of the food inspection and safety system came under challenge from a number of directions.
On Feb. 5, a 15-member expert scientific panel on future regulatory needs for control of genetically modified foods argued that existing rules are not adequate to guarantee consumers and the environment protection from dangerous side effects of GM organisms.
On Feb. 6, federal auditor general Denis Desautels told Parliament that the CFIA is understaffed, it lacks a clear vision about how to ensure food safety and has eliminated inspections on almost half the food products created in Canada.
He said it is part of a public crisis of confidence in regulatory safety, dating back to problems with the blood system in the 1980s at a time when officials were assuring Canadians the system was safe.
“The public’s confidence in the government’s use of science and technology to protect the health and safety of Canadians has been shaken by recent crises…,” wrote Desautels.
In the House of Commons, there also were questions.
“Are Canadians not right to be worried when the auditor general himself raises serious questions about the quality of the inspection of meat sold in Canada?” Bloc Québecois MP Suzanne Tremblay asked.
The response from agriculture and health department leaders throughout the week to such questions was to insist that the critics had it wrong.
“Everyone in the food system is concerned about the safety of our food,” agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief told Tremblay. “We have one of the best food safety systems in the world ….”
By week’s end, a Canadian ban on import of Brazilian beef and beef products due to a concern about the possible presence of so-called mad cow disease in the Brazilian herd was being criticized as a trade-motivated ban as part of a trade battle with Brazil.
CFIA chief veterinarian Brian Evans vehemently denied it but the critics were in full howl.
It was all a bit disturbing to two opposition agriculture critics and at least one influential Liberal MP normally defensive about political attacks on the credibility of Canada’s food inspection system.
On Feb. 9, Canadian Alliance MP Howard Hilstrom weighed in with some concern about the criticism of the CFIA as a player in a Canada-Brazil trade war.
“The auditor general just raised serious concerns over Canada’s food safety system,” he said Feb. 9. “Now, we are learning that the Liberals may be abusing that system to further their own political goals.”
Take a stand
Progressive Conservative critic Rick Borotsik fretted that the government response to the criticism had been too defensive and weak.
“When the auditor general issues a critical report about the CFIA, I say to the minister don’t just say everything is fine,” said the Brandon MP.
“Don’t lose the confidence of the Canadian public the way you have lost the confidence of Canadian farmers. Public confidence is very tenuous right now.”
Murray Calder, chair of the Liberal rural caucus, also issued a nervous warning.
“If the auditor general comes out with a bad report card saying clean up your act, that’s what we have to do,” he said. “There should never be a bad report card on the CFIA and if there is one, get off your butt and get it fixed and get it fixed quick.”
