Is the government-appointed, limited investigation into last summer’s fatal listeriosis outbreak an attempt to protect the Conservatives from blame, using investigation head Sheila Weatherill as a dupe?
Or are opposition critics hell-bent on finding the government guilty whatever the evidence and are willing to undermine Weatherill and her reputation in the process?
These were two faces of the conflicting political agendas at play on Parliament Hill last week as Weatherill, a former Edmonton health care executive, appeared before a special parliamentary committee investigating the incident that killed at least 22 Canadians.
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She assured MPs April 22 that she has the mandate, resources and independence to get to the bottom of the outbreak by her July 20 deadline.
“The evidence trail is being followed wherever it leads and I intend to make substantive, clear recommendations that have a common purpose, to improve the safety of Canadians in respect of the food they eat,” she said.
Opposition MPs were having none of it. At least part of the fault lies with agriculture minister Gerry Ritz or the Prime Minister’s Office, they said, and the Weatherill study does not have the mandate to get to the bottom of political interference or to assign blame.
“I am worried that you are being used in a way so that we don’t have to deal with the question of the involvement of the PMO or the minister’s office,” said Liberal Wayne Easter at the committee meeting.
The next day in the House of Commons, Easter went further.
He said Weatherill had “confirmed her investigation into the listeriosis crisis only examines what happened but avoids looking into ministerial responsibility. It seems this process is really designed to provide cover for the prime minister and his minister’s incompetence.”
Ritz was dismissive.
“Sheila Weatherill said she will follow the evidence wherever it goes,” he said. “If it goes into a ministerial office, she will follow it. If it goes into an opposition member’s office, she will follow it.”
Meanwhile, Conservative MPs on the committee used their time to extol Weatherill’s credibility, to attack the opposition for trying to undermine her and to praise the government for being co-operative in the face of requests for millions of pages of documents.
Her relationship with the government and with Ritz was at the core of opposition skepticism.
She sits on an advisory committee to the government on public service renewal and insisted there is no conflict with her search for the reasons for the 2008 food-borne illness outbreak, including a failure by public regulators.
She will report to Ritz, minister in charge of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the government public face during the listeriosis crisis.
Her 20-person investigation team occupies office space donated by Agriculture Canada.
And anyone named in her report will see the report before it goes to the minister, including Ritz himself.
