This is not welcome news for one of Canada’s most important public bodies.
The Canadian Association of Journalists [CAJ] has given the Canadian Food Inspection Agency [CFIA] it’s 2008 Code of Silence Award for the agency’s efforts to conceal from the public information about fatal failures in food safety.
The award announcement noted CFIA’s struggle to delay and manipulate the release of public information related to the Listeria outbreak that killed 22 Canadians and caused hundreds of illnesses.
Requests filed for inspections records on the Toronto-area Maple Leaf plant at the centre of the outbreak took nine months to produce and communication records with the company are still embroiled in delays.
For one of the biggest public health issues to face Canada in recent years, details behind the cause of the outbreak, the apparent delay in warning Canadians and the agency’s handling of the aftermath remain filled with unanswered questions.
At the same time, the union representing federal food inspectors says oversight at meat processing plants faces a “critical shortage”. To adequately do their job, the union is calling for a doubling of meat inspectors, from the current 200 to 400.
(Food safety? Sorry, no money available. Propping up a failing auto industry? Have all the cash the state has to offer.)
The union officials will be appearing today at a parliamentary sub-committee on food safety. Which, considering Mr. Harper and his American friends have decimated Canada’s committee processes, will likely be of little value.
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If you’re collecting links on this issue, here’s another recent one for you: Most Canadians don’t trust food industry: survey.
@pogge, thanks for sharing the link — very troubling. I found this surprising, actually: “Fewer than three in 10 (27.3 per cent) believe these incidents “are simply unfortunate and unavoidable accidents.”
I hadn’t seen your blog before, either. Great content; now subscribed.