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Call for inquiry into listeriosis crisis 19 Jun 2009

A Canadian parliamentary committee is calling for a public inquiry into the actions of the federal government and its agencies during last summer's deadly listeriosis outbreak.
Call for inquiry into listeriosis crisis
It is one of a dozen recommendations in a House of Commons agriculture committee report released Thursday. It also features a dissenting report from the committee's ruling Conservative members.
 
During committee hearings, opposition MPs questioned whether the Canadian Food Inspection Agency realized the severity of the crisis and acted soon enough to stem the outbreak, which led to the deaths of 22 people and made hundreds of others sick after they ate contaminated deli meats from a Maple Leaf Foods plant in Toronto.
 
 
The committee's opposition members said they are left with many questions over how many food safety inspectors actually work in Canadian food plants.
 
 
Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett said a public inquiry is needed not only to find out what happened, but also to "map a way forward" so Canadians "will once again have confidence that their food system is the best in the world."
 
 
It is also necessary, she said, to show those who lost loved ones that public officials "learned the lesson" from the crisis and that other Canadian families will never face the same risks.
 
 
The committee report also recommends:
  • Food safety standards in provincial and federal food plants be harmonized.
  • The federal government set up an ongoing review of Canada's food safety standards to ensure up-to-date food safety and processing technologies, and new scientific evidence be included in all risk assessments.
  • Ottawa review the training and resources CFIA inspectors need to "implement, execute and enforce" all food inspection activities, and make the results of the review public.
  • Canada work more closely with the United States on food-safety standards.
  • The CFIA, in co-operation with the food safety inspectors union, work to provide "accurate, real-time evaluation" of inspectors' resources.
 
The Conservatives said they will await the findings of independent investigator Sheila Weatherill, who was appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to probe the crisis. Weatherill is due to present her findings to Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz next month.
 
Among the Tories' recommendations is a call for a review of the "compliance verification system," a self-policing auditing system that allows companies to inspect themselves while the CFIA inspectors review the company's paperwork.
 
 
Briefing notes tabled before the committee cast doubt on the Conservative government's claims that it has hired 58 additional food inspectors this year, as it was determined that none of the newly hired inspectors actually works in meat-processing plants, the CBC's David McKie, who has been investigating the listeriosis outbreak, said Thursday.
 
 
Bob Kingston, president of Agriculture Union — PSAC, which represents government food inspectors, praised the committee's report and called on Ritz to implement its recommendations as quickly as possible.
 
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