Assumptions Can Be Dangerous

[Former Ontario Premier Mike] Harris assumed that small Ontario towns like Walkerton would have the good sense to keep their drinking water clean.

[Prime Minister Stephen] Harper assumed that profit-making companies would make sure that their consumers received safe products.

In both cases, they were wrong.

This excerpt from Thomas Walkom's Star column is a sobering reminder of the potentially deadly consequences of the deregulation mentality embraced by the right-wing in conjunction with its credo that business can do things better and more efficiently than government.

The shortcomings of such naive faith in industry self-regulation becomes obvious as more information is revealed about the XL Foods tainted meat scandal that has prompted the biggest recall in Canadian history. As reported earlier, three weeks elapsed between the discovery of E.coli in XL Foods' Lakeside Packers plant in Alberta and the actual meat recall. The responsibility for the time lag appears to rest solely with the company.

As reported by Joanna Smith in today's Star,

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture both discovered E. coli O157:H7 ... on beef products originating from the XL Foods Inc. plant in Brooks, Alta. on Sept. 4.

A request for full documentation of the problem was made on Sept.6 by the frontline staff of CFIA stationed at XL, but the documentation was not forthcoming.

The following statement is probably the most damning evidence of the failings of industry self-regulation:

“There was a delay in getting it . . . We have limited authority to compel immediate documentation,” George Da Pont, president of the food inspection agency, said during a news conference in Calgary on Wednesday.

Now in crisis mode, expect more fatuous assurances by the Harper regime of the safety of our food supply, even as its latest budget reduces the funding required to keep Canadian foods safe by 27 per cent.

But at least Harper Inc. is sending out a clear message to potential investors: Canada is open for business as it continues to reduce red tape and the 'heavy hand' of government 'interference.'

P.S. You might want to pack your own lunch.

A Quiet Dignity

There is a quiet dignity evident in a series of ads sponsored by a labour union supporting Obama's re-election bid. Although obviously directed to an American audience, the message is one that should not be ignored in Canada as various levels of government jump on the austerity bandwagon.

Not To State The Obvious But ....

Canada’s food safety regime failed us

So goes the title of The Star's editorial this morning as it raises some very pressing questions about how over three weeks elapsed between the discovery of E.coli in the XL Foods' Lakeside Packers plant in Alberta and the meat recall that will likely be the largest in Canadian history.

In a stunning display of ministerial incompetence, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz's claims that Canada’s food inspection system has done a “tremendous job”. To make matters worse, at one point he thought that no potentially tainted beef had made it to store shelves.

As I noted yesterday, we can expect no accountability in the foreseeable future from a government that had largely delegated our food safety to industry self-regulation. However, perhaps a sobering understatement by Bob Kingston, president of the food inspectors’ Agriculture Union, puts things into their needed perspective:

Ottawa has put too much faith in private companies to do their own testing.

Unfortunately, I suspect those words will fork no lightning with the ideologically-driven Harper regime.

How Does Walmart Keep Their Prices So Low?

Here's a hint:

I'll Have a Veggie Burger, Please

In light of the widespread dissemination of tainted beef by XL Foods, one has to ask the role changes made by the Harper regime in Canada's food inspection process played.

According to a Globe report,

The list of stores and products affected by the recall is now so long that consumers are advised to inquire at the point of purchase whether the beef they’re buying came from XL Foods.

Exactly how could this have happened? Despite the fact that it was September 4th when E.coli was first detected in the plant, it wasn't until three weeks later that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency acted.

The answer seems to lie in cost-cutting changes implemented by our government 'protectors' in Ottawa which naively (or is it ideologically?) place a great deal of faith in the industry's capacity to self-regulate.

As noted in the preamble on the CFIA website,

The CFIA and industry both have roles to play in achieving safe, wholesome products for consumers. The CFIA conducts inspections, tests products and verifies that industry is complying with the regulations that the CFIA enforces. Industry plays an important role in keeping Canada's food safe by identifying and managing food safety risks and by complying with all of Canada's food safety regulations.

A far more detailed breakdown of the responsibilities of industry can be found on the site, but amongst the most noteworthy is the following:

It is in the food industry's best interest to comply with regulations. In fact, industry works to:

Identify potential sources of food contamination

Update production practices to eliminate risk

Comply with the inspection and testing protocols

Pull unsafe products from the marketplace

Clearly, this did not happen with XL Foods, whose list of recalls now numbers over 33 pages, recalls that were not initiated until CFIA suspended its licence three weeks after the discovery of E.coli.

But don't expect the Harper cabal to admit their complicity anytime soon. When questioned in the House of Commons by both Thomas Mulcair and Bob Rae, misdirection was the order of the day. I won't bother reproducing the lies here, but please do check them out on the Macleans website.

All of the political jockeying amply demonstrates one thing: our representatives are very adept at protecting themselves; it is unfortunate that they are unwilling to do the same for us.

Like That Embarrassing Relative At Thanksgiving Dinner

That's who Calgary West Conservative M.P. reminds me of. You know, like the slightly off uncle who says embarrassing and inappropriate things at family get-togethers that cause the rest of the guests to cringe, stare off into the distance, and quickly try to change the topic.

Well, the Tory exemplar who once accused Nelson Mandela of being a terrorist is at it again, this time suggesting that NDP leader Thomas Mulcair helped to hasten Jack Layton's death.

This kind of lunacy must give pause to even the staunchest of believer.

Oh, and in case you forgot, Anders is also infamous for his short attention span in the House of Common:

Tory Attacks on the Canadian Soul

To suggest that the Harper regime is working relentlessly to diminish the Canadian soul is hardly a remarkable insight. Examples abound of its flinty resolve to undermine traditional Canadian values and virtues, compassion and fairness apparently at the top of its 'hit list'.

But while the Conservatives seek to remake Canada in its own morally impoverished image, it is important for all of us to see the human victims of such a governance model.

A number of such faces come into stark relief if one explores the consequences of Immigration Minister Jason Kenney's changes to health care coverage for failed refugee claimants and those from a yet-to-be defined list of "safe" countries [who] will only receive medical care if their condition is deemed a risk to public health or safety.

Here is one example of a woman who, ultimately, did qualify for care but, thanks to the widespread confusion created by the bill, suffered needless stress during a very vulnerable time in her life:

The call came 35 weeks into her pregnancy, right around the time her abdominal cramps began. It was the receptionist from her gynecologist's office saying the government's changes to the Interim Federal Health Program meant her prenatal care was no longer covered.

That's when Tiffany started to panic.

"I asked, `What am I supposed to do?'... I got scared," recalled the 27-year-old originally from the Caribbean.

"She told me that if I come and see the doctor I would have to pay the doctor a fee."

Unfortunately, even sympathetic and compassionate medical personnel are reaching the limits of help they can provide. As reported in today's Star,

Both the Scarborough Community Volunteer Clinic and Muslim Welfare Centre Clinic — the city’s two mainstays for uninsured patients — have reported an influx of refugee patients as a result of the cuts. “Our clinic is at a sustainability crisis point. Everybody is under the gun here and we are swamped. Some nights, it’s being crowd control,” said Dr. Paul Caulford, who operates the Scarborough clinic with seven other family doctors.

The article goes on to detail that many of the patients have chronic conditions, such as hypertension and diabetes, and the clinics are their last hope to receive medications that are covered by donations.

Anna Elumah is another of the human faces of this story. when her two-year-old daughter received stitches after a fall at the shelter where she, her brother and her mother are staying, Elumah was told to go to a community clinic to have them removed.

“We went to a clinic on Morningside. They looked at my paper and said, ‘It’s no good anymore. Go somewhere else,’” recalled Elumah, who also was suffering a nagging headache after she ran out of her medication for high blood pressure.

Her caseworker referred her to the Scarborough clinic, where she receives free drugs for her hypertension and asthma inhalers for her 8-year-old son, Davids.

In answer to all of this, there is the noble lie:

“The changes ensure bona fide refugees continue to receive comprehensive health coverage, while illegal immigrants and failed asylum seekers from safe, democratic countries no longer receive health insurance that is superior to what is generally available to taxpaying Canadians,” said Alexis Pavlich, a spokesperson for Jason Kenney.

So, our choice as citizens is clear. We can, as the government wants, turn our backs on the most vulnerable, failed refugee claimants who will eventually be sent back to their own countries, or we can treat them with compassion and care while they are here, something every human being deserves, and something well within even our weakened economic means to provide.