By KIRSTY DUNCAN, CAROLYN BENNETT AND WAYNE EASTER Owen Sound Sun Times
Canadians have been fed a new vocabulary by the federal government: “global synchronized economic downturn,” “recalibration,” and “listeria outbreak.” [More...]
Ottawa Citizen
The federal government continues to have some explaining to do about Canada’s food-safety system. [More...]
By Christina Spencer, Sun Media
The federal government defended its ready-to-eat meat-inspection system Wednesday after charges that it upholds a higher standard for meats destined for the United States than for foods consumed only in Canada. [More...]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
17 March, 2010
Ottawa — Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz’s appearance before the Agriculture Committee this afternoon will be an opportunity for the Minister to set the record straight on inspection of ready-to-eat meats produced for Canadian consumers.
On Monday, the Minister misinformed the House of Commons. He said that plants that make ready-to-eat meat exclusively [...]
By Thomas Walkom, Toronto Star
In theory, everyone likes getting rid of red tape. When federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced earlier this month that the Conservative government would set up a commission to do just that, many Canadians cheered. [More...]
The Canadian Press
The union representing the country’s food inspectors says Canada increased its meat-plant inspection schedule only after complaints from the United States. [More...]
By Gloria Galloway, Globe and Mail
As investigators probe an unusual number of listeriosis cases in Ontario this year alongside a new tainted-meat recall, food inspectors have raised fresh questions about gaps between Canadian and U.S. food safety regimes. [More...]
By Sarah Schmidt, Canwest News Service
Ontario’s chief medical officer confirmed Friday a genetic match between listeriosis cases and contaminated deli meat produced at a federally regulated meat plant — the first match since Canada was rocked in the summer of 2008 with a deadly outbreak. [More...]
By Robert Cribb, The Toronto Star
Two Ontarians were hospitalized — and another two deaths are being investigated — in relation to a listeria outbreak traced to a Toronto deli meat manufacturer. [More...]
By Christina Spencer, Parliamentary Bureau SUN News Service
OTTAWA — The union representing federal meat inspectors has given the government a failing grade for moving too slowly to boost food safety since the listeriosis outbreak of 2008 that killed at least 22 people. [More]
By Sarah Schmidt, Canwest News Service
OTTAWA — The Canadian Food Inspection Agency on Wednesday received a failing grade from its own meat inspectors for not acting on the “vast majority” of recommendations made six months ago to improve food safety. [More]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Ottawa – Inaction on food safety has earned the federal government a failing grade six months after the Prime Minister’s special investigator Sheila Weatherill tabled recommendations on how to prevent a repeat of the Maple Leaf Foods listeriosis outbreak which killed 22 people and sickened many more.
A mid-term report card on the government’s [...]
By: Steve Rennie, The Canadian Press
OTTAWA – Newly released inspection reports reveal that a top-to-bottom scrubbing after a deadly listeriosis outbreak apparently didn’t fully cleanse a Maple Leaf Foods plant of mould, slime and meat debris, and that inspectors found a troubling lack of hygiene at the company’s Toronto facility just weeks after it reopened [...]
Minister rules out any compensation for victims’ families
By: Sarah Schmidt and Meagan Fitzpatrick, National Post
A “void in leadership” within the federal government during last summer’s deadly listeriosis outbreak came after company officials and over-worked meat inspectors failed to identify a persistent listeria problem at the Maple Leaf Foods plant, according to a highly critical report [...]
Analysis catalogues succession of failures that led to troubling tragedy
By: Robert Cribb, Toronto Star
Twenty-two dead.
Hundreds sickened.
Six months of inquiry.
Nearly $3 million in public money.
The result: 57 recommendations for improving a food safety system that allowed listeria buried inside a meat slicer in a Toronto-area Maple Leaf plant to reach nursing homes and stores, gradually claiming [...]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Inspector shortage compromising food safety
Ottawa – Many of Sheila Weatherill’s recommendations make a constructive and valuable contribution to improving the safety of food in Canada and should be implemented immediately, even though it appears that the CFIA and others in government have either withheld information or misled her, according to the union representing [...]
Officials spent most of their time on paperwork at Maple Leaf plant leading up to listeria crisis
By: Robert Cribb, Toronto Star
Federal inspectors monitoring the Maple Leaf plant at the centre of Canada’s largest listeria outbreak spent less than two hours a day at the facility – often dropping in for as little as 15 minutes [...]
By: Joanna Smith, Toronto Star
OTTAWA – The head of the federal food inspectors’ union said an outbreak of deadly bacteria traced to ready-to-eat meats might have been prevented if the Canadian Food Inspection Agency had hired twice as many watchdogs.
“I think it’s likely that it might not have happened,” Bob Kingston, president of the agriculture [...]
By: Sarah Schmidt, Vancouver Sun
OTTAWA — The Canadian Food Inspection Agency did not conduct required in-depth audits of the Maple Leaf plant in the year leading up to the deadly listeriosis outbreak last summer.
Quarterly audits were supposed to be done until December 2007 at the Toronto meat plant, but the agency confirmed Sunday that government [...]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Ottawa – Michael McCain’s pitch today to retain food industry self-inspection with tougher and uniformly applied safety rules requires more government oversight and inspection, according to the food inspector’s union.
“Canadians want government safety inspectors verifying that companies like Maple Leaf are following the rules. After last summer, who can blame them for their [...]
Twenty dead. A company under siege. The unsettling truth about the Maple Leaf outbreak.
By: MICHAEL FRISCOLANTI, Maclean’s
The Clark family reunion was scheduled for the third weekend of July. Uncles and cousins and in-laws, from as far away as Utah and Florida, had marked the date on their calendars months before. Plane tickets were booked, motel [...]
CBC News
Canadians should vote for the candidate who commits to improving food safety, two unions urged as they launched a national advertising campaign on Friday.
A single strain of listeria has been linked to 16 deaths traced to a Maple Leaf Foods meat processing plant in Toronto, prompting a nationwide recall of meat products.
The timing of [...]
