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August 1, 2008 The extent of Harper’s current assault on Canada’s food and drug inspection system is about to dwarf any previous concerns we had with the regulatory harmonization of pesticide residues. The Prime Minister is simultaneously eliminating funding for BSE testing for Canadian producers, offloading federal research facilities to the private sector and academia, and firing government scientists who dare stand up against this widespread deregulation for the sake of corporate profits. In early July, Luc Pomerleau, a biologist "with a 20-year 'umblemished record' in government," according to a CanWest news article, "was fired for 'gross misconduct' and breaching security because he sent the documents to his union." The article stated that, "Confidential documents insecurely posted on the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's computer network laid out sensitive plans to turn over food inspections and labelling to industry and also led to the firing of the scientist who stumbled upon them." The confidential papers "appear to involve a re-organizing of food inspection that will shift more of the onus for food safety to the suppliers that manufacture and distribute food and other products," says the article. "It's a direction in which the agency has been heading for years and the union has long voiced concerns about the impact of such a shift on jobs and the food safety of Canadians." HARMONIZING WITH THE U.S. “The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is also ending funding to producers to test cattle for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE, or Mad Cow Disease) as part of a surveillance program, the document indicates, a move that is expected to save the agency about $24 million over the next three years.” University of Guelph professor Ann Clark, “a specialist in risk assessment in genetically modified crops, who has testified many times before Parliament's agriculture committee about risk management and the food supply,” called the Conservative move “illogical,” stating that, “Companies are in business to make profit, pure and simple, and we, as a society, have fully accepted and bought into that, but with the understanding that somebody will be riding herd on them – minding the shop – to safeguard societal interests... "The initiatives outlined in this document suggest government is trying to get out of the business of government, by downloading responsibility for safeguarding human and environmental health to the same industry interests which stand to make money from what is being regulated,” she said. “This is inherently illogical." UNION FIGHTS BACK This confirmed what we already knew was happening to Canada’s food and drug safety legislation as the government strives to harmonize with U.S. policies under the Security and Prosperity Partnership. The Council of Canadians has been opposing Bill C-51 (amendments to the Food and Drug Act) for various reasons, namely because it, and a new "progressive licensing" system that the Harper government is planning on introducing, will not make Canadians safer so much as they will ease the regulatory burden on the food and drug industry. Mr. Pomerleau’s union is mounting a campaign to have him reinstated. According to a CanWest article from last Thursday: “The union plans to send 15,000 stickers bearing the message ‘Stop the intimidation Reinstate Luc’ across the country and ask members to wear them. It also plans protests, to lobby MPs, post an online petition and perhaps an advertising campaign.” The Council of Canadians supports this campaign and put out an Action Alert this week asking members to write to Minister Gerry Ritz who is responsible for the CFIA. PRIVATIZING SCIENCE AND REGULATION The PIPSC, beyond demanding that one of its workers be re-hired, ran an article in its July edition of Communications magazine, describing Harper’s plans to privatize almost all government science. “On June 6, 2008, the Treasury Board released the long-awaited report of the Independent Panel of Experts studying the transfer of federal government laboratories to academia and/or the private sector,” starts the article. “Following up on the government’s intentions outlined in the 2007 federal budget, the panel identified five ‘early candidates’ for transfer. The first two will be Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's Canadian Cereal Research and Innovation Laboratory in Winnipeg, and Natural Resources Canada's Geosciences Laboratory in Ottawa.” The article continues: “In order to generate momentum, the panel solicited proposals for lab transfers, although there was insufficient time for interested parties to submit fully developed proposals. As an indication of the haste with which the government would like to move, the five ‘early candidates’ for transfer were unanimously recommended by the panel because they can be transferred in 12 months. “Within a year – slightly more than the time that has elapsed since the 2007 budget first indicated the government’s interest in transferring government labs – the government would like to see ‘completion of the necessary legal agreements to effect the new governance and management arrangements; the identification of the administrative and scientific leadership of the new entity, and the formulation of an integrated research program and detailed business plan.’” Then, cutting to the chase, the article says: “The present government is determined not simply to promote the needs of industry within government, but to restrict and reduce the capacity of government to exist independently of, and potentially to interfere with, private industry. From his days as president of the right-wing National Citizens’ Coalition, Stephen Harper has been captivated by the goal of diminishing government to the point where it can be ‘drowned in a bathtub.’ From the sale of government buildings to the $1.3 billion Public-Private Partnerships fund created in the 2008 budget, privatization forms an integral part of the government’s conservative philosophy of deregulation, and permanently diminished government spending and functioning.” To read and print off a handbill on the SPP and food safety, click here. To read more about the SPP and Bill C-51, amendments to the food and drug act, click here. |
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