Canadians still in the dark about listeriosis outbreak

The GazetteJanuary 12, 2009 4:03 AM

The timing of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's announcement in September
of an "arm's-length" investigation into the listeriosis outbreak that
killed 20 people struck his critics as suspicious, coming as it did just
four days before he called an early election for Oct. 14.

And little has happened since September that would persuade Canadians
that their federal government is serious about finding out how food
consumers had every reason to believe was safe became deadly.

Despite ordering a finished report be ready by March 15, the government
has not yet named a lead investigator, Canadian Press has reported.

A thorough-going investigation into something as complex and important
as a country's food-safety inspection system requires a reasonable time
frame. When a death toll in a country like Canada reaches 20 people,
there should also be a sense of urgency to the investigation. The least
Canadians should expect is that the food they eat is free of deadly
contaminants and that if it isn't their government is capable of warning
them in a timely fashion.

Because of the listeriosis outbreak, it became quite clear to Canadians
that there were problems associated with the country's food-inspection
system. The main agency responsible, the Canadian Food Inspection
Agency, needs 1,000 more inspectors and veterinarians, if the union
representing food inspectors is correct in its claim.

The government's pre-outbreak plans ran contrary to hiring large numbers
of additional inspectors. Ottawa's idea was to offload more of the
actual inspection work to the food processors, with government
officials' role restricted to a large degree to examining the companies'
paperwork.

An editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal said last fall
that Canada now has some of the lowest listeria standards in the
developed world. The Journal called for a full public inquiry into the
food inspection system, pointing out that a public inquiry was held into
the contaminated water in Walkerton, Ont. which killed several people
and made another 5,000 ill.

An investigation - should one eventually be held into the listeriosis
outbreak - has disadvantages: No one can be compelled to give or provide
evidence. Nor is it open to the public.

This is not good enough. We need a transparent, open process that will
tell us why this happened and how we can prevent its reoccurrence.

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