Listeriosis inquiry lacks independent expert: Critics

By Sarah Schmidt, Canwest News Service November 13, 2009

The federal government has appointed the top bureaucrat at Agriculture
Canada to lead Ottawa's overhaul of food safety after an investigation
into last year's deadly listeriosis outbreak called for an independent
expert to direct the effort.

Sheila Weatherill zeroed in on a "vacuum in senior leadership" among
government officials during her sweeping independent investigation
earlier this year into the outbreak that cost 22 Canadians their lives.

And in her final report presented to Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz in
July, Weatherill called on the clerk of the privy council, the
bureaucratic wing of the Prime Minister's Office, to appoint an
"independent expert" to lead a review involving top bureaucrats at
Health Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canadian Food
Inspection Agency to sort out the roles of federal departments and
agencies in food safety.

The clerk, Wayne Wouters, has tapped the bureaucratic right-hand of
Ritz, John Knubley, to lead the special committee of deputy ministers,
said a spokeswoman for the clerk, declining further comment.

Ritz, who is responsible for CFIA and whose president reports directly
to him, took the government lead during last year's listeriosis outbreak
and promised to implement every recommendation put forward by
Weatherill. In a statement, Ritz said his deputy minister of agriculture
is an independent expert on the file, so the appointment means the
"recommendation has been fulfilled."

"Privy Council's naming of Deputy Minister John Knubley ensures he is
able to independently provide expert analysis that will be reported
directly to the Clerk," Ritz said in a statement.

University of Manitoba microbiologist Rick Holley, a member of CFIA's
academic advisory panel on food safety, said this is a stretch.

"The perception I think in most circles would be that appointment
doesn't give the independence that was intended in the original
recommendation by Sheila Weatherill. That's my suspicion here. My
preference would be another choice be made."

Holley said the appointment "wouldn't have to be outside" government,
but it shouldn't come from within the agriculture ministry, which is
tasked with devising policies and programs to achieve security of the
food system and whose minister held daily briefings about the government
response during the outbreak.

Neither agency responded Thursday to clarify whether the independent
experts appointed in these cases are external to government or external
to the agency.

(c) Copyright (c) Canwest News Service