Harper’s new rules allowed Listeria to go undetected on the cutting blades at Maple Leaf

As a progressive reader you already knew this, you read it here and all over other progressive blogs.

However other Canadians, your friends, your co-workers or your relatives are not aware of the simple fact that the Tories implemented their deregulation of food inspection back in March at the Maple Leaf plant.

The CFIA inspectors no longer were allowed to run Listeria tests on the cutting blades used in the Maple Leaf plant. They only verified the company's paperwork outlining the processes.

That's the principle of Harper's deregulation and he secretly (withholding the changes from the public and parliament) broke the food inspection system in March and by August we had the first death.

What can you do to stop Harper? Tell everyone the truth about Harper's "deregulation for deregulation's sake" ideology.

If they want proof send them here to this Gazette article from yesterday where the president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada's Agriculture Union places the blame squarely on Harper's shoulders and the changes his government secretly implemented.

"We already know the problem is too few inspectors ... in a system that relies too much on the food industry to police itself.

The Tories are desperate to keep it off the table because they have too much to answer for.

I hope Canadians hold the Tories accountable," Kingston said.

Or send them here to the Globe article that originally announced the fact on August 27th, because Canadians, your friends, colleagues and relatives that are upset about the Listeria deaths believe it was just the fault of the workers at the Maple Leaf plant. 

They don't read the paper everyday and only get their news in filtered sound bites from Canwest Global or CTVglobemedia.

Also tell them that Harper has started deregulating the Transport Canada inspections of the aircraft industry and removing funding for BSE (Mad Cow) testing. 

While Harper and his neocon ilk claim that deregulation will simplify regulations,  leading to higher productivity, more efficiency and lower prices, they continually ignore the fact that the regulations were in place to protect lives.

So far Harper's ignorance and reckless implementation has caused 15 deaths and put us all at risk.

Anyway that's what I am telling my colleagues, relatives and friends.