Thursday, September 18, 2008

Hey did you hear the one about Harpers new deregulation plan it's a killer

On August 30th Agriculture Minister Gary Ritz had a conference call with scientists, communications advisers, and senior public servants to discuss the mounting death toll of the Listeria outbreak, the trends in the spread of the disease and how to frame the government's message.
He started the call by asking “Are there were any more more bombs out there?” referring to any more politically damaging news, as in more people dying, I would assume.

He then went on to express his concerns about the political dangers of the crisis, saying.

"This is like a death by a thousand cuts. Or should I say cold cuts."

Then when told about a new death in Prince Edward Island, he said:

"Please tell me it's [Liberal MP] Wayne Easter."
The Harper government secretly implemented changes to the food inspection rules, in March at the Maple Leaf plant.

Those changes no longer required nor allowed time for the meat inspectors to do physical tests for Listeria on the cutting blades on the Maple Leaf processing floor.

Under deregulation, inspectors only verify processes used by the industry and check reports. The inspector responsible for the Maple Leaf plant also had five out facilities to manage.

The Listeria outbreak is suspected to have been caused by accumulation of Listeria on the meat cutting machines.

And at the height of the Listeria outbreak and 17 confirmed deaths, the Minister in charge has a conference call to determine the political risks and to discuss how best to frame their message and deems it best to tell jokes.

The Harper government has also deregulated the inspection of slaughter houses and withdrawn funding for the inspection of BSE (Mad Cow) which Ritz originally informed us was the main intent of the program changes.

Deregulation is also coming to airline safety where inspectors will no longer actually check the aircraft but only verify processes used and resulting reports.

The opposition parties are wrong in asking for Ritz’s resignation. Forget about Ritz, he's just an under qualified idiot that Harper put in charge.

As the Canadian Medical Association Journal stated on Tuesday, Harper's Conservative government has reversed much of the progress previous governments made in relation to public health.

It’s Harper’s government that has to be removed.

Even in a minority situation, Harper’s secretive government is dangerous to the lives of Canadians.


Reference from Ritz's meeting from CBC here.

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