CFIA

Cuts to CFIA put food supply at pre-listeriosis outbreak risk: PSAC

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Chris Plecash – April 23, 2012

Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz insists that cuts to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in the federal government’s 2012 budget won’t compromise food safety, but the Public Service Alliance of Canada says that job cuts at the agency will roll back improvements to food inspection that were made in response to the 2008 listeriosis outbreak.

“We’re looking at administrative money for the most part, programming is not being affected,” Mr. Ritz (Battlefords-Lloydminster, Sask.) told The Hill Times following the federal budget’s March 29 tabling. “There will be no changes in frontline inspectors.”

The Cohen Commission: disappearing salmon

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Ray Grig – January 27, 2012

The mystery of the disappearing wild salmon may be closer to being solved due to the reconvened Cohen Commission and the extraordinary three days of hearings held in December, 2011. As earlier testimony revealed, many environmental factors affect the survival of wild salmon.

Evidence now confirms that government policy supports the salmon farming industry, and that the industry has been willing to exploit this advantage to win regulatory concessions for its economic gain - in the words of one Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) official, the industry seemed "to dictate" policy. These concessions may have involved relaxed importation, inspection and quarantine of Atlantic salmon eggs, and inadequate supervision of fish health.

The Cohen Commission and Salmon ISAv Evidence

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Ray Grigg – January 13, 2012

Judge Bruce Cohen obviously thought that recent evidence of the possibility of Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISAv) in BC's wild salmon was serious enough to warrant a reconvening of his Commission of inquiry into the mysterious disappearance of Fraser River sockeye. The three days of exceptional December hearings were revelatory, confusing and clarifying.

We have ISAv in BC waters but we don't have disease. We have different labs getting positive and negative test results on the same fish samples. We have critically important research curtailed just when such vital information is most needed. We have intimations of openness in a practice of obstruction and censure. And we have huge financial benefits accruing to corporate interests if BC's farmed and wild salmon can be marketed free of the stigma of disease.

Emails Reveal Government Scientists Acting Like Flacks

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Damien Gillis – December 17, 2011

The second of three extra days of hearings at the Cohen Commission into disappearing Fraser River sockeye yielded more surprises - the biggest of which came in the form of a telling internal email strain between DFO and Canadian Food Inspection Agency staff.

The emails were sent following a teleconference for media hosted by the two departments, aimed at quelling concerns over the recent discovery of Infectious Salmon Anemia virus in wild BC salmon.

Government email makes waves at salmon inquiry

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CBC News – December 17, 2011

A government email describing a potentially lethal fish virus as a public relations problem has caused a stir at a federal inquiry in Vancouver. The federally appointed Cohen Commission was called two years ago to examine what caused the 2009 collapse of the Fraser River sockeye.

The suggestion that an influenza-like virus had penetrated B.C. waters came just as the 21-month inquiry was wrapping up, prompting the commissioner to hold three more days of hearings.

Scientists fear reprisals after their research on fish virus

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Tamsyn Burgmann – December 16, 2011

Two Canadian scientists working on opposite coasts say they fear their reputations are being threatened after discovering signs of a potentially lethal fish virus in British Columbia salmon, a federal inquiry has heard.

Fred Kibenge, who runs a prestigious lab on the East Coast, detected infectious salmon anaemia in two of 48 sockeye smolts, and the results of his work were widely publicized in October. The revelation set off a chain of alarm bells throughout the government and the West Coast salmon industry. The ISA virus has infected and killed millions of fish in Chile, and is believed to have originated in Norway where its own stocks were devastated.

New Virus Revelations at Salmon Inquiry

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Dr. Kristi Miller

Damien Gillis – December 16, 2011

"The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence." – Carl Sagan

Dr. Kristi Miller took the stage for a curtain call at the Cohen Commission into disappearing Fraser River sockeye yesterday, delivering a dramatic follow-up performance to her headline-grabbing run in September.

Among the bombshell revelations that emerged from the first of three extra days for the Commission – added recently to address the discovery of ISA virus in wild BC salmon – were the confirmation that ISA virus (or something very similar) is undoubtedly here in BC, and has likely been for at least 25 years; and Miller’s own detection of a new deadly virus in both farmed and wild salmon.

Canada Moves to Downgrade Food Safety Oversight

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Sarah Damian – August 15, 2011

Disappointing news came from Canada on Friday with the government's decision to remove meat inspectors from more than 100 plants in three provinces by 2014, as a means to cut costs.

Industry monitoring itself is never a good idea, as we've pointed out before, and just like in the United States, Canada hasn't had a clean track record when it comes to food safety and transparency. Slacking on oversight is going to worsen an already recurring problem.

Canada Pulls Meat Inspectors To Save Costs

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Tamsyn Burgmann – August 12, 2011

Ottawa's decision to toss out federal meat inspectors from plants in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba could put consumers at risk as the provinces are pushed to rapidly cook up substitute systems, warns the workers' union.

Dozens of Canadian Food Inspection Agency staff will be pulled from their duties by January 2014 after the federal government moved to end contracting out their services as a cost-saving measure.

Food-safety system failing Canadians, group says

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Jessica Leeder – April 13, 2011

All five of Canada’s federal political parties have promised to beef up food safety if elected in May, but their pledges aren’t enough to please a national medical policy group working to stoke the debate.

In an editorial that warns Canadians that they “Eat at your own risk,” the Canadian Medical Association Journal on Wednesday slammed the country’s food-safety system for what it called “major failings” related to the tracking of food-borne illnesses.

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