CANADIAN LABOUR-OTTAWA:

BOYCOTT THE CANADIAN MUSEUM OF CIVILIZATION:

The following item came to Molly's attention via the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). For five weeks now employees at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa have been on strike, and their union, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), have asked the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) to call for a boycott of both the Museum of Civilization (in Gatineau) and the Canadian War Museum (in Ottawa). Here's the story from CUPE.

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Support striking museum workers:
For the past five weeks, 420 employees of the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation (CMCC) have been on strike. The Public Service Alliance of Canada workers want to secure a collective agreement that ends the precarious employment practices of the CMCC and affords its employees some job security.

The executive council of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) has passed a resolution asking workers who belong to its affiliated unions not to visit the Museum of Civilization and the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa-Gatineau until striking workers have secured a fair collective agreement.

CUPE National President Paul Moist joined other CLC executive council members on Monday to protest the CMCC’s bargaining tactics.

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Here is the declaration from the CLC.

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CLC supports striking museum workers:
Asks union members not to visit Civilization and War Museums
OTTAWA – The Executive Council of the Canadian Labour Congress is asking workers who belong to its affiliated unions not to visit the Museum of Civilization and the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa-Gatineau until striking workers have secured a fair collective agreement.

The CLC’s Executive Council, meeting in Ottawa, passed a resolution saying in part that the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation (CMCC) “has blatantly abandoned that responsibility by failing to negotiate a fair collective agreement with its workforce.”

For the past five weeks, 420 members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada have been on strike at the museums to secure a collective agreement that would change the museum’s employment practices: 38% of the workforce is employed on a temporary basis, and museum workers are being paid 30% less on average than other federal government museum workers doing the same or similar jobs.

The CLC is also calling upon the government of Canada to force the museum “to negotiate a collective agreement that ends the precarious work practices used by the Corporation.”
Contact: Dennis Gruending, CLC Communications, 613-526-7431 or 613-878-6040 (cell.)

CONSUMER AFFAIRS:

LISTERIOSIS ROUND 2:

Since September 17th the Maple Leaf Foods plant at the centre of the recent listeriosis outbreak in Canada has been reopened, and it is now processing meats even though the release of the product has still not been authorized. In the meantime, two days ago, the CFIA has also announced a recall of Dunn's Famous brand smoked meats distributed to Costco stores in Québec, Ottawa and the Atlantic provinces.

Today,however, it came to light that intensive testing has shown that foods from the Maple Leaf plant are still occasionally contaminated by Listeria. See the article below from today's Globe and Mail.

Company spokesman Michael McCain rushed to put a positive spin on matters. You can see the basic story of his reply in an article from the Windsor Star today. The main thrust of his argument is that "listeria is everywhere", and that we inevitably consume the bacteria everyday. I guess this means that we shouldn't worry about it if it appears in his plant. The good gentleman made some rather "weaselly" comparisons to the positive rate in the Maple Leaf plant and other surveys in Canada and the USA where sampling was done at the point of sale. In actual fact US law requires that there be no listeria at the point of production, as already pointed out on this blog. Sampling days later after transport and the opportunity for the bacteria to multiply would inevitably lead to a higher positive rate. What McCain is actually saying is that his company should be allowed to slip back into a less intensive regime of testing because somehow Listeria is ubiquitous. Molly would suggest that the opposite is true, that this "trial run" shows that the Maple Leaf plant should remain under permanent high levels of testing and supervision. They have proven, after all, that they cannot achieve the standards required , and achieved,across the border, and this says that the only way to assure the safety of their product is to keep the present testing regime. Perhaps make it even tighter.

The report of McCain's press release on the radio today was even more bizarre than what was reported in the Windsor Star. Molly will try and search down the full text, in the hopes it hasn't been altered by after the fact proof-reading. Really, the proof-reading should have been done before issuing the statement. There were some real howlers there. Is Listeria really "the oldest organism on Earth" ? Cough,cough !. Then there was the Maoesque statement that ""Listeria is benign to the masses". Glad to hear that Chairman McCain, and assuredly it isn't the "primary contradiction". Wellllllll, I guess the "masses" don't include AIDS patients, organ transplant recipients, diabetics, old people, pregnant women, and newborn babies. The fate of such "running dogs" shouldn't impede the great and glorious march to profitability of the 'Peoples' Maple Leaf Party' , relying on Mao TseCain Thought. Wow, I love it.

Anyways, here's the article from the Globe and Mail. Do check in at the Food Safety First website for breaking news on this front as it develops.

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Listeriosis bacteria found at Toronto plant:
Four new positive tests confirmed in samples of meat at reopened Maple Leaf site
BILL CURRY
October 9, 2008
OTTAWA -- Four new positive tests for listeriosis have been confirmed in samples of meat at the Maple Leaf plant at the centre of the outbreak that has left 20 Canadians dead.

The plant was allowed to reopen on Sept. 17, but no product has so far been allowed to enter the market.

Yesterday federal officials from the Prime Minister's Office, the Privy Council Office and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency met to discuss the new findings that the bacteria is still present in the plant.

Since the plant resumed production, there have been 2,700 product samples and four positive test results for Listeria monocytogenes.

Paul Mayers, associate vice-president of the CFIA, confirmed the results in a telephone interview with The Globe and Mail.

"We've just received results related to these four positives," Mr. Mayers said. "The plant is operating. The product isn't reaching the marketplace.

"We will, with Health Canada, conduct an assessment to assess what these findings might mean in terms of the ongoing activities in the plant and whether any additional measures would be necessary in relation to product from that plant. Of course, that assessment has not yet been conducted."

He said CFIA and Health Canada will now do a full assessment and evaluation of the positive findings.

Mr. Mayers confirmed that the CFIA informed both the Privy Council Office and the PMO about the positive findings and said both agencies are regularly in the loop on new developments related to listeria.

The findings, which were posted last night on the CFIA's website in the wake of inquiries from The Globe, come as the public service is under orders not to create waves during the federal election campaign.

Bob Kingston, president of the Agriculture Union representing CFIA inspectors, said he was "flabbergasted" by the positive tests, given the scrutiny the plant is under. "It's mind-boggling. They're cleaning up their place with the whole world watching and they still don't get it right?"
The union leader said the findings underscore his organization's campaign to block efforts to transfer certain food safety responsibilities to industry.

The most recent government announcement related to listeriosis was a recall issued Tuesday by CFIA, warning the public not to eat certain Dunn's Famous brand smoked meat pouches that were distributed to Costco in Quebec, Ottawa and the Atlantic provinces.

To date, there have been 20 deaths where listeriosis was the underlying or contributing cause, another three deaths where listeriosis was present and a further six deaths in Ontario that are still under investigation.

The latest development comes as the outbreak has already become an issue in the federal election campaign. Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz was forced to apologize earlier in the campaign for joking about the issue during an internal government conference call. In that call, Mr. Ritz reportedly said the government was suffering a death by a thousand cuts, "or should I say cold cuts."

Since the outbreak began, there have also been numerous news media reports based on government documents either leaked to the news media or obtained through access to information requests showing concern had been expressed internally about the quality of food safety in Canada.

On Sept. 6, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced an independent investigation into the listeria outbreak, which traced back to a Maple Leaf meat plant in Toronto. The government has yet to name the head of the investigation, but has released terms of reference.

The investigation will not be allowed to come to conclusions regarding the civil or criminal liability of any person or organization.

CONSUMER PROTECTION/CANADIAN POLITICS/CANADIAN LABOUR:

FOOD SAFETY AS AN ELECTION ISSUE:

The following appeal comes via the Straight Goods online newsmagazine, and its original source is the Public Service Alliance of Canada which represents federal meat inspectors. It asks you to help make the safety of Canada's food supply an election issue by querying your candidates on their commitment to such.

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Take action to protect food safety:‏
It’s a sad day when we can’t trust that the food we eat is safe. One thing is clear from the wave of food poisoning deaths and illness that is sweeping the country: cuts to food safety programs and industry self-policing have gone too far.

That’s why I’m writing, with the support of the union representing Canada's food inspectors, to urge you to visit www.foodsafetyfirst.ca where you can send a message to the candidates in your riding asking them to make a commitment for safer food.

Decisions by the Harper government created this mess. Let’s tell our local candidates that the price of our support is their commitment to making the food we eat safer. With only one week before election day, it’s urgent that you act. Please visit http://www.foodsafetyfirst.ca/ right now.

Yours sincerely,

Ish Theilheimer

Publisher

The StraightGoods.ca family of news websites

p.s. http://www.foodsafetyfirst.ca/ is sponsored by the Agriculture Union - PSAC, which represents Canada’s food inspectors.

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And, to whet your appetite about how the scandalous actions of our Conservative government led to the Listeriosis outbreak, here's one of many items from the FoodSafetyFirst site, an article from the Toronto Star of October 6.

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Listeria reporting rule dropped before crisis:
Meat plants not required to tell food inspectors when bacteria found

October 6, 2008
Robert Cribb

STAFF REPORTER
Four months before the Maple Leaf outbreak started claiming lives, Canada's food safety agency quietly dropped its rule requiring meat-processing companies to alert the agency about listeria-tainted meat, a Toronto Star/CBC investigation has found.

Twenty people died as a result of the outbreak this past summer, and federal meat inspectors and their union say this rule change likely made the country's listeria outbreak far worse than it had to be.

Before April 1, if a company preparing meat for sale to the public had a positive test showing listeria it "would have had to have been, not only brought to the (federal) inspector's attention, but the inspector would have been involved in overseeing the cleanup," says Bob Kingston, head of the union that represents Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) inspectors.

Kingston and four veteran inspectors interviewed for this story fear the change, part of the deregulation of Canada's food safety net, continues to pose a public health threat.

The inspection agency confirmed to the Star/CBC that there is currently no onus on companies to alert inspectors about positive bacterial results. The change came as part of a federal decision to allow companies to write their own food safety plans, with federal approval.

"If I walk in as an inspector, the plant doesn't come up to me and say we had positive tests today," said Tom Graham, the safety agency's national inspection manager. But he says the rule likely will be reinstated as a result of the federal investigation into the outbreak.

"That will happen. It's definitely ... on the table. There are a number of recommendations that will come from this," Graham said.

Neither Maple Leaf nor the safety agency will release to the public the specifics of the listeria outbreak at the plant, located on Bartor Rd. near Sheppard Ave. W. and Highway 400, so it is not possible to determine how the reporting rule would have affected the case.

The first of the 20 deaths attributable to the listeriosis outbreak happened in July, officials have said.

One Toronto inspector said there had been a "trend" in positive listeria tests leading up to the outbreak that was never reported by the plant to federal inspectors. The inspector, and three others across the country, spoke on condition of anonymity because they fear disciplinary action if they spoke publicly. "There's something wrong, that an inspector isn't aware of a trend in their own plant," the inspector said.

Inspectors and their union say the rule changes, part of the new Compliance Verification System at the safety agency, have reduced their role to paper auditors, checking the results of company tests when they visit the plant. Under current rules, the inspectors only review bacterial test results twice a month.

Maple Leaf spokesperson Linda Smith said her company makes all of its paperwork and testing available to inspectors but doesn't alert them to positive test results.

"As per the regulations, there is no requirement to inform the CFIA about any listeria test result," she said. "The protocol Maple Leaf had in place was if they found a positive, they would sanitize the area and then you'd need to find three negatives in a row to leave that area alone. In (the Maple Leaf plant from which the outbreak was traced), there were occasional positives. ... They would sanitize and test three subsequent times and in all of those cases, they did not find another positive in that area."

During the outbreak, Maple Leaf president Michael McCain said the company tests the Toronto plant's surfaces 3,000 times a year.

"Positive results for listeria inside a food plant are common," he told reporters at the time, adding that "there was nothing out of the norm" leading up to the outbreak.

Asked for the listeria test results leading up to the outbreak, Smith said last week the company would not release them publicly.

At the union representing federal inspectors, national president Kingston said he has been pushing to have the reporting rule reinstated for the past month.

If inspectors had known about the positive listeria tests, "the CFIA would have been doing their own testing to validate the success of the cleanup," Kingston said, adding after April 1, no rules required inspectors be told of any cleanup activities or repeated positives.

A Toronto-area inspector said that if Maple Leaf had been required to report the listeria test results, alarms would have gone off at the federal food safety agency.

"Bells and whistles would have been sounding if (Maple Leaf officials) had to report positive test findings to an inspector."

"We're seeing (20) people dead. We might not have had anybody dead (if company officials were still obligated to report positive listeria findings). ... It's terrible. My dad eats this stuff all the time. I eat it," the inspector said.

A veteran inspector in the Vancouver area said the safety agency needs to go back to being more hands-on in plants. "(The new system) isn't working. Let's go back to basics, get the inspector back in the plant, spending more time there."

Dr. Vinita Dubey, Toronto's associate medical officer of health, said the reporting change is "absolutely a concern. This may be a perfect example of how self-regulation may not be appropriate."

In the aftermath of the outbreak, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz publicly defended the new inspection regime, saying about 50 per cent of an inspector's time is on the floor of plants and "the other 50 per cent is overseeing paperwork, most of it scientific in nature, test results and the like."

Not so, say inspectors, estimating their time on plant floors is down to between 10 per cent and 20 per cent of their day. "We shouldn't be called inspectors anymore," says one inspector in Vancouver. "We should be called auditors. I think the public wants inspectors on the floor, sleeves rolled up."

Another Toronto inspector says she and her colleagues used to be aware of everything happening in a plant. "Things have changed now. We're more the oversight and they run their own show. The problem ... is, it can all look good on paper, but you've got to be out there to see what's going on."

One inspector was startled to find no reference to mandatory reporting in the safety plans of plants he inspects. "There's nowhere in (the new system) that tells them they have to inform you of a high bacterial load."

That lost oversight, he says, had to play a role in the outbreak.

"I think it would have prevented a preventable situation like the listeria (outbreak). It has alarmed me and it's disappointing. It's a travesty for the department and a shakeup the CFIA needs to get grassroots feedback about what works and what doesn't. (This) isn't working."
But the agency's Graham said the system still protects the public.

"Are we missing things? It's unfortunate what's happened here with the outbreak. There's no doubt about that. None of us are happy about that. But is our system a good system? Yes, it is."
Toronto Star