Forget About Gerry Ritz......

SayingStupidStuffIsOneThing
DoingStupidThingsIsAnotherVille


....Because it is the bad policies of Stephen Harper, not his loose cannons, that really matter.

To wit:

Last November (2007) the Canadian government instituted a strategic review of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). Among its outcomes was to transfer inspection duties for ready-to-eat meats from the government inspectors to the meat industry. Cabinet decided to “shift from full-time CFIA meat inspection presence to an oversight role, [thereby] allowing industry to implement food safety control programs and to manage key risks.”

In practice, the new policy meant that CFIA inspectors would rarely enter meat plants to test for bacteria and testing was left mostly to companies. Self-inspection came largely to substitute for, and not just to supplement, government inspection......

Note the date, bolded above.

OK?



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The quote above is from an editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal that was published, online, Tuesday (pdf). I'll have more to say about that editorial (which goes way, way past the listeria outbreak in its criticism of Harper Gov't policies that are, in the view of the signatories, are hamstringing, or even reversing, progress on important public health initiatives) later.

Gerry Ritz is not just your run of the mill loose cannon reformatory. He is Mr. Harper's Agriculture Minister and he let fly with some very, very bad jokes about deaths due to listeria, "including a Prince Edward Island death he said he hoped was PEI MP and Liberal agriculture critic Wayne Easter."

Now, I know that some will say that the Ritz story is important because it is something that the 'media' has finally siezed upon regarding the imbecility, and worse, the meanness, of the Harpoonistas but me, I hate it when the shiny, spinning objects become the story rather than those that are doing the real evil deeds behind the curtain? Why? Well because even shiny, objects that turn 'round and round can ultimately be used as 'deflector spin' by those hiding behind the curtain.....Extreme Example: Rumsfeld and the 'digi-cams' -"Who knew!"

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