Conservative jokester and possibly soon the former Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz has ticked off not only the devastated families he insulted with a callous joke earlier this week but also the unionized scientists and inspectors who work for him, as well as doctors from the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Crisis requires real leadership and Mr. Ritz is clearly not fit to lead. Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada

In Learning from Listeria: the autonomy of the Public Health Agency of Canada the CMAJ suggests Canada's public health officer should report direct to parliament and be afforded other protections in order to ensure objective, not political, handling of crisis.

The union representing food safety scientists and inspectors are somewhat more direct. In a press release issued Friday:

“Minister Ritz has repeatedly disappointed the professional scientists and inspectors who work for him during the listeria crisis,” said Michèle Demers, President of the Institute. “The comments he apologized for yesterday are the last straw. Crisis requires real leadership and Mr. Ritz is clearly not fit to lead.”

The Professional Institute represents 1,800 professionals who work in food inspection and health protection. As professionals in these fields, Institute members are also shocked at Prime Minister Harper’s dismissive response to the considered opinion on the roots of listeriosis crisis put forward by the editorial board of the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Canada’s foremost medical journal blamed government policy on food safety for contributing to the listeria crisis and called for “a full-scale public inquiry in to the major failings of Canada’s food inspection system”.

“Prime Minister Harper should immediately fire Minister Ritz and apologize to all Canadians for his trivializing response to informed critics of his government’s policies on food safety,” said Demers. “Only a full-fledged independent and transparent inquiry can re-establish Canadian’s trust in the safety of their food”. Demers added that the Harper government's plans for further cuts to food inspection and regulation must be stopped.

Another union has also weighed in to the growing controversy. The Public Service Alliance on Friday warned that if a Harper majority (or minority acting as majority?) were to be elected, federal meat inspectors would be off the job permanently in provincially licensed plants in three provinces including British Columbia.

WINNIPEG — The federal Conservatives are planning to pull out of meat inspection programs in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia if they are re-elected Oct. 14, a public sector union warned Thursday.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada, which represents 165,000 civil servants, says a secret Treasury Board of Canada report from May of this year proposes cutting federal delivery of provincial meat inspection programs to save about $3 million.

Patty Ducharme, the union’s national executive vice-president, said the federal government administers meat inspection programs that oversee sanitation and other safety regulations in the three provinces. More > (The Chronicle Herald)