If you can't trust industry, who can you trust?
It appears that Prime Minister "Yo Harper!" is continuing his Bush-emulating ways, outsourcing food safety to the very companies who are supposed to be regulated, and firing the scientist who stumbled upon the plan.
Confidential documents insecurely posted on the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's computer network laid out sensitive plans to turn over food inspections and labelling to industry and also led to the firing of the scientist who stumbled upon them.
Luc Pomerleau, a biologist with a 20-year "unblemished record" in government, said he was fired last week for "gross misconduct' and breaching security because he sent the documents to his union. Pomerleau, who is a union steward, also was deemed "unreliable," which means he no longer has the security clearance to do his job or to work again in the public service.
It is debatable whether or not this is Pomerleau's fault. The document was scanned and placed where any of the agencies employees could access it. As Michele Demers puts it, Pomerleau is being made a scapegoat for the senior manager who had the documents scanned and stored in an unsecured location.
She said the incident exposed another embarrassing security breach for the government, but the mistake rested with whomever authorized the documents be put on the server. Coincidentally, the circulation of the document came to light the same the week Maxime Bernier resigned from his position as federal affairs minister, after leaving classified documents in the apartment of former girlfriend Julie Couillard.
And, as has become standard operating procedure in such cases, the government is fast at work trying to figure out new ways to ensure Canadians learn as little as possible about what they're doing.
Treasury Board is reviewing the government security policy as part of its massive policy review. The new policy, which is being updated to reflect concerns about national security, will tighten rules for sharing classified information, as well how to handle it and destroy it.
And so, we are unlikely to learn any more about how Canadian's food safety has been compromised until after it's a done deal.
