CFIA to force inspectors into meat plants with COVID-19 outbreaks - Punjabi

TV - OMNI News: Punjabi Edition - Toronto, 11/05/2020 - FEATURE, Punjabi

Summary Translation: The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is redeploying staff from other areas to inspect meat processing plants. These workers are not properly trained to inspect meat processing sites, but they have been threatened with dismissal if they refuse to redeploy. Agriculture Union President Fabian Murphy said that as more and more meat inspectors contract COVID-19, they may run out of inspectors to send into these meat plants. They have been able to obtain some face coverings, but those masks are not personal protective equipment that would protect the wearer from this biological hazard. At the Cargill plant in High River, Alberta, 18 inspectors have contracted COVID-19. Another Cargill plant in Quebec has been closed after at least 64 workers tested positive. The Agriculture Union reports that the CFIA only gives the redeployed inspectors two-day training in meat sector inspection. Murphy said inspectors are expected to take the training and to "answer the call of duty." University of Ottawa Associate Professor Sarah Berger Richardson said the food industry has been quite irresponsible in saying that keeping the plants closed would lead to a food shortage. It would at most be a meat shortage, and even that might not impact consumers. Dalhousie University Director of the Agri-Foods Analytics Lab Sylvain Charlebois said he was wondering where the leadership on this was. We have seen plants close while others have not, with COVID cases. Companies seem to be deciding for themselves. CFIA has stated that staff have a right to refuse dangerous work and so far, nobody has refused to work.