Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Burnbrae and CFIA censor reports

On Feb. 21 I asked the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for the 2009-2010 inspection or audit reports for egg-grading and egg-procesing operations of Burnbrae Farms Mississauga.

Today, the first day of resumed Canada Post service, I received a stack of useless documents so heavily censored that virtually nothing remains. Only on a few of the reports have they allowed me to see that "product must meet grade claimed."

Incidentally, one of those reports is for eggs from L.H. Gray and Son Ltd.

Most of the censorship has been applied under Section 20 (1) (b) which says : "financial, commercial, scientific or technical information that is confidential information supplied to a government institution by a third party and is treated consistently in a confidential manner by the third party."

Some has been applied under Section 19 (1) which covers personal information.

So, dear Canadians, we are not allowed to see any shortcomings in Burnbrae's egg-grading and egg-processing operations at Mississauga.

And egg farmers can't know why some of the eggs at Burnbrae, the biggest egg-grading company in Canada, fail to meet the grade claimed.

This is why whistleblowers are so useful, and why Bill Gray is going to extraordinary lengths to keep whistleblower Norman Bourdeau from sharing information he took from L.H. Gray and Sons Ltd.