I think we all, as CFIA and Canadians, recognize the outstanding work that Mr. McCain did in terms of bringing issues forward to Canadians in a very responsible, timely, transparent way. He's to be commended for that. We encourage all industry leaders, and government leaders, to follow that model.
I can honestly indicate to the committee that efforts were made to inform the public beyond the use of the Internet, for sure. In our food recall unit, during that period of time, there were—I believe the figure is over 400—media calls that were responded to in the agency by food safety specialists to try to get information into print media. Over and above that, subsequent to the initial release, when we went to the expanded recall on August 23, I think, as the other honourable member has pointed out, from that point forward, initially technical briefings were held by Dr. David Butler-Jones, the Chief Public Health Officer, to share information about listeria and the events that were unfolding.
There was a briefing as well involving Minister Ritz and some of our technical staff, and daily technical briefings were provided for over a 14-day period from the latter part of August through until early September. So on a daily basis, officials were made available, press were notified, and we made people available to share information about how the recall itself was progressing, the steps that were being taken, the identification of the products, to help Canadians, to remind Canadians...again, at that time of year, if you've been at the cottage and somehow you've not been aware, these are the things you need to be looking for. You should be looking at your freezer at home, and on the long weekend you should be looking in the refrigerator at the cottage as well.
So while I can appreciate the views that perhaps the messages weren't picked up, certainly there was a concerted effort and a considerable investment made by a number of people both to respond to media and to be out there trying to get the information out to Canadians. Lesson learned: we obviously didn't hit the mark; we need to review why that was.