Mr. Speaker, I want to follow up on a question I asked the Minister of Health back in June relating to the health protection branch of government.
There are a number of disturbing things happening, but what I am questioning is the safety and integrity of the health protection branch. I think it is putting many Canadians at risk.
I do not think we have to look any further than the relationship that now exists between private industry, perhaps the multinational drug companies, and the health protection branch. There is lots of evidence out there to suggest that they are using a great deal of power and influence to push through the approval of certain drugs in Canada. In fact, if the testimony of some of the scientists who work for the Government of Canada at the health protection branch proves to be as accurate as reported, we are in a great deal of difficulty.
Just about every newspaper in Canada has had articles about the various drugs that have been pushed through the system. That is wrong. It endangers every Canadian.
We have been talking about the hepatitis C victims and what happened following some of the misadventures of the Department of Health and its inability track what was happening.
As an example, the health protection branch would notify the Red Cross a year in advance as to when it was going to conduct a review of its operations. That fact was brought out in the Krever inquiry.
There is something wrong when the chief inspector tells someone that he is going to inspect their operation. What will the person do? He will clean up his act. That is exactly what happened in the case of the Red Cross.
Fundamentally, the problem is that the department does not have the resources to do its job. We are relying on the private sector to do the job for us as Canadians. We are relying on the private sector to tell us whether or not a drug is good or bad.
The relationship that presently exists between the Government of Canada and the scientific community is an uneasy relationship that puts every Canadian at risk.
We are putting drugs on the market that have not gone through the proper channels of inspection. Clinical trials, for example, are threatening the health of every single Canadian.
What I am asking the minister to do is to please take a serious look at the health protection branch. At the end of the day, we have to depend on the Minister of Health and the Government of Canada to protect all Canadians.
We are asking the Minister of Health to get a hold on his department and to do what is right so that at the end of the day all Canadians will be protected.