Mr. Speaker, the member spoke about her expertise as a physician. She also said that she was placing the facts on the table. I want to ask her about those facts and about her expertise as a physician.
We heard a wonderful lecture about public health and epidemiology. That is not helping the people who are now ill. The hon. member should know that as a physician, she is judged on the outcomes, not on what she hopes to do, not on what she knows in her head, but on the outcomes of her patients' health. People are sick. That is a poor outcome for something that was said to be so wonderful. People do not get sick if the job is done right.
Second, the hon. member told us that washing one's hands was important for people to know about. Is the hon. member telling me that if people had washed their hands, they would not have gotten E.coli from the beef? What a ludicrous suggestion from anybody who knows anything about science.
Third, there is a protocol. There is clear legislative authority. The minute a food-borne illness affects humans, and the minute it crosses one provincial boundary or international border, the Public Health Agency and the Minister of Health have to get involved. They have not. They have done no surveillance. They have done absolutely nothing until yesterday. Why?