Health committee  Thank you very much. When Bill C-54 first came, and then Bill C-11 afterwards, it was like an atomic bomb in the research community. We were not prepared for it. The way we read the law--and I even read the document explaining the law--it was appalling to the people in the commu

Health committee  My statement was short because I was told that this was mostly a time for discussion. So I can give you a little longer answer now. Yes, we did receive the Public Health Agency of Canada's amendments 24 hours in advance. I have to say that the amendments are significant in their

Health committee  No. I'm here to answer questions.

Health committee  I'll be very brief. I am here mostly to answer questions. We have already given our presentations. I will just say that the four of us had only 24 hours' notice, and we are here. because it's very important for us. This is the bottom line. It is very important. We hope this bil

Health committee  Thanks also to you.

Health committee  As I said, just as you've been saying, we've heard the same message from the Public Health Agency, and we were quite pleased by what we heard. We were asked to give our opinion about what was written, and what is written is not what you're saying. Can I just come back to listeri

Health committee  Yes, all these things are infectious diseases that will happen all the time, despite the tightest regulation that one can have. This is how we handled the pathogens. Listeriosis had nothing to do with handling the pathogen. It had to do with not carefully cleaning the meat plants

Health committee  Absolutely.

Health committee  Absolutely. In fact, when Bill C-54 was introduced, one of the first things we did—as a research community—was to start a letter-writing and e-mail campaign. Representatives of the agency were very proactive. They came to see us and explained the bill. We presented our concerns a

Health committee  No, I don't remember.

Health committee  That is certainly the case as regards the risk for the community. If a person is sick with a Level 2 or Level 3 pathogen, he can still die. But it is not the same thing. I was not consulted about Bill C-54, nor were any of the colleagues I know. But we were informed. The member

Health committee  Every graduate student and every undergraduate student also—I don't know about all universities, but at least I know what's going on at our university—has to follow ethics courses on the conduct of research, not specifically on the pathogens, but this is included in the larger fr

Health committee  E. coli. There has to be a way of putting escherichia coli.... There are some level 2 pathogens, but several strains of E. coli are also level 1, and this is what is going on. Every lab in Canada and every lab in industry works with E. coli that is non-pathogenic to humans. So th

Health committee  Toxins are less special. But are there guidelines for toxins? My biosecurity officer at my university commented that there no real guidelines for the use of toxins.

Health committee  Very good. Thank you so much. I'll go to page 4 now, the end of the document. The schedules can be fairly confusing in terms of level 2, level 3. As I said, E. coli often has to be a level 1 pathogen, not a level 2. We often manipulate these bugs. Once we have different bugs, wi