The Sticker in Aisle 5

What are we even doing? The CFIA, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, says it's caught grocery stores stamping "Product of Canada" on foreign fruit like a bingo dabber at a church basement fundraiser. It says it took action, which in their case apparently means asking them politely if they wouldn't mind possibly looking into it if they don't mind, sorry to bother you. Total amount of fines handed out? The CBC reports today: $0. For any of them. One case took 4 months to resolve. 4 months! Over a label on avocado oil. I've got a label machine. I can fly there myself and fix it before lunch. Lunch 30 in Newfoundland. What are we even doing? We pay taxes in this country to enforce laws. What will it take, CFIA? You have the power to fine up to $15,000 per offense. It's not like you don't have the systems in place to catch these things and punish them. 2016, 2 food suppliers in Ontario were caught putting Product of Canada labels on peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers grown in Mexico, then supplying them to Costco and Blah Blahs and Sobees. 3 search warrants, more than 70 boxes of documents seized, $1.5 million in fines. You guys did that. The following year, tomato processing company in Ontario was convicted of putting Product of Canada labels on food that was American. The owner of the company was charged with lying to a federal food inspector. The company went bankrupt. The year after that, a greenhouse grower in Ontario fined $210,000 for labeling produce as being from Ontario during a time of the year where it was too cold for greenhouses to even operate that. In the first 3 months of this year, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency handed out fines of $14,000 for violations of the Plant Protection Act, $144,000 for fines for the Safe Food for Canadians Act, $705,000 in fines for violations of the Health of Animals Act. What are we even doing? Even one of the grocers' own trade magazines, Retail Insider said that sure, in the early days, the tariffs and boycotts, some leeway was understandable. But 6 months on, excuses no longer hold. Those are retail executives saying that. And I still hear grocers saying, "It's complicated. Suppliers change, inventories move, the signs can't keep up." No. No. Not anymore. Stop saying that. It's insulting to us and embarrassing for you. This is a cardboard sign in a produce section. If you can't get that right, then maybe groceries aren't for you. This would have been bad enough a year ago, 5 years ago, but we are in a much different time now. This is not 2000 where the biggest scandal was why the leader of the opposition rode a jet ski to a news conference. The government of the United States, our former closest ally, is threatening to annex our country. That is why this nation has embarked on a boycott of American products not seen in generations. And why the friendship between our two countries has been ripped apart and probably won't be fixed for decades. This, right now, this is exactly when you should be enforcing the rules. Not after multiple warnings, not after 4 months of dithering. Now. Because if we've learned one thing about capitalism, it's this: things only change when the bottom line starts bleeding. When their numbers drop. When shareholders start asking questions. We need a partner in this, CFIA. That's you guys. You say the regulations have teeth. What good are teeth if all you ever do is smile? Maybe the real question isn't what are we even doing? Maybe it's what are you even for? If you won't defend the maple leaf and the Grosse Royale during a boycott, during annexation threats, during the one time in our history when Canadians are lining up to support their own farmers and products, then you never will, and why do you even exist? The Maple Leaf doesn't belong to Loblaws. It doesn't belong to Sobeys. It doesn't even belong to you, CFIA. It belongs to us. And if you can't be bothered to protect it, then the Maple Leaf isn't a national symbol. It's just a sticker in aisle 5. Yeah.