NDP tables Bill for GMO labeling
By Canadian Packaging staff
Food Safety Bill C-291 Canada Food and Drug Act Health Canada labeling for GMOs Pierre-Luc Dusseault safe food labelingBill C-291 hopes to create Canada-wide labeling for foods containing GMOs.
Pierre-Luc Dusseault, the NDP MP (Member of Parliament) for Sherbrooke, Québec, has introduced the 2016 Bill C-291 to Canada’s Parliament with an Act to amend the Food and Drugs Act (genetically modified food) with the purpose of creating labeling of all genetically-modified foods in Canada.
“Mr. Speaker, I am honored to give first reading of my private member’s bill. The purpose of my bill is straightforward. It would make labeling of genetically modified foods mandatory in Canada.
“To do that, I propose to amend the Food and Drugs Act to prevent any person from selling any food that is genetically modified, unless its label contains the information prescribed by regulations.
“I hope to have the support of a majority of the members in the House because, as has been shown many times, there is tremendous support for this among Canadians.
“I look forward to further debate in this House,” he summed up.
The motion was deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed.
Pierre-Luc Dusseault (House of Parliament photo).
Dusseault, who won his last election in 2015 with 37 percent of the vote, said in a news release posted to the NDP website that 90 percent of all Canadians support the labeling of genetically-modified foods.
He also says that according to a Health Canada report on food labeling that Canadians want the Government to take exacting measures to ensure that genetically-modified foods are labeled as such.
From the press release, Dusseault says: “The Liberal government must allow Canadians to obtain as much information as possible on GM foods. To date, the Liberal government has refused to take action.”
In the United States, Vermont is weeks away from enacting its genetically-modified organism law.
The NDP has on its website, an on-line petition for Canadian constituents to sign requesting labeling for genetically-modified foods – click HERE.
Please be aware that Canadian Parliamentary Bill numbers are re-used, with other Bill C-291 from the past include amendments to the Employee Insurance Act, the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, and violent crimes within the Criminal Code.
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