Evan Solomon, host of CBC Radio's The House, reflects on comments made by Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz after MPs called for an emergency debate on the recall of E. coli-tainted beef from XL Foods plant, in his weekly radio essay as heard on The House on Oct. 20, 2012.

A "silly emergency debate."

That's how the embattled Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz characterized the emergency parliamentary debate about the tainted beef.

"Silly."

Now, it's true there are lots of silly things that happen on Parliament Hill, but was this emergency debate really one of them?

Is it really silly for Parliamentarians to debate the fact that 16 people in four provinces have been poisoned after consuming beef contaminated with E. coli.

Is it silly to debate why Canada's biggest meat processing plant, the XL Foods plant in Brooks, Alta., is sending out tainted meat?

Is it silly to debate the causes of the biggest meat recall in Canadian history? Over 1.5 million kilograms of product have been recalled in almost 2000 products.

How it happened, who's responsible, why U.S. consumers were told to stop eating the tainted beef days before Canadian consumers?

Is it silly to ask, as health reporter Andre Picard did in the Globe and Mail, why XL Foods owners will pay no fines, face no sanctions, or no public inquiry?

Instead, in the midst of the scandal, a Brazilian-owned company called JBS is taking over the management of the XL Foods plant.

Doesn't this raise even more silly questions?

JBS, the largest animal protein producer in the world, has a history of E. coli scandals – 23 people got sick in the U.S. in 2009, and the company recalled 170,000 kilograms of beef.

Will they run the Brooks plant more safely?

And remember, JBS is partly state owned by the Brazilian government.

With so much concern over a state-owned Chinese company controlling Canada's energy production and the oil sands, what about a state-owned company controlling 35% of Canada's meat supply?

Oh yes, there's also the real debate raging this week about media concentration sparked by the CRTC decision to overrule Bell's attempt to buy Astralmedia.

But what about food concentration?

Between the Brazillian owned JBS and the U.S. Cargill, over 80 per cent of the beef processed in Canada will now be owned by just two foreign companies.

That's a lot of silly questions, I know.

And while it's common to dismiss parliamentary debates as silly, as the agriculture minister did – or, for provincial and federal governments to go one step further and prorogue parliaments to suspend all silly debates – maybe that's not a such good idea.

After all,16 Canadians have been poisoned by their dinner.

Maybe it's time all these silly questions in the House of Commons got some serious answers.