Article content

On the day federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz re-appeared in the House of Commons for the first time this week to face probing questions about the largest beef recall in Canadian history, NDP leader Thomas Mulcair demanded he resign.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Agriculture Minister should resign over tainted meat scandal: Mulcair Back to video

“The population was not informed of the dangers of this tainted meat,” Mulcair said during Question Period on Thursday. “This is a serious breach of ethics and of ministerial responsibility. The minister of agriculture has no choice; he should resign.”

In response, Ritz emphasized Canada’s top marks for its food safety system from the international Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

“Every other country that we deal with, including Japan with a robust food safety system, looks to emulate ours,” he said.

Ritz has faced intense criticism from opposition parties about the extensive recall of beef products sparked by an E. coli scare at an XL Foods plant in Alberta, but Thursday was the first day this week he faced his critics inside the House of Commons.