Stephen Harper is refusing to seek the resignation of Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz for making light of the listeriosis deaths of 17 Canadians, saying the MP's remarks were embarrassing but don't undermine his work on the matter.
While terming the remarks as an “embarrassment,” Mr. Harper said Mr. Ritz had worked particularly hard on the effort to get the crisis under control.
“Look, Minister Ritz understands clearly that these comments were completely insensitive and unacceptable and he has completely apologized,” Mr. Harper told reporters in this Quebec city today.
But Mr. Harper said Mr. Ritz worked extremely hard to rectify the problem.
“I think this story is obviously very embarrassing for him, very unfortunate, but should not detract from the good work he has done to get on top and understand this matter.”
Mr. Ritz was forced to apologize Wednesday after referring to the crisis as the “death of a thousand cold-cuts” and then jokingly expressing the hope that MP Wayne Easter, his opposition critic on the Liberal benches, was the reported fatality in Prince Edward Island – which turns out to have been a false alarm.
A spokeswoman at the province's Department of Health and Community Services said in an interview Thursday that the patient is very much alive and recovering from listeriosis in a hospital in Charlottetown.
“What a mix-up,” the spokeswoman said. “It is making a great day for us here,” she added, referring to the flurry of telephone calls coming into her office.
The PEI health department is not releasing any details about the patient, except to say that he is doing well and is being treated with antibiotics.
Mr. Harper acknowledged that he did not know of the remarks until Wednesday night, when they were first reported, even though a PMO official was in the discussions.
“I presume the reason we didn't know about it is because people who were involved in these various conference calls, and there many of them in that period, were primarily concerned with getting the problem rectified,” he said.
“The real question at that time was to make sure everybody was doing their job.”
The Conservative Leader added that, while the remarks were insensitive, they were made during a private discussion. He suggested that many Canadians might find themselves under scrutiny if a light had been shone on their personal conversation.
Both Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion and NDP Leader Jack Layton have urged Mr. Harper to fire Mr. Ritz, which the Conservative Leader said Thursday he would not do.
“He's been doing a good job on this file and I applaud him for apologizing completely and forthrightly.”
Mr. Dion said Mr. Harper has no choice now but to fire the Minister.
“But now, Mr. Harper has no choice. He must fire this man because of his complete lack of sensitivity that he expressed himself by these unacceptable remarks. He must be fired right away,” Mr. Dion said.
He noted the Liberals called for Mr. Ritz's resignation two weeks ago over his handling of the tainted-meat crisis. But he said that his errors are compounded by such insensitivity to those who suffered that Canadians will not understand if he is allowed to keep his job.
When asked what Mr. Ritz's joke said about the Conservatives, Mr. Dion said he was reluctant to comment on that today because the Minister's comments were so "troubling.”
“I understand your question, but I'm reluctant to answer it because we are speaking about lives. People have passed away, and families that are very affected by that. So I will consider this case as such,” he said.
