The province’s director of criminal and penal prosecutions (DPCP) announced in a release Monday that the office was “not reasonably convinced” culpability could be proven against the provincial member for Brome-Missisquoi, who wasn’t named in the release.

Pierre Paradis, the MNA for Brome-Missisquoi since 1980 and agriculture minister from April 2014, was removed from the provincial Liberal government’s cabinet and caucus in January.

He was “excluded” from caucus after Premier Philippe Couillard was informed of a police investigation involving Paradis. CBC/Radio-Canada reported Monday that the complainant was an ex-employee of Paradis’.

The DPCP said Monday its officials have met with the complainant to inform her of the results of their review of the case and explain the reasons for its decision.

Out of respect for the privacy and reputations of victims as well as those subject to investigation, decisions not to lay charges are published only in exceptional cases, the DPCP said.

In this case, publishing the decision was found to be in the public interest, and to preserve public confidence in the justice system, the office said.

Paradis, 66, has sat as an independent member of the provincial assembly since January.

He previously served in cabinet portfolios including environment and municipal affairs and had chaired the Quebec assembly’s agriculture, food and fisheries committee from 2007 to 2012. He also ran unsuccessfully against Robert Bourassa for the provincial Liberal leadership in 1983. — AGCanada.com Network

The post No charges against Quebec’s ex-ag minister appeared first on Country Guide.

In a short press release, Premier Philippe Couillard said he was informed Thursday evening that Agriculture Minister Pierre Paradis is the subject of a police investigation.

Given the circumstances, Paradis has been relieved of ministerial duties and “excluded” from the Liberal government caucus, the release said.

Transport Minister Laurent Lessard, a former provincial agriculture minister (2007-09, 2010-11), was sworn in Thursday as minister for agriculture, food and fisheries. Lessard will also continue to handle the transport file, Couillard said.

The specific nature of the police inquiry wasn’t mentioned in Thursday’s release.

An even shorter announcement from Couillard’s office Wednesday had said only that Paradis would be temporarily off work and Lessard would handle the portfolio in the meantime.

Several Quebec news outlets on Wednesday had quoted a ministerial spokesperson as saying Paradis, 66, suffered a concussion in a fall from a horse a few days earlier and was under doctor’s orders to rest.

A ministerial spokesperson was not immediately available to confirm those reports Wednesday.

Thursday evening, however, news outlets including Radio Canada, the Montreal Gazette and TVA reported Paradis is the subject of an inquiry by the Surete du Quebec (SQ), the provincial police force.

TVA, citing information from an unnamed source, reported Thursday evening that the investigation follows an alleged “altercation” at a Quebec City-area bar.

Paradis has been the MNA for the Monteregie riding of Brome-Missisquoi since 1980 and the province’s agriculture minister since April 2014.

Paradis previously served in cabinet portfolios including environment and municipal affairs and had chaired the Quebec assembly’s agriculture, food and fisheries committee from 2007 to 2012. He also ran unsuccessfully against Robert Bourassa for the provincial Liberal leadership in 1983. — AGCanada.com Network

The post Quebec ag minister pulled from caucus appeared first on Country Guide.

Premier Philippe Couillard announced Wednesday that Paradis’ responsibilities as minister of agriculture, food and fisheries would temporarily go to Transport Minister Laurent Lessard.

News outlets in Quebec including Radio Canada, La Presse and TVA reported Wednesday that Paradis had suffered a concussion in a fall from a horse a few days ago and was under doctor’s orders to rest.

A spokesperson for Couillard was not immediately available Wednesday afternoon to confirm those reports or to estimate how long Paradis would be off work.

Paradis, 66, is the MNA for Brome-Missisquoi, has been the province’s agriculture minister since April 2014 and is reported to be an avid horseman.

Lessard, 54, is the MNA for Lotbiniere-Frontenac and served two stints as agriculture minister (2007-09, 2010-11) under then-premier Jean Charest.

Couillard had shuffled Lessard last August into the transport portfolio from the forests, wildlife and parks file. — AGCanada.com Network

The post Quebec agriculture minister temporarily sidelined appeared first on Country Guide.

The province’s governing Liberals previously called for such a system, making a GMO label law part of their election platform back in 2003, but have been quiet about their intentions since defeating the Parti Quebecois to return to power in 2014.

Agriculture Minister Pierre Paradis on Tuesday indicated the province’s interest in such a law, following a visit to neighbouring Vermont the previous Friday, marking that state’s GMO label law coming into force.

Vermont’s general assembly passed the label law in 2014 for a July 1, 2016 effective date. It requires any food product containing GMO ingredients to be labelled to that effect, and bans such products from being marketed as “natural” or “naturally grown.”

Violations of the label law are subject to civil penalties of up to US$1,000 per day per product not carrying the appropriate label. The state has set a six-month grace period, recognizing packaged foods with longer shelf-lives.

Until Jan. 1, 2017, improperly-labelled foods for sale in Vermont will be presumed to have been packaged and shipped to stores before July 1 — unless there’s evidence that the product was distributed to a retailer on or after the law’s effective date.

While several industry players fought to overturn the Vermont law, its passage led several major U.S. food firms to adopt GMO labelling nationwide in recent months, so as to avoid the expense of creating separate labels for Vermont alone.

Campbell Soup, General Mills, ConAgra Foods, Kellogg and Mars, among others, have announced they will label some or all of their U.S. products nationwide for GMO content.

Paradis on Friday was among several dignitaries in Vermont’s capital, Montpelier, to celebrate the label law’s effective date, alongside Governor Peter Shumlin and U.S. Senators Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders.

The Quebec government, in its release, noted praise from Vermont state senator and organic farmer David Zuckerman, citing Paradis’ willingness to legislate mandatory labels for food sold in Quebec.

Paradis, in Tuesday’s release, said the Vermont event was an opportunity to share information about the process of adopting such legislation and the challenges involved in doing so.

“In Quebec, as in Vermont, consumers want to know what’s on their plate,” Paradis said in French, describing GMO labelling as a movement in step with transparency in public information.

The province, in its release, hailed the Vermont law as a “major advance” in transparency in food production, noting state officials’ “passion and conviction” in defending the law against challenges from food industry groups.

Jean Charest’s previous Liberal government in 2004 went so far as to commission a study from the Universite du Quebec a Montreal (UQAM) on the costs and impacts of mandatory labelling — if Quebec were to be the only Canadian jurisdiction requiring it.

That study pegged the total start-up costs for food processors, distributors and government at about $161.75 million, with recurring costs of about $28.37 million per year for the province and industry to manage such a system.

The UQAM study also warned of potentially higher food prices and less variety in available food products as a result.

In Canada, several MPs have sought to introduce bills requiring GMO labelling nationwide — most recently on June 14, when Pierre-Luc Dusseault, the NDP MP for Sherbrooke, Que., introduced a private member’s bill.

On the other hand a Commons e-petition, urging MPs to reject any call for mandatory GMO labels, was launched in mid-April with sponsorship from another NDP MP, Kennedy Stewart of Burnaby, B.C.

That e-petition, as of Wednesday, sits with 526 signatures, topping the 500 needed for the petition to be certified for presentation in the House of Commons.

In the U.S., federal legislators recently tabled a bill to replace state GMO label laws such as Vermont’s with a single national labelling standard.

Vermont’s Shumlin last Friday criticized the proposed federal plan as a “flawed bill that will keep consumers in the dark when it comes to your right to know.”

The bill before Congress suffers from “a lack of clarity for enforcing monetary penalties if a company fails to comply with the labeling standard,” Shumlin said last month, and it would “potentially allow products with a significant portion of GMO ingredients to skate by without being subject to labeling requirements.” — AGCanada.com Network

The post Quebec again ponders mandatory GMO labelling appeared first on Country Guide.