KEEPING AMERICA SAFE

WASHINGTON — Canadian officials have found a third animal infected with mad cow disease — an almost 7-year-old beef cow with no known connection to the other infected cattle.

The cow was born after Canada banned the use of cattle feed that includes animal parts in order to try to keep the potentially deadly infection from spreading....

It was the second discovery of an infected cow in Canada in two weeks, and both came just after the U.S. Agriculture Department announced a controversial plan to reopen the border to imports of live Canadian cattle....

Despite the two new cases and a suit filed Monday by the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund to block the proposed border reopening, the USDA said it will resume cross-border trade....

--Washington Post via St. Paul Pioneer Press; original Post article here

Let's not forget what Canada (in all likelihood) had to do to get the U.S. ban on Canadian beef lifted. From the January 7 Washington Post:

The Canadian health minister plans to restrict the supply of inexpensive prescription drugs shipped to about 2 million patients in the United States each year, and industry officials here are saying President Bush is behind the move.

Bush "is getting Canada to do the dirty work" of shutting down a cheap supply of foreign-made drugs that are popular with American consumers but unpopular with U.S. drug companies, charged David MacKay, executive director of an association of Canadian mail-order pharmacies.

A White House spokesman, Trent Duffy, said Bush "did not make any suggestions on what Canada should do" about the mail-order drug industry. But Duffy said by telephone from Washington that the issue was discussed at a Nov. 30 meeting in Ottawa between Bush and Prime Minister Paul Martin. Canadian officials confirmed this account....

MacKay said Canadian authorities "turned on a dime" after that meeting. He said he has learned that "President Bush threw out an ultimatum," demanding that Canada shut down the mail-order sales, possibly in exchange for U.S. concessions in lifting the ban on imports of Canadian beef....

Note that infected Canadian cows have actually been found. Note that unsafe drugs imported from Canada haven't been found. Gee, which category of imports is being banned?