John ***** is a plant pathologist (PhD) who prior to becoming a consultant in July 2011, worked 33 years for the Government of Canada in the plant health field. The last six years were as a Senior Science Advisor in the the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) Plant Health and Biosecurity Directorate in Ottawa. There, he focussed principally on horticultural issues, but advised or led files on a wide variety of import and market access issues that touched on all the commodity areas in the directorate, including :

greenhouse and nursery plants for planting
regulation of soil on plants and produce
the regulatory response to "sudden oak death" - Phytophthora ramorum
flower bulb and cut flower imports
invasive plants - quarantine pest plants and seeds
grapevine plants and their viruses
strawberry and raspberry plants and their viruses
fruit from the world
seed and table potato regulated pests
He is well connected to the Canadian agri-food sector, as well as to plant health regulators of trading partners, including the United States (U. S. ) and European Union (E. U. ).

He has particular expertise in the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) and its obligations under the the World ***** Organization (WTO) Sanitary and ***** (SPS) agreement, especially with respect to the Pests Regulated by Canada and the interface with Canada's Plant Protection and Seeds Acts. He also has extensive experience in Pest Risk Analysis (PRA) and the technical justification needed for plant health regulation.

From 1986 to 2005, he worked as a research scientist at the the CFIA's principal plant health diagnostic laboratory in Ottawa and was its acting manager for three of those years. He is internationally recognized as an expert in regulatory diagnostics and laboratory quality assurance systems, having been invited to make presentations on these topics to regulators in the U. S. and E. U.

From 1978 to 1986, he worked in the Research Branch of Agriculture and Agri-food Canada (AAFC) as a potato virologist in Prince Edward Island. There he worked closely with the seed potato industry and Canada's seed potato certification program by introducing new technology to control and regulate virus diseases.

Non-government employment

***** Assistant Professor, Botany Department, University of Toronto

***** Post-Doctoral Research Associate, Department of Plant Science, University of Western Ontario

Qualifications

PhD in Plant Pathology, University of Florida, Gainesville, 1974

MSc in Plant Pathology, McGill University, Montreal, 1971

BSc in Agriculture, McGill University, Montreal, 1969

Publications

Authored or co-authored 34 refereed journal publications as well as numerous abstracts and non-refereed publications.