In the midst of a treasure trove of documents released through a Freedom of Information application are the defences filed in court by L.H. Gray and Son Ltd., Burnbrae Farms Ltd., John Klei and the Egg Farmers of Ontario marketing board.
In a nutshell, they deny every allegation levelled by Svante Lind and his Best Choice Eggs Ltd. about conspiracy to drive him out of the egg-grading business, about collusion in the wholesale marketplace, about cheating on egg grading.
The egg board has filed a counter-claim against Lind for $131,000 worth of levies it now claims Best Choice Eggs owes for eggs marketed through a depot in Huron County. That counter-claim was filed in February.
It is also claiming that Lind's Verified Egg business has no traceability credibility to back its claims for eggs marketed as brown free-run Omega 3 eggs. It says not all of the producers bought their feed at a company making Omega-3-enriched rations.
John Klei, in his defence, says he never met with Burnbrae or Gray after he left Best Choice Eggs.
He is accused of providing inside information about Best Choice's operations.
Burnbrae details its defence point by point, including denials that it colluded with Gray on wholesale marketing, says it did not provide any cracked or dirty eggs to Best Choice and says if they were, indeed, cracked and dirty, it must have happened during unloading at Best Choice facilities.
Best Choice has inspection records from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency which found serious fault with the eggs Gray and Burnbrae shipped to Best Choice. The CFIA ordered the eggs held off the market.
Burnbrae and Gray provided Best Choice with eggs in response to Best Choice's application for permission to import from the U.S. on the basis that there were no suitable eggs in Ontario; the egg board has an opportunity to find eggs to fill those orders, and found eggs for Best Choice from Burnbrae and Gray.
Gray also denies any wrongdoing, says it never had any improper relations with the egg board, never did collude with the egg board and Burnbrae against Best Choice, never cheated on egg grading and says Norman Bourdeau stole more than one million documents from the company to share them with Lind and level his allegations of cheating, collusion, etc.
Gray denies ever telling Bourdeau, when he was the company's information technology employee, to destroy any documents.
However, in a counter-claim, Donald Good, lawyer for Lind, points out that there is an e-mail from Scott Brookshaw, an employee of L.H. Gray and Son Ltd., saying all eggs except "shitballs and leakers" can go into the pack of Grade A eggs.
All of the claims and counter-claims have yet to be tested in court.
It will be months before a trial because the lawyers are still sparring over preliminary issues, such as Gray's motion to hold a separate trial first on the allegation of cheating on grading, and a decision on how many of the electronic files taken by Bourdeau can be used in the lawsuit.
