Lawyer
Don Good, acting for Svante Lind, owner of Verified Eggs and former owner of Best Choice Eggs, says
Geri Kamenz, chairman of the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission, misled
him about the status of Good’s request for an inquiry into the egg industry.
And
Good also says Kamenz and commission staff consulted closely with the Egg
Farmers of Ontario marketing board about the allegations of wrongdoing in the
egg industry, but didn’t consult him or Lind for their comments on the issues.
The
allegations, first outlined by Norman Bourdeau, who was information technology
officer for L.H. Gray and Sons Ltd., include:
- - cheating
on egg grading.
- - collusion
among the marketing board, Gray and Burnbrae Farms Ltd. to make business
difficult for Lind and his Best Choice Eggs.
- - e-mail
discussions between Gray and Burnbrae about reducing competition to maintain
higher wholesale egg prices.
In
early August, 2012, Good wrote to Kamenz seeking a meeting to discuss his request
for an inquiry. Good said he is acting for Verified Eggs which has no lawsuits pending; that negates the commission's excuses that it won't investigate matters under litigation.
Kamenz
declined the dates Good mentioned, saying the commission “continues to consider
the request for an investigation."
Kamenz said the same thing to me.
In fact, however, according to minutes of a commission meeting more than 16 months earlier, on March 30, 2011, the commission approved a motion to “refuse the
request to consider a public inquiry and decline at this time to investigate
the specific allegations that are subject of the request.”
Kamenz
wrote to Good in August that the commission would be considering the request
for an investigation and/or public inquiry when it would meet in September.
Good
says that in misleading him, Kamenz denied him the opportunity to file an
appeal.
Good has made Premier Dalton McGuinty aware of the situation.
A
large number of documents has been released to Bourdeau, who filed a
Freedom-of-Information request, and they show that the commission and the egg
board were in close and friendly contact many times over the egg-industry
issues and the lawsuit Good filed against Gray, Burnbrae and the Egg Board on
behalf of Lind and Best Choice Eggs.
In his August reply to Good’s request for a meeting,
Kamenz wrote “Unfortunately, it will not be possible to set up a meeting those
weeks. The Commission is not
scheduled to meet again until the third week of September and I am not in a
position to discuss the Commission's position untll after the Commission has
had an opportunity to discuss the Petition at its September meeting.
‘The
two letters, including your request for a meeting with the Commission, will be
presented to the
Commission
for consideration at its next scheduled meeting.
‘At
the meeting, the Commission will also be asked to consider and provide further clarification
of its position on the
status of the request for investigation, so that this position can be provided
in writing to you and your clients and Mr. Bourdeau, shortly after the
Commission meeting.
‘Therefore
it would not be appropriate to initiate any type of appeal at this time.”
It's that last sentence that is one of Good's current complaints about Kamenz.
In
April, Kamenz wrote to Carolynn Griffith, then chair of the Egg Farmers of
Ontario marketing board, asking the board to “develop written operational
policies and procedures on specified matters for the commission’s
consideration.”
He
said these policies and procedures would take effect “going forward” once
accepted by the commission.
The
list of requests speaks to many of the points outlined in the allegations and
request for a public inquiry, such as how the egg board deals with rumours of cheating on egg grading, how it deals with applications to the Department of
Foreign Affairs and International Trade for permission to import eggs, how it
seeks eggs to fill those markets, how it responds to complaints and how it
polices the collection of levies and licence fees.
The
documents released to Bourdeau also indicate that the commission contacted the
Canadian Food Inspection Agency about the allegations of cheating on egg
grading.
Dr.
Brian Evans, chief food safety and veterinary officer, replied that the matter
was under investigation, but the release of information to the commission would
be subject to limits under the Privacy Act.
The
correspondence also indicates that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and
Health Canada undertook a survey to determine the incidence of cracked eggs and
that Health Canada undertook a review of its food safety standards regarding
cracked eggs.
That
survey was to be completed by the end of April, 2011.
There
are documents indicating that the commission briefed the agriculture minister
about how many egg producers are in her riding and recommended she make no
comment on the allegations pending the outcome Lind’s lawsuit and lawsuits Gray
filed against Bourdeau.
Gray’s
lawyer, Alison Webster, wrote the commission saying Gray believes “the
(egg-grading) information (in Bourdeau's allegations) has been manipulated such that it is unreliable and
entirely without foundation.”
She
did not provide any documentation to back that opinion.
Bourdeau cited
thousands of electronic egg-grading documents to back his allegation of
cheating on egg grading.
