Miles Materi of Salmon Arm, B.C., has died of a massive heart attack. He was 46.
He was in many and continuing battles with the British
Columbia egg marketing board, fighting perceived injustices right up until his
death.
For example, he spoke with me Thursday, the day before he died, telling how he had garnered stacks of evidence
that Golden Valley, the dominant egg-grading business in the province, cheated on the
grading of eggs.
The evidence was scores of Canadian Food Inspection Agency
reports of audits to check the accuracy of grading.
His concern was the stake that directors of the B.C. egg
marketing board hold in Golden Valley. Those directors and the board were direct
competitors with Materi and his egg-farming and egg-grading businesses, and he
said they were determined to bankrupt him.
Their most recent moves were to prohibit him from buying and
grading any eggs in the province. They earlier took away his right to produce
eggs.
He acknowledged that he was no saint, but said his
egg-grading business was more honest and clean than the competitors. He said he
held the top scores in B.C. for compliance with CFIA standards.
The connection with Ontario was through the majority
interest L.H. Gray and Son Ltd. holds in Golden Valley. Gray’s
staff runs the business.
Gray is being sued in Ontario by Svante Lind and Best Choice
Eggs Ltd. for trying to run him out of the egg-grading business. Materi drew parallels between what Gray is accused of doing in Ontario and what has happened to him.
The Ontario allegations include cheating on egg grades and conspiring
with Burnbrae Holdings and Burnbrae Farms, and the Egg Farmers of Ontario
Marketing Board to keep him from getting enough eggs to satisfy his customers’
requirements. The defendants deny wrongdoing.
Materi said he was under orders from his doctor, who was
alarmed by his high blood pressure, to take things easier.
Materi said his stress was from his continued egg-industry
battles.
He was disappointed that the New Democratic Party failed to
win a majority in the recent B.C. election because he said a couple of NDP
members of the legislature were the only ones who seemed to understand what’s
happening in the B.C. egg industry and indicated they were willing to act.
