Burnbrae Farms Ltd. has lost its court challenge to keep egg
inspector reports on its operations secret.
Justice Cecily Y. Strickland of the Ontario Court of Appeals
has said almost all of the information contained in the reports may be released
to those who apply under Access to Information.
The exception is the names of customers and the brand name on
the packaging for those customers.
Burnbrae sought to also keep the volumes of the eggs
inspected secret, but the judge agreed with the lawyer speaking for the
Canadian Food Inspection Agency that the records are only one point in time and
do not reveal general sales volumes.
The Access-to-Information request was for CFIA inspection records for random sampling during the final three months of 2010, 2011 and 2012 for Burnbrae and for L.H. Gray and Son Ltd.
Ted Hudson, vice-president of marketing for Burnbrae, argued
that if repeated applications under Access to Information are filed, the person
asking for the files can develop a picture of Burnbrae’s business.
Hudson also argued that the inspector’s ratings on issues of
food safety, such as wash-water temperature and pH, is confidential information
that would give a competitor insights into Burnbrae’s proprietary procedures.
The judge disagreed, saying the reports only indicate
whether the eggs fail to meet regulatory standards and don’t outline the
equipment or procedures Burnbrae uses to meet those standards.
Hudson said by way of an affidavit that the company’s
business has been harmed by misleading reports arising from the records on a
blog. He quoted from Agri007.blogspot.com in making that argument.
The judge said that’s an issue for Burnbrae to pursue via a
libel or defamation suit. It’s not an issue about whether the reports
themselves ought to be made public.
Hudson did not detail what was misleading about the blog
postings.
He did, however, testify that it harms Burnbrae in its
negotiations for contracts with customers.
While Hudson seems to assume the Access-to-Information
request under court review was filed by Jim Romahn who writes Agri007.blogspot.com , there is nothing in the court documents that reveals who
filed the Access-to-Information request.
There is also an ongoing lawsuit among Burnbrae, L.H. Gray
Son Ltd., the Egg Farmers of Ontario marketing board and Sweda Farms Inc. and
it’s possible that lawyers involved in that litigation filed for the inspection
reports. Or it could be CBC Marketplace or any number of other people.
There's one sure way for Burnbrae to avoid losing customers from the release of CFIA inspection reports: run a clean business.
