Monday, May 6, 2019

Potato farmer sues the feds

A lawsuit potato farmer Henk Tepper of New Brunswick has filed against the federal government is inching closer to trial in Fredericton.

The process has led to disclosure of documents revealing that Tepper did not know he was on an Interpol list when he joined a government trade mission to Lebanon and was arrested and imprisoned for a year in a basement cell five by 10 metres.

He exported potatoes to Algeria, but somebody doctored the Canadian Food Inspection Agency export certificate. Documents now released indicate that some potatoes from Quebec got added to the shipment and they were infected with bacterial ring rot.

Tepper has sued the government for $16.5 million because he said the federal government did not do enough to secure his release.

Why doesn't the government simply admit its failures and settle with Tepper?