Lawyers Sandra Barton and Mark Coombes of Gowling WLG
(Canada) LLP, Toronto, have filed an application on the case to the Ontario
Court of Appeal.
They argue that deputy crown attorneys who stayed the
perjury charge made errors.
In particular, they say deputy crown attorney John Scutt
ignored the nub of the perjury complaint and made his decision based on red
herrings – i.e. the merits of a lawsuit that Sweda Farms Ltd. filed against
Burnbrae.
The perjury charge was laid by Stuart Jackson, a former
Sweda employee, in January, 2015.
He said then, and insists now, that McFall committed perjuty
– i.e. lied under oath – when she claimed that Burnbrae did not breach a
confidentiality agreement signed with Sweda by sharing information with L.H.
Gray and Son Ltd.
Burnbrae was negotiating to buy Sweda and so obtained
confidential financial records.
Gray is another major egg-grading business and Gray and
Burnbrae combined account for about 90 per cent of graded eggs marketed in
Ontario.
Jackson said it’s obvious Burnbrae did share confidential
information with Gray, and among other evidence, cites e-mails between McFall
and Gray.
McFall is a daughter of the founder of Burnbrae, Joe Hudson,
was the company’s internal lawyer, then its external lawyer, then a director on
the Egg Farmers of Ontario Marketing Board and a councillor for the
municipality of Brockville.
The appeal document argues that it’s important that such a
prominent person not be allowed to get away with perjury.
