Aylmer Meats sues feds

Aylmer Meat Packers Ltd. is suing the federal government over the seizure of beef at its plant in 2003.

Owner Richard (Butch) Claire pleaded guilty to charges laid after a raid at his plant on Aug. 21, 2003, identified deadstock being processed for sale to the public.

They also seized packaging with a federal stamp of approval from the defunct MGI Packers plant in Kitchener that Claire had purchased.

In its lawsuit, Aylmer Meats says the Canadian Food Inspection Agency took meat that was suitable for sale and failed to properly store it so it spoiled to the point that it could not even be used as pet food.

The federal government tried this summer to simply sweep the lawsuit away, but Justice Sandra Chapnik ruled that there are a number of allegations that need to be examined in a trial.

She did throw out a complaint that the CFIA and Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources enforcers trespassed on the plant. She ruled that they had the necessary authority under provincial meat inspection regulations to raid the premises and to detain some meat.

What’s open to trial is how much meat they could detain and whether they had an obligation to provide better handling and storage so it would not lose its retail value.

In her decision, Chapnik wrote “these allegations raise conflicts to the evidence which require assessments of credibility and are genuine issues requiring a trial.”

So far no date has been set for that trial.

Cheese regulations stand

Canada’s cheese standards have withstood corporate court challenges by Saputo and Kraft.

The Supreme Court of Canada has declined to hear an appeal the companies filed.

They previously lost lower-court challenges to the changes to regulations made in 2007 to set a limit on the use of milk solids instead of whole milk in cheese production.

The standards apply to both domestic and imported cheeses. Canadian dairy farmers lobbied the federal government to enact the regulation because their market was being eroded by imports of milk components that escape the high tariffs that enable Canadian farmers to enjoy the highest milk prices in the Western world.

                                   

Another chicken appeal

Chicken Farmers of Ontario has been hit with yet another appeal to the Ontario Agiculture, Food and Rural Affairs Tribunal.

This time its Juan Feddes of Dundas appealing a chicken-board penalty against his 1046980 Ontario Ltd., better known as Primavera Farms Ltd.

The public hearing at 1 Stone Road, Guelph, is set for Feb. 15.

The tribunal has scheduled two other appeals against the chicken board, both of them from small-scale processors. 

Dairy defence flawed

I got an e-mail today from a defender of supply management for the dairy industry.

He said "with all of the coverage about our supply management system and its potential impact on Canada’s ability to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, some recurring myths are cropping up again. For example:

1.       Canadians pay more for milk and dairy products than residents of other countries. Not true. For example United States Department of Agriculture reports American cheddar cheese costs US $5.70 per pound or $12.54 per kilogram. The average national price for a kilogram of cheddar in Canada is $13.70 Canadian. In Canada, dairy farmers receive no government subsidies.

Trouble is, it is true. Anybody who has shopped in U.S. supermarkets, as I have from New York to Florida, Texas, Alabama, Tennessee and Louisianna, knows milk and dairy products cost more in Canada.

2.      Canadian dairy farmers are subsidized. Not true. Canadian dairy farmers receive no government subsidies. American dairy farmers received $4 billion in subsidies last year, almost equal to the retail price of milk. Americans pay twice for their milk, once in the stores and second time, through their taxes.

Trouble is, it is true. Dairy farmers take advantage of many farm subsidies, ranging from crop insurance to cash accounting for income tax purposes, from traceability to environmental programs.

3.      Competition and open markets will result in better prices for consumers and farmers. Not true. It isn’t working anywhere in the world.

Just saying it isn't true doesn't mean it is not true. In fact, many studies indicate that Canadians enjoy stiffer retail competition and lower markups on food than Europeans and Americans. What makes you think this competition would mysteriously end if the farm-gate prices for milk decline?

4.      The price of dairy products in Canada is high. In fact, since supply management was introduced 40 years ago, the price of milk and dairy products has risen less than the CPI.

The price of dairy products in Canada is high. That's the result of tariffs of close to 300 per cent. And if you want to use the Consumer Price Index as a measure, why not start with the date when Canada switched from reliance on Article 11 of the old GATT to tariffs? Since then, the price farmers charge for milk has increased much more than the CPI. In fact, isn't that why dairy farmers in Ontario want to de-link their fluid milk pricing from the current level of reliance on the CPI: they want prices to go up faster and more.

University of Waterloo Professor Bruce Muirhead, who is part of a global team now conducting research funded by the Norwegian government on agricultural practices, says Canada’s supply management system is the envy of both governments and farmers in jurisdictions around the world.

Muirhead is not an agricultural economist, and he fared poorly in last evening's panel discussion on supply management on TV Ontario. He was much less knowledgeable and credible than Larry Martin, who is a highly-respected agricultural economist.

Pigeon King in court

A court date for Arlan Galbraith, the Pigeon King, was much ado about nothing in provincial court in Kitchener today.

His lawyer, R.P. Williams, asked to have the case delayed to Dec. 28, but nothing more is likely to happen then, either, because it's scheduled for a tiny room barely large enough for four lawyers.

Waterloo Region police have laid charges against Galbraith for misleading investors with whom he signed contracts that proved to be worthless when Galbraith put the company into bankruptcy.

Williams told the court there have been several pre-trail meetings with the crown attorney and more are scheduled.

Maple Lodge expands

Maple Lodge Farms Ltd. has purchased the chicken-slaughering operations of Grand River Foods Inc.

The sale is due to close Dec. 1.

Grand River says it will use the proceeds to invest in its further-processing business. That division operates form a large new plant in Cambridge that was recently expanded. Its chicken will come from Maple Lodge.

The Chicken Farmers of Ontario marketing board has approved transfer of plant supply quota from Grand River to Maple Lodge.

Until this deal, Maple Lodge was second to Maple Leaf Farms Ltd. in the chicken-slaughter business in Ontario.

Saputo and the Mafia

A new book, Mafia Inc., has some interesting information about links between the Saputos and the Bonnano family of New York.

The Saputos deny the connection.

Here's what I found in the book:

Sensing an all-out war was near, Bonanno decided to drop out of sight for a while and travel. In his autobiography, he tells of how a businessman, John DiBella, persuaded him to partner in the Grande Cheese Company of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. “The cheese plant had been the source of contention between rival groups in Chicago,” he wrote. “These people played rough, and fighting broke out.” DiBella had sought and obtained Bonanno’s protection. Bonanno continues”

“When my business associate John DiBella of the Grande Cheese Co. found out about my upcoming travels, he asked me to make Montreal my first stop. Mr. DiBella had a close friend from his hometown in Sicily, Joseph Saputo, who was also in the cheese business. Because of immigration quotas, Mr. Saputo and his family hadn’t been able to enter the United States. As the next best thing, Mr. Saputo immigrated to Montreal, Canada, where he established the Saputo Cheese Co. He was now looking for investors to expand operations.

Fay (Bonanno’s wife) and I went to Canada, expecting to be there but a short time.

At the cheese plant, Mr. Saputo and I agreed to a deal. Mr. Saputo signed a letter of intent, stating that once I made payment, I would own twenty per cent of the business.”

---There follows an explanation of how notorious Bonanno had become in the U.S. ---

“Canadian immigration officers, understandably curious as to what he was doing in the country and what business he had in Montreal, decided to ask him a few questions. Bonanno went to meet them at the appointed hour and place.

“I repeated my intentions of investing in a Canadian business for the purpose of expanding a cheese plant and hiring people. I was helping Canada reduce unemployment. To back up my statement, I brought the letter of intent signed by Joseph Saputo.”

Instead of being granted the permanent resident status he had applied for, the Genovese family boss was arrested on the spot. Canadian immigration argued that he had neglected to mention that he had a criminal record in the United States:a Brooklyn garment factory that he co-owned had been charged with violating minimum-wage statutes. Bonanno continues:

“I didn’t want to be deported. If Canada deported me as a persona non grata, I would lose my rights to invest in the Saputo Cheese Co. Also, now that it was obvious the United States was behind my predicament, I knew that once I was deported back to the United States, the FBI would be waiting for me. “

Bonanno was immediately incarcerated at Bordeaux Prison in Montreal. It was his first time behind bars.

--- and some more stuff of little interest, then this quote from Bonanno’s autobiography:

“For its part, Canada would release me from prison and wouldn’t deport me. However, once released from prison, I had to leave Canada voluntarily and return to the United States.”

--more background stuff  and then the book continues:

Giuseppe (Joseph) Saputo was born in 1905 in Montelepre, a town some thirty kilometers from Castellemmarre del Golfo, birthplace of Joe Bonanno. The Saputo family has always mainained that they were unaware of Bonanno’s Mafia involvement and were only acquainted with his business partner John DiBella of the Grande Cheese Company. Their denials continue to this day.

---more stuff of little interest and then a quote from Le Devoir, a Montreal newspaper, from a trial in Montreal:

During his lengthy testimony, Mr. Cotroni admitted that he knew, in some cases intimately, several individuals publicly named by various commissions of inquiry and police forces, including the FBI and the RCMP, as members of La Cosa Nostra. He explained that in 1966, at the home of a friend, Giuseppe Saputo – owners of the Saputo and Figli Ltd. cheese plant in Saint-Michel – he had met with a group of New Yorkers.”

That group comprised Salvatore (Bill) Bonanno and his associates: Vito De Filippo and his son Patrick, Peter Magaddino, Peter Notaro and Carlo Simari.

And later the book continues to say police surveillance followed five of the people from the meeting and then:

The quintet headed for a pay phone. Couture (the cop) saw Cotroni, Violi, Giuseppe Saputo and Joe Bonanno speak on the phone in turn. The officer asked for backup; there were too many cars to follow. He was told to stick with Saputo who then drove to his company’s head office in Saint-Michael. “In the parking lot there were two vehicles whose licence plates indicated they were registered to Magaddino and Notaro,” Couture later recalled in an interview.

That evening, after they arrested Salvatore Bonanno and his six companions, the police questioned them intensively. They asked what Bonnano was doing in Montreal. He replied that he was there to look after his father’s interests in the Saputo cheese company.”

Bonnano and his party, except for Luigi Greco, were detained for two days before being taken to the airport and deported to the United States.

The book then goes into a treacherous gun-fight between Bonanno and DiGregorio factions. A footnote at the end of the chapter says:

The car driven by Salvatore Bonanno on Nov. 28, 1966, belonged to Giuseppi Monticello, Giuseppi Saputo’s son-in-law. Around the same time, Monticello was sponsoring his brother’s immigration to Canada. Later, when a Canadian immigration officer asked him why he had lent his car to Bonanno, he answered, “Because he has a stake in the Saputo company.”

The book is Mafia Inc, written by André Cédilot and André Noel and translated by Michael Gilson, published by Random House Canada, and just released in English.