Maple Leaf Foods is a proud Canadian company. Recently, we have again been subjected to false and misleading claims that we reject in their entirety. We prize our integrity over all else and have a proven track record of owning up to mistakes when we make them. This is not one of those times. As we’ve said before, Maple Leaf Foods has done nothing wrong here.
In the most recent development, Canada Bread filed claims against Maple Leaf Foods late last week, seeking to further embroil us in a sprawling class proceeding years after it was commenced, presumably to spread their pain. The class action plaintiffs already tried to bring us into the class proceeding three years ago with arguments very similar to the ones now being made. Back then, the Ontario Superior Court rejected the claims against Maple Leaf Foods, holding that “there is nothing to support any cause of action against Maple Leaf.” Neither Canada Bread nor the class action plaintiffs appealed this ruling. And yet here we are again, even though there are no new facts that would warrant a different outcome than in 2021.
Canada Bread is using this, and other false claims, in a transparent attempt to set itself up to try to recover damages from Maple Leaf Foods related to Canada Bread’s own decision to seek leniency from the Competition Bureau in 2017 for an alleged conspiracy that Maple Leaf Foods and others say never actually occurred.
Canada Bread’s claims are self-serving, manufactured and devoid of merit, and the arguments being advanced by it and the class action plaintiffs are being brought for an improper and abusive purpose. We will continue to vigorously defend ourselves against these (and other) unfounded claims.
In the spirit of transparency, we welcome you to read the 2021 judgment and the most recent briefs we have filed with the Court in connection with the hearing scheduled to be heard September 19, 2024.
Editor’s Note:
On October 25, 2024, Justice E.M. Morgan of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice issued a judgment that validates Michael McCain’s comments regarding the lawful nature of the emails that have been produced in these proceedings, finding that they reflect routine communication between a supplier and a customer.
Below are two excerpts from that judgment (bold emphasis added):
“…the Canada Bread Documents do not support the existence of the conspiracy alleged by the [Competition] Bureau, or by the plaintiffs in the Class Action. “Rather, what those records relate to is Canada Bread, a producer/wholesaler of packaged bread, speaking with Metro and Loblaw, two supermarket retail chains. Even if an executive of MLF [Maple Leaf Foods] as owner of Canada Bread is speaking on the bread producer’s behalf, what each of the records shows is a producer/wholesaler talking price with its customer, a retailer. That is hardly an improper or shocking business practice…[F]or a wholesaler to discuss its prices with a retailer, or a producer with a supermarket customer, is ordinary business” (paragraphs 64-65);
and
“On its face, at least…there is nothing conspiratorial or anti-competitive about these communications. They show two businesses, one of which sells products to the other, discussing price. That is not a conspiracy; it is the legitimate way that business is conducted. An email showing a seller and a buyer, in effect, negotiating a price for the goods being sold and bought, is about as un-shocking a piece of evidence as one could find in the commercial world…The smoking gun, therefore, turns out to be a harmless replica” (paragraphs 66-67).