AR-News: (CA) Parliament finds three abattoirs in contempt

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

GLOBEAND MAIL.com
By DAWN WALTON
Friday, May 7, 2004 - Page A8 

CALGARY -- Three Canadian slaughterhouses were found in contempt of 
Parliament yesterday for refusing to give financial documents to a committee probing 
allegations that beef packers gouged ranchers to rake in huge profits during the 
mad-cow crisis.
In an unusual move, MPs voted unanimously to find Cargill Foods, Lakeside 
Packers and Levinoff Meats guilty of contempt for ignoring the committee on 
agriculture and agrifoods' repeated requests for records and extended the deadline 
-- for a third and final time -- to Monday at noon.
"If they've got nothing to hide, then they should be forthcoming," said 
committee member Dick Proctor, a New Democrat from Saskatchewan.
This little-used sanction could mean fines and even jail time for miscreants.
It was last handed to disgraced former privacy commissioner George Radwanski 
in November for misleading the House of Commons, but he avoided the penalty 
after making a last-minute apology.The last time the measure was used with any 
real impact was in 1913, when a parliamentary committee witness was sent to 
jail for refusing to answer questions.
"It's not punishment we're seeking, it's compliance," committee chairman and 
Liberal MP Paul Steckle said.
Federal and provincial governments pledged about $2.5-billion in aid to help 
beef producers in the wake of last year's discovery of a single case of bovine 
spongiform encephalopathy, better known as BSE or mad-cow disease, but cattle 
prices still plummeted while the cost of meat at the grocery store didn't 
fall.
"Something is not right. All we want is some answers," Mr. Steckle said. ". . 
. Some farmers have literally had their animals stolen from them."

full story:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040507/BSE07/
TPNational/Canada


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    "The day may come when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those 
rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the hand of 
tyranny. The question is not can they REASON, nor can they TALK, but can they 
SUFFER?" 
Jeremy Bentham 1748 - 1832 



         
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