fracas

Dear Maple Leaf Foods;

My name is fracas, and I have a blog, as do millions of others all around the world. While I’m sure I’m not your biggest problem (since anyone who would transfer equipment that killed twenty people instead of put it out of commission entirely, surely has problems deeper than any of us can know) I do hope to become at least a bit of a problem to you because my blog gets a tad more attention than some, and I plan to use it to make people aware of your stinky and indefensible behaviour!

Oh… and I also happen to live in Saskatoon. You know… where you’re sending the listeria contaminated equipment from your Ontario plants because you’re too fraccing cheap to care if you kill twenty more people. Well, you know what? I care… and not to say that the other people who’ve suffered and died, or their families don’t count, but my family lives here, my friends live here, my childrens’ friends and family live here and a whole lot of other people I care about live here… and they don’t deserve to be sick or die because you haven’t the sense to admit that if you can’t get the equipment clean enough to please the folks in Ontario, it’s not clean enough for us here either!

Yeah, yeah… I’ve read your pathetic this-is-the-story-we-give-the-public claims…

Manufacturing equipment from the Maple Leaf Foods facility in Ontario linked to the deadly listeria outbreak last summer has been shipped to Saskatoon for use at the local plant, but the company says consumers have nothing to fear.

Maple Leaf spokesperson Linda Smith confirmed Wednesday that meat processing machinery from the Bartor Road facility in Toronto had been moved to Mitchell’s Gourmet Foods.

The move was part of a larger shift that saw equipment move to and from plants in Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Smith said Maple Leaf routinely moves equipment between its facilities in order to address production and consumer demands.

Bartor Road was linked to the listeria outbreak in August. The plant was closed for 28 days and underwent a rigorous cleaning process overseen by Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).

“It went through six sanitizations prior to reopening,” said another Maple Leaf spokesperson, Jeanette Jones.

According to a statement issued by Maple Leaf president Michael McCain, Bartor Road reopened for testing on Sept. 17. While early tests did show signs of listeria, the plant has since been approved by the CFIA and has been shipping product to stores since Oct. 20, Jones said.

Although not conclusive, the most likely source of the outbreak was bacteria found deep inside some of the plant’s 84 slicing machines. As part of its stricter sanitization procedures, Maple Leaf has begun to regularly dismantle, clean and reassemble the machines.

Although she was unable to clarify whether slicers were brought to Mitchell’s, Smith says any equipment shipped to the plant would be subject to the same scrutiny.

I just don’t believe you.

I’m also 100% sure that I’m not the only one who believes you’re shipping that equipment here because you want the people of Ontario to trust you again and buy your damn products, so you’re placating them with new equipment and sending your listeria infested reject equipment over to us.

Why are you doing that? Are we lesser people because we’re from that nasty old Western Canada?  Is it because you think people in Saskatchewan are stupid, or is it because Gerry Ritz had a big mouth?

Mitchell’s Gourmet Foods has been operating in Saskatoon since 1940 and came under Maple Leaf ownership in 2003. Its focus is on pork processing.

The company maintains facilities on 11th Avenue and on McLeod Avenue in Saskatoon.

A spokesperson at Mitchell’s would not comment on the story and insisted all inquiries go through Maple Leaf.

To be truthful, I really don’t care why you’re doing it, only that you are. The deaths of that many people at your filthy hands, should warrant the destruction of that equipment. If you’re not smart enough… if your company is void of anyone in charge without the conscience to do such… you deserve to go bankrupt via a perpetual boycott of your products, no matter where they’re produced, and even the folks in Ontario should understand that. Think you’re safe because you have new equipment? Think again. A company that would simply send the old crap responsible for the deaths of 20 people, on to other unsuspecting folks, isn’t the company that’s going to maintain the new equipment either. If you folks in Eastern Canada have a lick of sense, you’ll understand that.

Regards,

Fracas

So whomever and wherever you live, boycott Maple Leaf Food products until they show they have even a fraction of decency in their collective bones….

…or their ‘gift’ of listeria might mean your bones end up in a box.

So it seems, Mitchell’s Gourmet Foods doesn’t want to deal with angry Saskatchewan residents?

Tough luck for Mitchell’s. I doubt anyone with a brain thinks contacting Maple Leaf Foods is going to result in anything beneficial. Why would it? A company who treats Saskatchewan as the equivalent of a third world dumping ground for its contaminated equiment is hardly going to invite us for tea to discuss the matter.

This is your call to action, people of Saskatchewan. Do let Mitchell’s know what you think. Leave a comment here, write your own post, write your own letters to the company, write a letter to the Editor and above all, boycott any products coming out of Mitchell’s Gourmet Foods.  It’s the only way they’ll listen, the only way to stand up and let them know that people in Saskatchewan matter as much as people in Ontario.

A ‘Just Say No to Maple Leaf Foods’ page will be maintained here to help you in your efforts to do something about this. I will add to the list as more information becomes available so please bookmark the page and come back often. If you find some helpful information that isn’t there yet, either leave it as a comment or email it to me (address in the sidebar) and I will add it (along with a link to your own site if you like) to the action page.

And to those of you who do not live in Saskatchewan, but choose to write and link here, I thank you in advance. Indefensible corporate behaviour should be stood up to, regardless of if you’re the direct victim or not because you just never know when it could affect you!