Ontario's highest court has ordered the provincial government to pay $3.5 million to a company at the heart of a tainted-meat scandal nearly two decades ago, pointing to the province's "litany of bureaucratic ineptitude" in temporarily taking over the business.
The appeal centred largely on Clare's lost opportunity to sell the plant due to the government's takeover of the abattoir. "But for the ministry’s occupation, Mr. Clare would have been able to sell," Lauwers wrote. Aylmer's lawyer Jonathan Lisus, said the appeal court was rightfully concerned about the intrusive powers of the ministry. "The lesson of it is that the court will hold regulators accountable for the consequences of their conduct," Lisus said.
In 2003, a confidential informant told the ministry the plant in Aylmer, Ont., southeast of London, Ont., was illegally processing sick and disabled cows, as well as cows that had died other than at slaughter -- all of which are against the law, the decision said. The informant also alleged the company used an illegal federal stamp on uninspected carcasses, the decision said.
After the raid in 2003, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs took control of the plant, which ceased business that day, the appeal decision said. Aylmer refused to voluntarily condemn the meat, so it sat in the freezer, the decision says. But the freezer began to break down in 2003, not long after the ministry took over.
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