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Canada: Thomas Canning to plead guilty…

13/10/2017

François-Xavier Branthôme
Canada,
North America
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…to mislabelling products as organic

The bankrupt Maidstone tomato processing company that received a controversial CAD 3-million provincial grant is expected to plead guilty next month to purposely mislabelling products as organic.
 
An order signed by a Toronto judge states that William (Bill) Thomas, owner of Thomas Canning, has agreed to plead guilty on behalf of the company and pay a CAD 40,000 fine. In exchange, several other charges against the company and Thomas himself will be withdrawn.

The guilty plea and CAD 40,000 fine is part of a joint submission from prosecution and defence lawyers. But the judge’s order states the court is not bound by that submission.

According to documents previously filed in Ontario court by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Thomas and his company are accused of 11 offences in contravention of the Food and Drug Act, the Consumer Packaging Act and the Canada Agricultural Products Act.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency refused to comment on the case.

The guilty plea would bring a close to one chapter in a series of woes for the company and the farmers who counted on it for their livelihoods. Thomas Canning received a CAD 3-million grant from the province in 2014 to build a new fruit and vegetable processing facility. The plant was never built.
Farmers planted additional crops, signing contracts with Thomas Canning to supply tomatoes to the new plant. Those additional tomatoes rotted in the field. Before the company went into receivership earlier this year, nine farmers were suing Thomas Canning for CAD 2.85 million for reneging on contracts to grow tomatoes in 2016.

Richter Advisory Group, the receiver for Thomas Canning, stated that one secured creditor, Bridging Finance Inc., is owed nearly CAD 22 million. Employees are owed more than CAD 23,000, according to Richter. Several leasing companies are named as secured creditors, but the amounts owed to them are listed as “unknown.” In addition to the secured creditors, there are 99 other people owed more than CAD 4.2 million.
Company principal William Thomas and family members Robert Thomas, John Thomas and Julie Thomas claim they are owed nearly CAD 1.2 million in shareholder loans.

Source: windsorstar.com

(See also our other articles posted in April and July 2017)

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