When a topic trends on Twitter, some brands try to jump on it to promote their own products. This is usually followed by a much deserved firestorm of vitriol and hatred.
Maple Leaf Foods, which boasts of being the world’s first major carbon-neutral company, but neglects to mention its history of killing its consumers, decided to jump on the story of Iran shooting down a passenger plane, in order to blame President Trump.
After tweeting a lot of stuff about its environmental and sustainable green nonsense, the Twitter account was hijacked by its billionaire CEO.
I’m Michael McCain, CEO of Maple Leaf Foods, and these are personal reflections. I am very angry, and time isn’t making me less angry. A MLF colleague of mine lost his wife and family this week to a needless, irresponsible series of events in Iran.
U.S. government leaders unconstrained by checks/balances, concocted an ill-conceived plan to divert focus from political woes. The world knows Iran is a dangerous state, but the world found a path to contain it; not perfect but by most accounts it was the right direction.
A narcissist in Washington tears world accomplishments apart; destabilizes region. US now unwelcomed everywhere in the area including Iraq; tensions escalated to feverish pitch. Taking out despicable military leader terrorist? There are a hundred like him, standing next in line
The collateral damage of this irresponsible, dangerous, ill-conceived behavior? 63 Canadians needlessly lost their lives in the crossfire, including the family of one of my MLF colleagues (his wife + 11 year old son)! We are mourning and I am livid. Michael McCain.
The most popular response referenced the time Maple Leaf Foods killed 23 people with a listeria outbreak.
Despite McCain’s posturing, it took quite a while to pay out a mere $25 million to the families of the victims.
More than three years after a deadly outbreak linked to tainted deli meats killed 23 Canadians, cheques from the settlement of a class-action lawsuit are finally in the mail.
“I got the cheque. I do believe it now,” Vancouver resident Walter Muller, 69, told the Star on Thursday, the day after he deposited the $697.34 into his bank account. “With all these delays and things, I said, ‘Is this really true or is this a joke? But it was no joke.”
Compared to how much Ikea just paid out in a settlement, McCain and MLF seem to have gotten away clean.
The largest paid claim was $120,000 to the estate of someone who died of complications from listeriosis, plus more for family members and funeral expenses.
This was what the world’s first major carbon neutral, but not death neutral company, unleashed.
As she prepares for a big Thanksgiving weekend with family and friends, Karen Clark is still haunted by the vision of her mother Francis lying in a Belleville, Ont., hospital gasping for breath in the summer of 2008.
Francis Clark was one of 23 people who died of listeriosis after eating meat from a Toronto-area Maple Leaf Foods processing plant.
“It was awful. The stare. She wasn’t even blinking. She looked like a fish that had been laid up on the shore.”
The tragedy resulted in two investigations and a settlement. Though he had disparaged lawyers in the case who were planning to sue, Maple Leaf Food president and CEO Michael McCain agreed to pay out up to $27 million to victims who got listeriosis that summer, and their family members. The settlement was announced in January 2009.
It was up to individuals who lost family members and numerous others who got sick to file their claims in a formal, legal process administered by an Ottawa-based law firm.
Karen Clark says the $90,000 she expects to receive won’t bring her mother back, but would be a way of putting the events of August 2008 behind her. She had expected to receive the money last year. Now Clark is being told that she may get the money this fall.
Michael McCain is worth over $3 billion.
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