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food, food production, and food processing.12 It reported revenues of
$113.5 billion and a profit of $2.82 billion in the year ending May 31,
2019.13 Cargill Canada employs about 8,000 people in the food and
agriculture industries, including meat processing in Alberta, Ontario,
and Quebec.14 Its High River beef processing plant, which employs
2000,15 accounts for about 35% of the beef processing capacity in
Canada.16
Given their prominence in the Canadian food production system,
Cargill’s Canadian operations were also deemed essential.17 Unlike
Dollarama, the company provided scant information about preven-
tive measures at its plants until an April 29, 2020, press release18 on
the U.S. parent website. The post was clearly responding to negative
publicity following revelations that several hundred workers at the
High River plant were infected with COVID-19 and one had died.19
An investigation by The Globe and Mail reported that protective mea-
sures were not fully implemented until mid-April despite the first
cases of infection being reported in March; curiously, an inspection
by Alberta regulators, conducted by video call on April 15, concluded
that the site was safe.20 While accounts differ, employees reported
12. Cargill, “About Cargill” (last visited 27 May 2020), online: Cargill <www.cargill.
com/about>.
13. As a private company, Cargill’s financial information is not subject to the report-
ing requirements of securities law and regulations, but it does publish a form of
annual report on its website. See Cargill, “Cargill Annual Report—Year Ended
May 31, 2019)” (30 July 2019) at 2, online (pdf): Cargill <www.cargill.com/doc
1432144962450/2019-annual-report.pdf>.
14. Cargill, “Products and Services” (last visited 27 May 2020), online: Cargill <www.
cargill.ca/en/products-and-services>.
15. Cargill, “Meat Processing” (last visited 27 May 2020), online: Cargill <www.car-
gill.ca/en/meat-processing>.
16. Bill Graveland, “Cargill is Shuttering its High River Meat-Packing Plant
After it Was Linked to More than 350 Cases of Coronavirus”, Financial Post
(20 April 2020), online: <business.financialpost.com/commodities/agriculture/
newsalert-high-river-alta-meat-packing-plant-temporarily-stopping-produc-
tion>.
17. Cargill, “Cargill Statement on Reopening High River Alberta Protein Facility”
(29 April 2020), online: Cargill <www.cargill.com/story/cargill-statement-
reopening-high-river-alberta-protein-facility>.
18. Ibid. A full company statement on its COVID-19 response was published
on April 30, 2020, see Cargill, “Cargill’s Response to the COVID-19 Global
Pandemic” (30 April 2020), online: Cargill <www.cargill.com/story/cargills-
response-to-the-covid-19-global-pandemic>.
19. Graveland, supra note 16.
20. Katherine B Brown, Carrie Tait & Tavia Grant, “How Cargill Became the
Site of Canada’s Largest Single Outbreak of COVID-19”, The Globe andÂ
VULNERABLE
The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Title
- VULNERABLE
- Subtitle
- The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Authors
- Vanessa MacDonnell
- Jane Philpott
- Sophie Thériault
- Sridhar Venkatapuram
- Publisher
- Ottawa Press
- Date
- 2020
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 9780776636429
- Size
- 15.2 x 22.8 cm
- Pages
- 648
- Categories
- Coronavirus
- International