Cargill and Tyson found in 'contempt' of Canadian Parliament; by Daniel Yovich on 5/7/04 for Meatingplace.com: Cargill Foods and Tyson Foods have been found in contempt of a Canadian Parliament panel investigating whether some of that country's largest processors unfairly benefited from financial aid doled out by the government in the wake of Canada's announcement last May it had discovered an Alberta cow infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

The panel is questioning why producers have been getting rock-bottom prices for their cattle since last year's BSE discovery, while consumers aren't paying substantially less for their beef at the grocery store. Consumer groups have blamed the country's larger processors, and the panel has subpoenaed financial records from Canada's five largest packers.

Cargill and Tyson have not forwarded their financial records to the committee, twice missing extended deadlines set by the panel.

"Cargill and Tyson know perfectly well they wouldn't get away with this for five minutes in the United States, if they treated their Congress with the contempt that they've treated us," committee member and Liberal MP David Kilgour told the Canadian Press. "We've stood up and I think it's a strong victory, above all for the cow-calf producers, 34,000 of them across our province."

Canadian television showed broadcasts Thursday night of committee members saying they have been advised by House of Commons lawyers that they can jail company officials for failing to comply with the subpoenas.

Cargill spokesman Robert Meijer said the company doesn't believe the committee could keep the records confidential. Cargill lawyers are looking at the contempt order to determine the company's next move.

"We continue to believe that these requests are unreasonable," Meijer said from Winnipeg. "As a privately held firm, we're entitled to have our privacy interests respected and protected. We work very hard to keep our records safe from our competitors.