Health

Family opts out of listeriosis class-action suit

by Wordsnark | October 29, 2008 at 09:09 am

114 views | 20 Recommendations | 3 comments

Leamington, Ontario deputy mayor Rob Schmidt announced this week that his family will not participate in the class-action suit being brought against Maple Leaf Foods over the listeriosis outbreak traced to contamination at that processors' Toronto plant.

The outbreak, which began in August of this year, has been implicated in 20 deaths across Canada. Mr. Schmidt's mother was one of the first of those fatalities.

While Mr. Schmidt said the family would not seek monetary damages, it did wish for improvements in the food safety system.

"We don't want to get money out of this," Leamington deputy mayor Rob Schmidt said Monday about his mother's death. "We made a decision as a family that we're probably not going to be a part of any of those class-action suits. Nobody purposely did this. But there's obviously a problem with the food safety system."

Schmidt said he hopes that the tragedy will bring about changes to make the system safer.

"If we ever did receive an offer we would probably give the money to charity," Schmidt said. "My mother was never looking for people to blame. You don't gain anything from dwelling on the past. You try to improve the future. That's the way she was."

....

Across the country, more than 4,000 people, including 20 families of victims who died from listeriosis, have already signed on to a class-action suit originating in Saskatchewan and representing plaintiffs in six provinces.

0 See all footage | View Slideshow

Share: email story | add to any | | facebook | stumbleupon

recommend This comment thread is now closed

Terri Potratz

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 09:43 on October 29th, 2008

Wordsnark, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Now there's an example of strong moral character - I'm glad the family is hoping to use this tragic event to improve food safety laws rather than chase the money.

Wordsnark

at 10:27 on October 29th, 2008

Thanks for the comment, Terri.

It is hard not to be cynical about motives. Class-action suits often seem to be mercenary and opportunistic. But it is private litigation that is expected to move into the void left when government responsibilities for food safety are dismantled. There has to be something better: neither 'hoping for the best' nor 'massive damage settlement payouts' feel like effective protection.