Day 206 - 22 Jan 96 - Page 22
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2 MR. RAMPTON: Not to the substance, no.
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4 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Are you content just that I read that and
5 take it as evidence?
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7 MR. MORRIS: I would like to read it out.
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9 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Read it out now and then we will not forget
10 it.
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12 MR. MORRIS: OK. The statement of Corey Mainprize, Orangeville,
13 Ontario, November 6th, 1995: "I am a waiter at the Glen
14 Cross restaurant, Orangeville. On or about the second week
15 of September 1995, Cam Ballantyne, who I recognised as the
16 owner of the local McDonald's store, entered the Glenn
17 Cross dining room for dinner with four to five colleagues.
18 Right away it was obvious this was not just a personal
19 meeting.
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21 I served them all. They stayed for about two hours.
22 I clearly overheard a total of about 10 to 15 minutes of
23 conversation.
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25 They were collectively discussing McDonald's business and
26 Marketing ideas and strategy. They were clearly from
27 McDonald's in senior positions.
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29 I first overheard some marketing talk including, 'We need
30 to do something about lunch specials as Tim Horton's doing
31 it - we need something on the same lines', et cetera.
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33 They then talked about McDonald's in Ottawa. Cam's
34 colleagues were questioning him about a situation in a
35 store there - it seemed that some of his colleagues were
36 from that store, and were asking for his advice on what to
37 do about attempts there to organise a trade union:
38 'Someone's trying to organise a union'. 'We want to stop
39 it now before it gets to the media'. 'You (Cam) have dealt
40 with this before .. you know a lot about it'. Cam said:
41 'You should definitely clear it up before it comes to the
42 media'.
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44 Cam and the other men said they would like to try and
45 establish a task force of people who'd dealt with Sarah",
46 and I have added "Inglis" because I checked that with the
47 witness, "before and who knew how to deal with such a
48 situation. Cam said: 'If the media or the public gets
49 hold of this information that will only make things
50 worse'.
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52 These pieces of this conversation were heard clearly as I
53 was standing next to the table. I don't recall much
54 else". Signed, Corey Mainprize. Added: "Statement made
55 for the purposes of the UK McDonald's libel case". Then I
56 have added after conversation with Corey Mainprize: "NB,
57 I told Sarah Inglis of this conversation immediately
58 afterwards, informing her of what was said".
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60 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, next comes Mr. Alimi's further
