Bread price-fixing scandal puts focus on Competition Bureau’s immunity program
CALGARY — The national bread price-fixing scandal has sparked heated debate over the Competition Bureau’s immunity program, with law enforcement experts defending the effectiveness of the practice and a government accountability critic arguing it lets offenders get away with crime.
Bakery wholesaler George Weston Ltd. and subsidiary grocer Loblaw Companies Ltd. were granted immunity from prosecution in return for their co-operation in an investigation under a long-standing bureau program that grants freedom from sentencing to the first party in a cartel who volunteers to co-operate.
According to court documents released Wednesday, the bureau alleges that senior officers at George Weston and rival Canada Bread Co. Ltd. communicated to raise prices in lockstep, then met with five national bread retailers, which agreed to implement the higher prices.
The competition watchdog has said the program, created in 2000, offers “powerful incentives” for informants to come forward, adding it has proven to be one if its best weapons to combat criminal cartels.