COVID-19, State-Corporate Crime, and the Meat-Packing Industry in Alberta

• In Event: White-Collar and Corporate Crime in a Modern World - Covid, Live Streaming and Cryptocurrency

Abstract

Several years after the introduction of Bill C-45 by the Canadian federal government (criminal liability of corporations), the law has not been so effective in addressing state-corporate harm, nor in protecting the safety of workers. The COVID-19 pandemic had a significantly negative impact on the meat-packing industry, as corporations forced a predominantly racialized and migrant workforce to risk their lives and health to pack meat. In 2020, Canada’s largest COVID-19 outbreak happened at two meat-packing plants: Cargill in High River and JBS in Brooks, southern Alberta two weeks after the provincial government largely ignored requests from workers, unions, and communities living close by to temporarily close both meat plants. This paper analyzes the Alberta governments and the corporations responses to the COVID-19 outbreaks in the meat-packing industry. My findings reveal that Cargill and JBS used the government and the law to avoid criminal liability for any illnesses or deaths caused by COVID and to keep the packing plants open by ignoring physical-distancing protocols and conducting negligent health and safety inspections. The Alberta government’s failure to hold corporations accountable for their harms also resulted in Asian workers experiencing Anti-Asian racism and xenophobia, as they were unfairly blamed for the COVID outbreak.

Author

• Manzah-Kyentoh Yankey, University of Alberta