Day 053 - 22 Nov 94 - Page 15
1 I mean, it is people and a cow in a bun, as in they are
2 being crushed by the burger industry.
3
4 MR. MORRIS: Just going back to the meal, our contention is the
5 context -- as far as we are concerned, that section on
6 nutrition, to us, is very clear about diet-linked diseases,
7 whatever you feel "linked" could or could not mean. The
8 point is, it is very clear as well to us about diet, and it
9 may be said that the heading says: "What's so unhealthy
10 about McDonald's food?" But if we look at other sections
11 of the leaflet, for example: "What is the connection
12 between McDonald's and starvation in the Third World?" the
13 first section, all the references to McDonald's in that
14 section are as part of a system. Sometimes it does not
15 even mention McDonald's at all. For example, the first
16 paragraph: "....does nothing to change the power of
17 multinational corporations"; and then it says: "McDonald's
18 is one of several giant corporations" -- part of
19 something.
20
21 That also applies to the section on working for
22 McDonald's: "What's it like working for McDonald's?" Then
23 it talks about the catering industry. Sorry, the first
24 paragraph mentions McDonald's, but the "No unions allowed"
25 talks about workers in catering.
26
27 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I accept that it is an attack on
28 multinationals of a certain kind. When I say you, because
29 are you doing the case very much in harness, one or other
30 or both of you say that McDonald's is picked as an
31 example. The fact is, whether directly by name or "at
32 McDonald's", as an example, McDonald's is a target, is it
33 not?
34
35 MR. MORRIS: Of this leaflet as a whole, yes.
36
37 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Of every criticism which is made in the
38 leaflet.
39
40 MR. MORRIS: Yes, but that does not mean to say that if there is
41 a sentence that says -----
42
43 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think we are getting a bit away from the
44 point. The point we started with this -- and I will just
45 make it again, and then you must proceed with your
46 submissions -- is that although the original words referred
47 to the contents of an average McDonald's meal, and in the
48 proposed amendment the words "meals" appears, at the moment
49 I am having difficulty seeing any difference in substance
50 between the words "the contents of an average McDonald's
51 meal are linked with cancers of the breast and bowel and
52 heart disease" and the words "sell meals which cause cancer
53 of the breast and bowel and heart disease in their
54 customers", if one reads "linked" in the original to mean
55 "causally linked".
56
57 MS. STEEL: The implication in the amended meaning is that the
58 individual meals can cause cancer, whereas that is not the
59 meaning of the first one.
60
