In our media interviews I had repeatedly made the statement that our approach to dealing with McDonald’s continuing refusal to unconditionally release the results of the test that would finally tell us what “store-related compound” our son ingested in his milkshake, wasn’t about the money.
The fact is that what we want is straight forward and to the point:
- a release of the report without conditions
- an apology – which has never been offered
- McDonald’s full and transparent cooperation with any resulting investigation
- assurances as to what steps will be taken by McDonald’s to make sure this doesn’t happen again to another child
- finally, any financial consideration that in the good judgement of the courts is deemed fair – particularly as it relates to any future medical treatment and/or loss Pierce may suffer as a result of his ingesting the store-related compound.
While the support has been tremendous in these early stages of our campaign – you can follow all comments and updates through the hashtag #McD_Poison – one question that has come up is why didn’t we just take the money subject to the proposed negotiated terms?
The answer to this question is also straight forward and to the point; because it would not put us any closer to learning the truth as to what really happened. Not knowing the truth or allowing this to get buried under an obfuscating pile of legal documents and confidentiality agreements would ultimately mean that if and when this happened again to another family, it would be on us. After all, McDonald’s handling of this situation to this point in time, hardly inspires any confidence that the appropriate measures will be taken internally to prevent a similar occurrence in the future.
This is also the reason why we did not accept access to the report under what could only be described as onerous and unreasonable conditions, which included references to lock and key security.
Now do not misinterpret our actions, as neither Jennifer nor I are looking to save the world as one of our lawyers so eloquently put it. We, like the many families who have signed our petition, had no problem with McDonald’s prior to what happened.
What we have a problem with is the total lack of honesty and transparency on the part of the company in dealing with this matter.
For example their press release, which the vast majority of the public as well as those in the media saw through almost immediately as a semantical smoke and mirrors response designed to deflect responsibility as opposed to providing any meaningful insight, only served to solidify our resolve.
This included their red herring reference to purportedly informing us that there were no cleaning agents in the milkshake as alleged. In truth, we had originally asked them if it was Windex and their response was simply; “all we can tell you is that it was not Windex, however we are not authorized to tell you anything further.” We of course have maintained complete records of all interaction throughout this entire process including copies of all documents and e-mails – which by the way we will be posting on SlideShare over the coming weeks.
In truth, this whole matter should have never reached this point. All McDonald’s had to do, and should have done, was give us the results, apologize for what happened and cooperate with any subsequent investigation.
Regardless of their reasoning – a post by customer service expert Shaun Belding titled “Big Customer Service McMistake” might explain what McDonald’s may have been thinking – we are in this for the long haul.
We will get to the truth, and not on the clandestine terms of McDonald’s but instead on the basis of a full and open disclosure of the facts. After all, what do they have to hide that would prevent them from doing so?
Please sign and then share the link to our petition with as many people as possible. Thank You!
Media Coverage:
Ottawa Sun – http://m.ottawasun.com/2014/06/11/west-quebec-couple-battling-mcdonalds-over-tainted-milkshake
Metro – http://metronews.ca/news/ottawa/1063052/mcdonalds-wont-share-report-on-alleged-milkshake-tampering/
CBC Television: (Note – segment starts at the 9 minute mark) http://www.cbc.ca/player/News/Canada/Ottawa/ID/2464456141/
We have also received tremendous coverage from the French media in both television and print.
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