Subway is suing Canadian news network CBC over a TV segment in which the show “Marketplace” claims that Subway’s chicken only contains 50 percent chicken. According to the report, which was broadcast in February, many of the Subway restaurants in southern Ontario use meat that is actually half soy protein. Subway issued a statement calling the report “false and misleading,” and said that its food is 100 percent what it claims to be.

Our chicken is made with 100% chicken + spices and marinade. The findings as reported on the show are wildly inaccurate.

— SUBWAY® Canada (@SUBWAYCanada) March 1, 2017

The restaurant chain let two independent labs in the U.S. and in Canada test its chicken products and posted the results on the company’s website. According to those tests, there is a small amount of soy in the seasoning to maintain moisture and texture, but that is far from the 50 percent CBC claimed.

CBC had researcher Matt Harnden at Trent University’s Wildlife Forensic DNA Laboratory test five chicken sandwiches from different fast food restaurants, and reached the conclusion that the one from Subway had only 53.6 percent chicken, and chicken strips from Subway only contained 42.8 percent of the white meat. Sandwiches tested from the other restaurants all clocked in at about 85-89 percent chicken.

But all of the sandwiches tested contained an average of 16 ingredients in their chicken. CBC’s test showed that the fast food chicken contained about a fourth less protein than a home-cooked bird would.

CBC will defend against Subway lawsuit after ‘Marketplace’ said chicken at many Ontario outlets was roughly half soy https://t.co/9yGIzf2LkN pic.twitter.com/MMRYpkFNGS

— Yahoo Canada Finance (@YahooFinanceCA) April 18, 2017

Subway initially asked CBC to retract its information, but the broadcaster didn’t respond. “We have issued a Notice of Action in Canada against the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that asks for $210 million in damages over allegations made by its program, ‘Marketplace,’ that are defamatory and absolutely false,” Subway said.

So it’s word against word, and lab against lab, in the chicken feud. CBC has said it has no comment, except that it will defend itself.

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Subway Sues Canadian Network Over Claims that its Chicken isn’t All Chicken appeared first on Law Street.

A Florida judge has ordered the state to redraw its congressional districts by August 15th, in order to comply with the state’s Fair Districts Constitutional Amendment. This is a ruling that the Democrats have pushed for, because they feel that the state map has been drawn to give the GOP an advantage. But there is an unlikely group working against this change from within the Democratic Party–the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC).

The Florida Constitution states that no district shall be drawn with the intention of giving favor or disfavor to a particular political party. The law also states that districts shall not be drawn with the intent of denying equal opportunity to racial minorities to participate in the political process. Last month, a judge ruled that politics were taken into consideration for the drawing of two districts and that these districts made a “mockery” of the constitutional amendment. The districts that were ruled unconstitutional are the Fifth and the Tenth and can be seen below:

Thanks WtxlTV!

The judge, Terry Lewis, ruled that these two districts are drawn to divide up the Orlando area, and to connect African American voters from the Orlando and Jacksonville areas in order to favor the GOP. Lewis gave the GOP until August 15th to submit a new map for consideration, at which point he will decide whether to delay the 2014 midterm election in Florida in order to allow the new map to be implemented, or to wait until 2016 to implement the changed map. The Democratic Party backed this suit and is pushing for the districts to be implemented for the 2014 election. Democrats currently have 10 of the 27 seats in Florida, and could stand to gain a couple seats if the map is redrawn. But the CBC, made up entirely of Democrats, is against overturning the current map.

Marcia Fudge, the chairwoman of the CBC, sent a strongly worded letter to Steve Israel, head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). Fudge wrote, “per our prior discussion, we are extremely disturbed by the DCCC’s efforts to dismantle CBC districts in states that have historically proven to be difficult to elect minority members.” Her issue is that Florida’s Fifth District is represented by CBC member Congresswoman Corrine Brown, and the redistricting effort might cause her to lose her seat. This may seem a bit odd, as Democrats stand to gain seats overall with a new map, but the Fifth District is an example of packing. Packing is a form of gerrymandering where a certain group or party is packed as much as possible into one district, in order to make sure there voting power only impacts on district. In the case of Florida’s Fifth, Republicans packed African Americans from Jacksonville and Orlando together, to make sure their votes would only impact a district that would go Democrat anyways. Because of the way the Fifth is currently drawn, it is no surprise the Democratic Party nominated an African American candidate that went on to win. But if the map is redrawn and the African American voters in the Fifth are divided, it will may result in more white Democrats being elected, and Brown could lose her seat. This would occur because the Fifth currently has a majority of African American voters, but if the Orlando and Jacksonville parts of the district are split, Brown’s district will change. So while the Democratic Party stands to gain seats, the CBC has to contend with possibly losing a member.

This issue is a reflection of what is fundamentally wrong with our election system. A minority group is actually advocating to keep a district that was gerrymandered by the opposing political party. That being said, were the Fifth to be divided, it is by no means certain Brown would lose her seat. But the CBC is opposing the change because they feel like African Americans are already underrepresented in Congress. Perhaps this whole issue–a judge forcing the redrawing of a map, considering delaying a election, and the CBC opposing a change that would benefit its own party–is evidence that we need election reform that would fairly represent all Americans. We need to stop allowing mapmakers to decide who Americans are going to be represented by.

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Matt DeWilde (@matt_dewilde25) is a member of the American University class of 2016 majoring in politics and considering going to law school. He loves writing about politics, reading, watching Netflix, and long walks on the beach. Contact Matt at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

Featured image courtesy of [Jaxport via Flickr]

Matt DeWilde

Matt DeWilde is a member of the American University class of 2016 majoring in politics and considering going to law school. He loves writing about politics, reading, watching Netflix, and long walks on the beach. Contact Matt at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Redrawing the Map: Florida’s Congressional Mess appeared first on Law Street.