Dairy products are generally more expensive in Canada due to “restrictions by the country’s dairy board,” as well as “tight controls on US imports of cheaper cheese.” Three Canadians living in southern Ontario used this as motivation to smuggle cheese and other dairy products from the United States of America and bring them into Canada. Buying large quantities at a time, these smugglers illegally transported the cheese across the border without declaring or paying duty on the goods. Exceeding the maximum of CAD $20 or 20kg of cheese legally allowed to be imported at one time to be considered “duty free,” the smugglers were risking civil penalties that can charge up to 245.5% of the original value of the cheese. But while this operation clearly had its risks, it also had its benefits. The accused were found to have made a profit of just over CAD $165 000 just from the dairy products. The business ethics followed by these three Canadians were closely related to Friedman’s ethics that roughly translate to: do whatever you have to in your business to make money. These smugglers were simply doing what any other business strives to do. Make money. The differentiating factor in this case however, is the illegitimacy of the business.

Works Cited:

BBC News. BBC, 27 Sept. 2012. Web. 27 Sept. 2012. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19751695>.

As CEO, Gary Holden had the ability to abuse the spending of company money. Opposed to always spending company money responsibly, Holden chose to use it to fund elaborate and private house parties where famous rock stars performed. On top of Gary Holden spending precious company dollars on said parties, he also abused his pay package receiving $2.7 million opposed to Enmax’s proceeding CEO who only earns $1.6 million. While Holden was able to sneak under the radar and continue exploiting company money for quite some time, an Enmax employee eventually emailed the City of Calgary (the sole shareholder) explaining exactly how Holden was abusing his position. It did not take long after the email was sent for the media, and soon all of Calgary to discover Holden was spending company money irresponsibly.

The true extent of the former chief executive officer’s ignorance towards business ethics became apparent after he sent out a company-wide email to his employees not only defending his actions but suggesting Enmax would “pursue legal action against an unnamed senior employee who first leaked the information.”

Holden spent far more company money on his parties and on himself than he should have, illustrating the extent to which he neglected business ethics. Enmax and its stakeholders were negatively affected due to Gary Holden’s lack of business ethics.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2010/11/04/calgary-enmax-nenshi-email-pay-critical.html

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/trust-responsibility-watchwords-enmax-ceo-says-030500106.html

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