Last week’s Supreme Court refusal to review government legislation that ended the Canadian Wheat Board wheat and barley monopoly essentially ends the legal battle, says the NDP Board spokesman.
And Pat Martin, veteran Winnipeg MP whose downtown riding houses CWB head offices, said Jan. 18 that the continued farmer pursuit of a class action suit against the Conservative government is a faint hope at best.
During the House of Commons debate over ending the CWB single desk, Martin was one of the most fierce opponents.
Read Also
Alberta Crop Report: Rains in the south, dryness in the north
Rain fell onto the southern half of Alberta last week, while hot and dry conditions persisted in the northern half, according to the province’s crop report released on July 18.
Now, in an interview after an NDP caucus meeting in Ottawa Jan. 18, he said farmers should be realistic that the fight has been all but lost.
Last week, the Supreme Court refused to hear a Friends of the CWB appeal of an appeal’s court judgment last year that dismantled a Federal Court judgment that concluded without farmer consent to dismantle the CWB monopoly, the government and agriculture minister Gerry Ritz were violating the rule of law.
The appeals court ruling last year said the government acted within the law and the Federal Court ruling was wrong.
The Supreme Court rejected an appeal to review that decision.
“I don’t see any other recourse from a legal point of view,” said Martin. “In Winnipeg we’re still reeling with the impact and the ramifications and jobs lost but I think the legal fight is over.”
The FCWB vowed last week to continue a class action suit against Ottawa demanding $17 billion for lost income and assets because of the loss of the single desk.
Martin counseled farmers not to make an assumption of winning a part of their business plan.
“My sense is that there is not much of a basis for a class action suit because you would have to start from the assumption that the government did not have the right to implement this and the courts have ruled on that,” he said. “It is uncharted waters and you never say never but it really boils down to a very faint hope.”
