SASKATOON – Credit Union Central of Saskatchewan has instructed its lawyers to begin legal action against those who have publicly questioned the financial stability of the province’s credit union system.
The organization had given five individuals until March 31 to retract statements they had made in press releases and published news articles about the financial health of the credit unions.
“We’ve been more than fair,” CUC chief executive officer SId Bildfell said in an April 7 press release. “But we can’t let such obviously false and potentially damaging comments pass without action.”
Read Also
Agriculture ministers agree to AgriStability changes
federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
CUC says the credit union system has never been stronger, with record earnings in 1994 and total assets of $5.4 billion.
The organization’s decision to go to court was prompted by two separate incidents.
Accused of coverup
Three Manitoba farmers, Dave Sawatzky, Andy McMechan and Bill Cairns, issued a press release March 15 in which they stated there has been an attempt to cover up “the total financial collapse of the Saskatchewan co-operative movement”, including all provincial credit unions. As of April 7, they had not responded to CUC’s request for a retraction.
In its March 20 issue, the Alberta-based newsmagazine Western Report ran an article entitled “Are Saskatchewan Credit Unions in Receivership?” Bildfell said CUC is still seeking full retractions from two individuals quoted in the article, accountant Doug Nagel and insurance broker Jack Fingler. As of last week it had not decided whether to sue the magazine, pending the outcome of an attempt to have an article published that will “set the record straight.”
Provincial justice minister Ned Shillington has denied there was a major government rescue of credit unions in the 1980s.
“There never was a government bailout, nor was one ever contemplated,” he said, adding the government has invested in credit unions just as it invests in other financial institutions.
No slander suit filed
Meanwhile, as the week began Saskatchewan Wheat Pool lawyers had not yet filed a statement of claim in a libel and slander lawsuit arising from public statements made about the pool by Sawatzky, McMechan and Cairns.
The three men said the pool has financially collapsed and been “dissolved in law” and has been kept in operation by unlawful payments from the Saskatchewan Crown Investments Corp. The pool has labeled the charges “false and utterly ridiculous.” A statement of claim is expected to be filed shortly in Court of Queen’s Bench in Regina.
