WINNIPEG – Dave Bryan figures he has always had the ammunition to shoot down the Canadian Wheat Board.
Now, he says, he has a weapon to go with it.
The Central Butte, Sask. farmer, facing charges related to illegally shipping grain to the United States, has hired a high profile Winnipeg law firm to challenge the constitutionality of the Canadian Wheat Board Act.
“Before, those against the board monopoly had lots of intellectual ammunition but no gun to fire,” he said after a court appearance last week. “Now we have both the gun and the ammunition and we’re hoping that will allow us to win this case.”
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He predicts a win would set a precedent that would allow other farmers facing similar charges to go free.
“I think this will be the case that decides everybody else’s case.”
Bryan is facing a dozen charges related to illegally trucking grain across the Canada-U.S. border.
No export licence
Last week he was scheduled to go on trial for four charges under the Customs Act, arising from an incident in March 1996 when he trucked 1,000 bushels of wheat to the U.S. without an export licence.
The 36-year-old grain farmer had been planning to defend himself, but at the last minute hired Thompson, Dorfman and Sweatman, one of Winnipeg’s largest firms. As a result, the case was adjourned until Sept. 17.
He said he was convinced by “several high profile people” to take on a lawyer, but refused to identify them, adding he expects to receive help paying his legal bill from farmers who support his cause.
Expert needed
The issues he plans to raise are so important and complex it was necessary to hire expert advice, he said.
“We want to use every resource at our disposal to fight this,” he said, and “justice may have been denied” if he had attempted to handle the case himself.
The constitutional argument will be that the wheat he grows is his property and the federal government has no legal right to prevent him (through the CWB Act) from doing whatever he wants with it.
“I grow it, therefore I own it, therefore I have the right to sell it,” he said, describing the board’s single-desk selling authority and export licence requirements as “confiscation” of his property.
Arthur Stacey, the Winnipeg lawyer representing Bryan, said in an interview that under the British North America Act the provinces have the exclusive authority to make laws governing property rights.
While Bryan is charged under the Customs Act, not the Wheat Board Act, Stacey said if the court can be convinced the CWB Act is unconstitutional, then no export licence would be required and the charges would no longer apply.
The constitutional argument differs from a recent unsuccessful challenge of the CWB Act under the Charter of Rights because while the charter makes no mention of property rights, the BNA Act does.
Asked to assess the chances of success, Stacey said: “If I didn’t think there was some merit in this case and some argument that could be advanced, I wouldn’t take it.”
Prosecutor Chris Maniella said the crown rejects any suggestion the federal government lacked authority to pass the CWB Act and give the agency a monopoly over grain exports.
“The Supreme Court of Canada said in the 1950s that the government had the authority to do this and that decision has been unchallenged ever since,” he said.
Other parties will have the right to seek intervenor status in the case.
Besides the charges that were to be heard last week, Bryan faces eight other customs charges in Saskatchewan and Manitoba and four criminal charges arising from an encounter with customs officers at North Portal, Sask., in July.
He is free on bail and under a court order prohibiting him from traveling to the Canada/U.S. border or having any contact with Canada Customs officers.
