Manitoba Reform MP and Canadian Wheat Board critic Jake Hoeppner last week lost his bid to sue the Canadian Wheat Board for what he claims were lost revenues from the 1993-94 feed wheat pool.
The Supreme Court of Canada denied an application by Hoeppner’s M-J Farmers Enterprises Ltd. to overturn a Manitoba appeals court decision on the issue.
“I guess the only recourse now is Parliament,” said Patrick Riley, Hoeppner’s Winnipeg lawyer. “He wanted to make the system work better for farmers. Instead, he has to content himself with exposing some of the flaws of the system.”
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At issue was a contention by Hoeppner that the fusarium-damaged 1993-94 crop was exported by large grain companies at a profit while the CWB pool and the farmers who receive revenues from that pool did not get the benefit.
He sued the wheat board for damages, claiming negligence.
Judgment upheld
Hoeppner won the right to sue at a lower court but was denied the right to sue at the Manitoba appeals court level because the court ruled the wheat board is accountable to Parliament but not individual farmers.
Last week, the Supreme Court upheld that judgment by concluding there were no issues it had to review.
Riley said it leaves farmers feeling aggrieved with fewer rights than prisoners.
“If a prisoner feels he has been harmed by the negligence of a guard, he can sue,” said the lawyer. “That is a right a farmer does not have when it comes to the wheat board.”
He said the route for farmers like Hoeppner is to use the political process to change wheat board legislation.
