The Supreme Court of Canada has dismissed an attempt by supporters of the CWB to reinstate the board’s monopoly.
Members of the Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board said the ruling will not stop their class action lawsuit.
“We do not believe that the Supreme Court ruling declining to consider the issues raised by the Campbell decision regarding the rights of farmers to have a vote on the disposition of our Canadian Wheat Board has a direct effect on our class action law suit to either restore the CWB or obtain over $17 billion in damages from Ottawa for the loss of single desk marketing,” Stewart Wells, chair of the Friends of the CWB, said in a news release.
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“The class action is based on several legal principles which were not before the Supreme Court and as a result the class action is not affected by today’s ruling. While wheat and barley prices have been exceptionally good due to severe droughts in most of the world’s grain growing regions, the fact remains that producers have lost the premiums on high protein wheat and malt barley which the CWB was able to obtain for the benefit of farmers.”
The case was originally filed with the Supreme Court of Canada in September 2012 to argue that Ottawa should have honoured provisions in the former Canadian Wheat Board Act and held a farmer vote before stripping the board of its single desk marketing authority.
At the time, Wells said the case was bigger than farm policy and has important implications for all Canadians.
“It raises fundamental questions about whether government is above the law.”
