The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear an appeal filed by western Canadian farmers relating to the dismantling of the Canadian Wheat Board and the handling of CWB assets.
In a decision made public April 9, the Supreme Court indicated that farmer efforts to appeal a lower court decision had been dismissed with costs, suggesting that farmers’ claims to the Canadian Wheat Board assets including ships and office buildings have no legal standing.
The decision derails legal attempts led by wheat board supporters to launch a class action against Ottawa seeking billions of dollars worth of compensation for what they view as the unlawful confiscation by Ottawa of farmer owned assets within the CWB and financial losses that were caused by the elimination of the wheat board’s single desk marketing mandate.
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However, the Supreme Court decision does not affect a smaller class action litigation that contends that hundreds of millions of dollars of farmer equity was improperly used to finance the transition of the old Canadian Wheat Board into the new CWB.
The smaller class action suit is expected to seek certification at the Federal Court of Canada beginning this summer.
The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear arguments in support of a larger class action claim comes as disappointing news to aggrieved farmers and a group known as Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board, which supports legal efforts against Ottawa.
“We are naturally disappointed that Canada’s legal system has been unable to fully hold the federal government accountable for the confiscation and destruction of the Canadian Wheat Board in 2011,” said FCWB spokesperson Stewart Wells.
“The legal system has quite simply not been able to afford justice to western Canadian farmers so far.”
Contact brian.cross@producer.com
