WINNIPEG – Following an unsuccessful court bid to stop a new canola trading contract, the Canadian Canola Growers Association is resorting to more obscure measures.
While association president Doug Sword said he’s disappointed with the Federal Court of Canada decision that cleared the way for the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange to continue with its new canola contract, canola growers are not prepared to back down.
Sword appealed to the federal minister of agriculture to amend or revoke the bylaw that moves the pricing point from Vancouver to an area near Saskatoon. The appeal was made under a little-used section of the Grain Futures Act.
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“We do consider this an important enough issue to go to all avenues that we have available to get a reversal,” Sword said.
Last week, canola growers’ associations were unable to convince the Federal Court in Vancouver to stop the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange from launching its new canola contract.
Dick Groundwater, the assistant chief commissioner of the Canadian Grain Commission, said the act was passed in 1939, and the section that allows for appeal to the minister has never been used before. Groundwater said department of justice lawyers are looking at the appeal.
Vern Greenshields, press secretary for agriculture minister Ralph Goodale, said the minister received the appeal Sept. 29 and has instructed department lawyers to examine it before commenting.
Sword also said the case before the Federal Court is not yet over. The hearing in Vancouver on Sept. 25 was an effort to prevent the contract from beginning to trade. But sometime in the next month, a judge will review the growers’ case.
Sword said it’s hard to say how far the canola associations will take their complaints. “We’ve always been proponents of change, and it’s really not a role we like, trying to stop change.”
