Trial dates for about 100 farmers charged with Canada Customs violations after trucking wheat and barley to the United States will be set Feb. 13 in Regina.
The trials will likely take place in Estevan.
Provincial court judge Bruce Henning told lawyers and agents for the farmers that he would hold a test case involving several of those charged in Regina, if a group of them agreed. Separate trials would then proceed in Estevan for the others.
Dan Creighton, agent for some of the farmers, said separate trials is probably the only way these cases can proceed.
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“I’m not so sure there’s another way,” he told reporters. He said the farmers he represents are getting frustrated.
“It’s getting long and drawn out and it’s getting expensive,” Creigh-ton said.
The charges were originally laid in April 1996.
Orest Rosowsky, a Kamsack lawyer representing other farmers, was more optimistic that trials could be held together.
“I think some of them will co-operate and do that,” he said. “It’s probably a good idea to do it that way.”
Number involved
Creighton estimated 130 farmers in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta have been charged with illegally trucking their grain across the border.
The farmers are members of Canadian Farmers for Justice who trucked grain across the border to gain publicity for their cause. They believe they should not have to sell their grain through the Canadian Wheat Board.
