Single desk grain marketing supporters are pushing ahead with plans to certify a class action lawsuit against Ottawa, claiming the elimination of the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly cost them hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars in lost revenue.
Winnipeg lawyer Anders Bruun said efforts to launch a class action will continue despite the Supreme Court of Canada’s recent refusal to hear arguments challenging the legality of Bill C-18, federal legislation that led to the elimination of single desk marketing last August.
Bruun, who represents the pro-CWB group Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board (FCWB), said the Supreme Court rejection does not negate that Ottawa’s actions came at a significant cost to western Canadian farmers.
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Farmers should be compensated for the loss of price premiums that were earned through the single desk, he said.
They should also be paid for wheat board assets that were bought through pool accounts and absorbed by the new, voluntary CWB, he added.
The FCWB believes that Ottawa should have used government money, not farmer equity, to provide financial backing for the new organization.
“That’s the government’s initiative and they should be financing every penny of it,” Bruun said.
The Supreme Court announced Jan. 17 that it would not hear a case aimed at overturning federal legislation that ended the wheat board’s single-desk authority last year.
The decision suggests that Ottawa and federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz acted legally when they introduced Bill C-18.
Opponents of C-18 said a section in the former CWB Act required Ottawa to hold a farmer vote before making changes to the CWB’s marketing authority.
The Jan. 17 decision dismissed that argument and prompted applause from farmers attending the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association annual meeting in Edmonton last week.
Federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz, who spoke at the event, said the Supreme Court rejection puts to rest arguments that Ottawa acted illegally.
“We felt we were in the right place coming into this but courts are courts and you never know exactly what’s going to happen so this certainly feels good,” said Ritz.
Ritz said the decision also casts doubt on whether the class action suit being pursued by Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board will be certified.
“I think the other court cases (against Ottawa) were based on this one being a winner for them,” he said.
“I think the stinger has been pulled (but) we’ll have to wait and see. In a democracy, you have the right to avail yourself of the courts should you think you need to do that.”
The federal government has launched a motion to have the proposed FCWB class action suit dismissed.
Reaction to the Supreme Court’s Jan. 17 decision was varied.
Cherilyn Nagel, a Saskatchewan grain farmer and former chair of the WCWGA, said members were pleased.
“We’re pretty excited…. Not a lot of us were all that concerned about the results of this but it gives us a chance to breathe a sigh of relief and know that it’s over and we can officially move on and enjoy the open market as we have been.”
Stewart Wells, one of eight farmer-elected directors removed from the Canadian Wheat Board in late 2011, said the decision, while disappointing, would have no bearing on the proposed class action.
“They were really two separate cases,” said Wells.
“The action that was … (rejected) by the Supreme Court was what I always described as an action regarding the legislative process…,” he said.
“The class action is more about the money and the premiums lost to farmers and the money that’s been confiscated without compensation, (including) the contingency fund money and the actual assets of the board.”
Pat Martin, a New Democrat MP whose downtown Winnipeg riding includes the CWB head office, called the continued farmer pursuit of a class action suit against the Conservative government a faint hope at best.
He said farmers should be realistic that the fight has been all but lost.
