SASKATOON – A small group of dissident milk producers has won a minor skirmish in their war with the British Columbia Milk Marketing Board.
But the decisive battle won’t be joined until next month, when the two sides are expected to meet in a Vancouver courtroom to argue the constitutionality of the entire milk marketing system.
“At the end of the day, it’s the marketing board’s hope that the courts will say the current rules and regulations apply to everyone,” said John Durham, chair of the B.C. milk board.
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In the upcoming trial slated to get under way Sept. 3, the milk board will be appealing an earlier court ruling which had brought into question some of the legislation and regulations under which the supply management system operates.
“That decision is perceived as an umbrella for the illegal producers,” said Durham. “We don’t think it is.”
He said the issue involves farmers who sold their quotas which regulate how much milk they are allowed to produce. The farmers took the money for their quotas, then kept milking their cows and shipping milk without quota or the required licences.
The most recent development came Aug. 2, when a B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled the milk board or the Canadian Dairy Commission could not enter the farms of so-called illegal producers to seize unlicensed milk.
Authorities did that several weeks earlier, raiding three Fraser Valley farms to enforce an earlier court order supporting the board’s position. That ruling said the producers were acting illegally and it barred the dissidents from producing milk without a quota until the outcome of the Sept. 3 trial was known.
But Justice B. C. Davies decided those raids had taken place without proper legal authority and may have violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms’ guarantees against unlawful seizure and confiscation.
Durham said in an interview last week the board is still considering its options, including whether to attempt to obtain a warrant and do it again.
“We can’t be loose cannons, but we can’t dodge our responsibility to administer the system and strive to maintain its integrity,” he said.
A group of about 30 dairy farmers, calling themselves the Independent Cheese Producers Association, has been producing milk without licences or quotas and trying to dismantle the existing supply management system through a number of court challenges over the past decade.
Altogether, there are about 860 dairy producers in the province who operate with all the appropriate licences and quotas.
