Despite a strongly worded reproach from a Federal Court judge, the Conservative government insists its bill to dismantle the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly will be through Parliament and into law this week.
The Senate wrapped up committee hearings Dec. 12 and was scheduled to complete final debate and a vote late Dec. 15, just before Parliament rises for a six week Christmas break.
Agriculture minister Gerry Ritz insisted last week he intends to make sure Bill C-18 is proclaimed into law by the end of the year, probably within days of its final passage.
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However, in the political turmoil created by the hasty court ruling, farmers and the wheat board were musing last week about a last minute attempt to apply for a court injunction against proceeding with the legislation.
Ritz dismissed the court ruling as a “declaration. We disagree with it.”
A court injunction would be more difficult to ignore, although the Federal Court ruling said it was not challenging Parliament’s ability to change laws and CWB chair Allen Oberg said last week injunctions are difficult to get.
The federal government has launched an appeal of a Dec. 7 Winnipeg judgment from justice Douglas Campbell that concluded Ritz breached “the rule of law” as set out in the 1998 CWB Act by not holding a farmer vote as required by existing legislation.
“The minister will be held accountable for his disregard of the rule of law,” wrote Campbell.
Ruling stuns Ottawa
The 21-page ruling, delivered less than 24 hours after he heard arguments on the case, landed like an incendiary bomb on Parliament Hill, where the Senate agriculture committee was holding hearings on the bill. The House of Commons had passed it Nov. 28.
Opposition politicians in the Commons and Senate moved unsuccessful motions that debate on the bill and final approval be suspended until a final court judgment comes.
Oberg was succinct in his demand during a Dec. 8 Senate committee meeting.
“The Federal Court of Canada issued a ruling that minister Ritz broke the law when he denied farmers a vote before taking steps to dismantle the CWB single desk,” he told senators.
“The court ruled that Bill C-18 was brought before Parliament in an illegal manner. We therefore ask today that you reject this bill, suspend these hearings and request that a producer vote be held to decide the issue.”
Across the street at the same time, National Farmers Union president Terry Boehm was calling for Ritz to resign.
And the Conservatives were digging in, insisting that the court ruling changed nothing.
Interim New Democratic Party leader Nycole Turmel demanded in the Commons Dec. 8 that the government slow down and consult farmers as the existing law requires.
“Yesterday, the Federal Court handed down its ruling: the Conservatives broke the law,” she said. “The government is acting illegally. That is what the ruling states.”
She demanded that the government hold a farmer vote.
“The law is the law.”
Prime minister Stephen Harper did not budge.
“It is always the authority of the government, acting through Parliament, to change law,” he responded.
“That is of course precisely what we are doing in this case, which we have the clear legal right to do, and not only the clear legal right, but the clear mandate from western Canadian farmers.”
Oberg called Ritz’s actions “reprehensible.”
Boehm called them “odious.”
In the Commons, Ritz responded with his own spirited defence, claiming that the NFU is the only prairie farm group opposing the government proposal to end the single desk. The government will not bend.
“Fortunately, farmers in Western Canada know how to market their crop in 2012,” he said.
“They will have the option of marketing through a voluntary Canadian Wheat Board at the same address, using the same people they have always done, or they will have the opportunity to market individually. They can go to their best bottom line for their industry and market accordingly.”
However, the court ruling threw a wrench into Conservative plans for a triumphant week leading to passage of the bill, including a decision by Ritz to skip a World Trade Organization meeting in Geneva Dec. 15-17 so he could be in Ottawa for the royal proclamation.
