Seven years ago, Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association members gathered at their annual meeting in Yorkton in shock over the recent discovery of BSE in Canada.Next week, they gather in Moose Jaw with no resolution to a class action lawsuit launched in 2005 and designed to compensate Canadian cattle producers for lost income. The lawsuit alleges Ottawa was negligent in allowing BSE to infect Canadian cattle.Cameron Pallett, the lawyer acting on their behalf, said it could be another 10 years before the case is settled.Pallett will address the SSGA convention on Tuesday.Several producers have taken some advice he offered at a rally in Red Deer, a few months ago.He urged them to work together toward an earlier settlement. Otherwise, producers might as well include any possible compensation in their estate planning, he said.A petition campaign has been launched in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec and is just getting started in Ontario, said Gail Kasprick, a Neepawa, Man., producer who is tired of waiting.“Ten years from now, who knows how many cattle producers are even going to be left,” she said.Tens of thousands have already given up and more are leaving the industry, she said.The petition calls on the federal government to appoint retired Supreme Court justice Frank Iacob-ucci as a mediator to negotiate an out-of-court settlement.Kasprick said the loosely knit group of petition organizers wants all 308 MPs in Canada to receive a petition. Each petition requires 25 signatures to be valid but the organizers say they want more signatures in case any are disallowed.The petitions are located in auction marts across Manitoba. Kasprick said once the managers are reminded of the lawsuit, they are willing to allow the petitions on the premises.“It’s been so long, even the cattle producers have forgotten about it,” she said.Organizers want the petitions gathered and in MPs’ hands by the end of June.Although prices have improved lately, Kasprick and others worry that many are waiting for better prices in order to get out of the business.More information on the petitions and the class action can be found at www.facebook.com/bseclassaction or www.bseclassaction.ca.
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