SCOC rejects part of lawsuit

REGINA — The Supreme Court of Canada has rejected the leave application to continue with the class action lawsuit brought by the Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board against the federal government for removing the single-desk monopoly powers of the Canadian Wheat Board.

The decision upheld the previous decisions of the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal, which ruled in favour of the government and awarded costs to the Crown, the federal government said in a press release Thursday.

Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said Thursday’s ruling by the Supreme Court “once again upholds western Canadian farmers’ right to marketing freedom.

“Marketing freedom is and will remain the law of the land. Our government will continue to defend the rights of farmers and will continue to work with farmers to create economic opportunities across the sector.”

However, Stewart Wells, spokesperson for the Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board (FCWB), expressed disappointment in the court’s decision.

“We are naturally disappointed that Canada’s legal system has been unable to fully hold the federal government accountable for the confiscation and destruction of the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) in 2011. The legal system has quite simply not been able to afford justice to western Canadian farmers so far,” the Swift Current farmer said.

“The changes made to grain marketing by the Conservative government have resulted in the largest transfer of money away from farmers in the history of Canada,” Wells said, referring to the loss of the CWB’s monopoly over the export sale of western wheat and barley, effective Aug. 1, 2012.

However, Wells added, “the courts have given farmers a green light to proceed with the parts of the class action case based on the misallocation of CWB Pool account funds in 2011-12 and we will be turning our attention to those details in the coming weeks.”