Judge rules on Canadian wheat marketing

notafarmer

Junior Member
Messages
275
WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- A Canadian judge declined to block the Marketing Freedom for Grain Farmers Act that ends the Canadian Wheat Board's marketing monopoly.

In a 29-page ruling Justice Shane Perlmutter of the Court of Queen's Bench said, "The plaintiffs have not demonstrated that suspending the New Act would provide a public benefit."

The Winnipeg Free Press reported Saturday supporters of the Wheat Board said the legal battles would continue.

"This is another one of those legal skirmishes but it only makes up a small part of the battle," said Saskatchewan farmer Stewart Wells, one of eight former Canadian Wheat Board directors who applied for the injunction.

Perlmutter's ruling dismissed the argument that the Canadian Wheat Board Act stipulated a vote among farmers be taken to end the CWB's marketing monopoly.



Read more: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/20...t-marketing/UPI-88821330190987/#ixzz1nb0pIuYs
 

notafarmer

Junior Member
Messages
275
Federal legislation to overhaul the Canadian Wheat Board has withstood a legal test filed by the eight CWB directors who were legislated out of their jobs.

Justice Shane Perlmutter of Manitoba Court of Queen?s Bench on Friday dismissed the eight ex-directors? motion, filed in December, for an injunction against federal Bill C-18, the Marketing Freedom for Grain Farmers Act.

The legal test for any such injunction, Perlmutter wrote, is to see whether there is a ?serious question? to be tried; whether the applicant would ?suffer irreparable harm? without the injunction; and whether the plaintiff or defendant would suffer greater harm as a result.

To that end, he described the ex-directors? case as ?weak? and wrote he saw little in it that would favour granting an injunction on the basis of either ?irreparable harm? or the ?balance of convenience.?

Perlmutter wrote that the ?only substantive basis? on which the ex-directors? case relied was that C-18 violated section 47.1 of the Canadian Wheat Board Act ? the soon-to-be-repealed legislation governing the board?s single-desk marketing authority over Prairie wheat and barley.

In a separate Federal Court ruling late in 2011, on a case filed by the growers? group Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board (FCWB),Judge Douglas Campbell found Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz?s actions ? introducing C-18 without first holding a farmer plebiscite as per 47.1 ? to be ?an affront to the rule of law.?

More at http://agcanada.com/daily/man-court-rejects-ex-cwb-directors-bid-to-halt-c-18/
 

james

Guest
Canada Wheat Board seen gaining grain handling deals

* Board does not have elevators or port terminals of own
* Farm minister says regulated access not necessary

* Wheat Board aimed to start buying 2012 crops this month

By Rod Nickel

WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Canadian agriculture minister Gerry Ritz said on Monday he is confident the Canadian Wheat Board will strike agreements with grain handlers to allow it to start buying farmers' 2012 crops for future delivery.

A new federal law will strip the board's marketing monopoly for Western Canadian wheat and barley as of Aug. 1. The Wheat Board plans to continue buying and selling upcoming crops, even though farmers will be no longer be required to market their grain through the CWB.

However, the board lacks grain elevators or port terminals of its own to take delivery of grain and move it to domestic and export customers, and will have to reach agreement with grain handling companies like Viterra, Richardson International and Cargill.

More at http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL2E8DR60J20120227
 

henry

Guest
Wheat board supporters vow they're ready for 'long fight'

The legal and political fight to save the Canadian Wheat Board as the monopoly marketer of western Canadian Wheat isn't over yet, says one of the former CWB directors who took the matter to court.

"We're ready for a long fight," Kyle Korneychuk said Monday, in the wake of a Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench judgment that rejected an application for an injunction to halt the stripping of the board's monopoly status until farmers have voted on the issue.

Korneychuk said the ex-directors who brought this legal action have not yet decided if they'll appeal Friday's ruling by Justice Shane Perlmutter.

This decision has added another twist to the drama that began in December, when a federal court judge in Winnipeg ruled the federal agriculture minister broke the law when he introduced legislation removing the board's monopoly - legislation that has long since passed - without letting producers first vote on the changes.

Korneychuk said he was concerned by Perlmutter's comment that he found this breach of law to be less significant than, say, a lawyer's violation of privileged communication with his client or a government's failure to translate bills into an official language.

On the other side of the issue, the Western Canada Wheat Growers is "delighted" by the ruling and said it "removes any lingering doubt over whether we will gain an open market in wheat and barely on Aug. 1."

But Korneychuk replied there are several other antichange legal actions going forward, including a classaction suit and another action challenging the validity of the government's wheat board legislation.



Read more: http://www.thestarphoenix.com/Wheat...y+long+fight/6219151/story.html#ixzz1nh72VCUC
 
 
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