In a ruling issued today, Justice Douglas Campbell of the Federal Court of Canada agreed with the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) that the Canadian Minster of Agriculture, Gerry Ritz, failed to follow the law and consult with the CWB board of directors and hold a vote among producers before taking steps to dismantle the single desk.
“The change process is threatening and should be approached with caution,” the judge wrote in his decision. “Generally speaking, when advancing a significant change to an established management scheme, the failure to provide a meaningful opportunity for dissenting voices to be heard and accommodated forces resort to legal means to have them heard....Had a meaningful consultative process been engaged to find a solution which meets the concerns of the majority, the present legal action might not have been necessary.”
The case, heard this morning in a Winnipeg federal court, is likely the last chance for the CWB to stop the government from ending its marketing monopoly.
