Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board (FCWB) is a coalition of farmers and other Canadians who support a democratic, farmer-controlled CWB.  FCWB has launched a court challenge to the federal government’s moves to terminate farmers’ single-desk selling advantage for barley.  Our court challenge asserts that the government’s Order-in-Council has three strikes against it: it is unlawful, it is undemocratic, and the dual-market concept it advances is unsustainable.  (Please see our June 11 News Release or our court documents for more information about our legal challenge.)

Twelve farmers from across Western Canada have put their names on the FCWB court challenge: Harold Bell, Arthur Hadland, Art Macklin, Lynn Jacobson, Ken Eshpeter, Terry Boehm, Lyle Simonson, Stewart Wells, Bill Woods, Wilf Harder, Ken Sigurdson, and Keith Ryan.

FCWB’s lead lawyer on this court challenge is Anders Bruun, a partner in Winnipeg law firm Campbell Marr.  He formerly served as general counsel to the Canadian Wheat Board (1984 to 1992) and as general counsel to the Manitoba Pool Elevators (1992 to 1998).  In 1993, Bruun was part of a legal team that won a court challenge against the government of Canada when that government tried—in a move almost identical to its current actions—to use an Order-in-Council to remove part of the CWB’s jurisdiction over barley marketing (creating the so-called Continental Barley Market).  The 1993 legal victory by the team that included Bruun terminated the Continental Barley Market experiment and fully restored the CWB’s jurisdiction over barley.