http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/fpnewstopstory/Ritz-defiant-in-defeat-over-CWB-135247043.html
Wheat board's court win won't delay passage of Bill C-18, minister says
By: Larry Kusch Posted: 12/8/2011 1:00 AM
Dean Harder (right) and his dad, Butch Harder, are supporters of the Canadian Wheat Board.
Ottawa intends to strip the Canadian Wheat Board of its exclusive marketing powers by year's end, despite a Federal Court ruling Wednesday that Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz broke the law by failing to put the matter to a farm vote first.
A defiant Ritz said the Harper government will continue to push passage of Bill C-18, which is currently before the Senate. He told reporters the government will proclaim it into law before the new year.
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Ritz said the ruling will not change the government's plans to create an open market for Prairie wheat and barley by next Aug. 1.
"I can tell you that, at the end of the day, this declaration (by the court) will have no effect on continuing to move forward on (grain marketing) freedom for western Canadian farmers. Bill C-18 will pass," Ritz told a conference call with reporters. He said the federal government would appeal Justice Douglas Campbell's decision.
On Wednesday, Campbell sided with the wheat board and a group called Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board, which had applied to the court to declare that Ritz had violated the Canadian Wheat Board Act. Section 47.1 of the act requires that the minister consult with the wheat board and hold a farm vote before making substantial changes to the agency's marketing powers, they argued.
Campbell agreed. In his ruling, he termed Ritz's conduct in denying farmers a vote "an affront to the rule of law."
In court arguments Tuesday, government lawyers said the wheat board's and the Friends' lawsuits should be rejected since they were contrary to legal precedents affirming the supremacy of Parliament. But the CWB and its ally argued Parliamentarians must also be bound by the law. The judge agreed.
The wheat board and Friends did not ask the court to quash Bill C-18, which was introduced in the House of Commons only seven weeks ago. They asked for a simple declaration that the minister had broken the law by introducing it without consulting farmers. That's what the judge found.
Wheat board chairman Allen Oberg, an Alberta farmer, urged the government, in light of the ruling, to finally give farmers a vote on whether the CWB should maintain its monopoly. The wheat board conducted its own plebiscite earlier this year. It found 62 per cent of farmers supported the single desk for wheat and just over 50 per cent backed the board monopoly for barley.
Oberg said he was disappointed, but not surprised, by Ritz's reaction to the Federal Court ruling. "This is nothing but contempt for farmers, contempt for democracy and now, I guess, contempt for a ruling by the court," he said.
The CWB's operations are overseen by a 15-person board controlled by 10 farmer-elected members. The other five directors are appointed by Ottawa. Prairie farmers pay all the grain-sellers' expenses. Ottawa plans to eliminate the farmer-elected directors and seize control of the board's operations as soon as Bill C-18 is proclaimed.
Oberg said Wednesday that with Ottawa's refusal to back down from its legislation, the board will examine what other legal means are at its disposal to stop the government from dismantling the board without a farm vote. Ottawa has promised to replace the CWB with a voluntary grain marketing agency, but has not specified how such an agency would function or how it could be viable.
The court ruling came down just before question period in the House of Commons on Wednesday, sparking a lead question by interim NDP Leader Nycole Turmel. The issue was raised repeatedly throughout the session, including by Manitoba Conservative MP Merv Tweed, who accused the CWB of launching a "baseless court case" and funding it on the backs of farmers. However, if Campbell's ruling stands up on appeal, it will be Canadian taxpayers who will have to cover the wheat board's $100,000 legal bill since Ottawa lost the case.
The Harper government views the opening up of Prairie wheat and barley marketing as a matter of principle. And with a majority in the House of Commons, it can ultimately get its way. But in introducing Bill C-18 the way it did, the government made a tactical error, the CWB and its allies say. They say they would have been powerless to stop Ottawa from passing a law to end the CWB monopoly if the feds had first passed a bill removing the provision in the Canadian Wheat Board Act requiring a farm vote. But the Conservatives didn't do that.
-- with files from Mia Rabson
Airing their views Reaction to Justice Campbell's decision and Ottawa's response to it:
'They're not going to give farmers a say in the matter, no matter what the court rules or what anyone says. You have to (say), "Where's the democracy in that?" '
-- Benito farmer and wheat board director John Sandborn
'...if they have any respect whatsoever left for due process, they have to put the brakes on the wheat board legislation for this year and allow the Canadian Wheat Board to market the grain from the 2012 harvest.'
-- Pat Martin, NDP MP for Winnipeg Centre
'It just seems to be incredible that a government that talks a good game about law and order -- when it comes to obeying laws themselves, it seems to be a different story.'
-- Allen Oberg, chairman of the CWB
'I think what's important to note is that (the court ruling) has no impact on the legislation or the implementation of an open market in August of 2012.'
-- Blair Rutter, executive director of the pro-open market Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association
'Presumably, they can (continue to push the bill through). Can they get away with it politically is another question.'
-- Bob Roehle, spokesman for Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board
'We fundamentally disagree with the declaration of the court... we still are convinced that Parliament has the right to introduce, amend or appeal legislation, period.'
-- Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz
'The majority of grain farmers want the wheat board. Their voices should prevail.'
-- Maude Barlow, head of the Council of Canadians, which participated as an intervener in the federal court applications