A pro-deregulation group of Prairie farmers plans to take the Canadian Wheat Board and over half its directors to court to block the board from allegedly “misusing farmer funds for political purposes.”
The Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association said Thursday it has asked “a reputable law firm” to seek an injunction and “all available measures” to halt such spending, specifically citing funds for a lawsuit the CWB launched Wednesday in Winnipeg against the federal government.
“The CWB and its board of directors have a duty to safeguard monies received from the sale of grain,” association chairman Gerrid Gust said in a release. “This is not their personal slush fund. They have no right to use farmers’ funds to advance a political agenda.”
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The Saskatoon-based association said its formal application to the courts is expected to be filed early next week.
The suit filed by the CWB and eight of its 15 directors seeks to halt Bill C-18, the government’s bill to end the board’s single marketing desk for Prairie wheat and barley.
The suit is an application for a judicial review of C-18 in view of section 47.1 of the federal Canadian Wheat Board Act, which forbids changes to the grains marketed through the single desk without seeking approval through a grower vote.
It also alleges Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz has not fulfilled his commitments or abided by previous “representations” he made that a vote would be held.
A similar application for judicial review was filed this summer by a pro-CWB farmers’ group, Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board. That group’s case is next due in court in December.
“Surely the CWB board must see this as a fruitless exercise that will do nothing more than make a political statement that has been made already,” Brian Otto, president of the pro-deregulation Western Barley Growers Association, said in a separate release Tuesday blasting the CWB’s plans.
“This legal action creates uncertainty for producers, processors, overseas customers and the grain handling sector at a time when the industry needs clarity to move forward.”
