Ex-Wheat Board Directors Appeal Court Ruling
Eight former elected-directors of the Canadian Wheat Board will appeal a February 24 Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench decision of Justice Perlmutter.

The former directors, elected by producers requested in December an immediate stay of implementation of Bill C-18 which removed the compulsory single desk selling of the CWB
.
“We believe that the judge’s decision is not an accurate reflection of the rights of farmers,” said Allen Oberg, former chair of the CWB and farmer from Forestburg, Alta. “After studying the ruling in detail, we have come to the conclusion that the ruling in Manitoba contains a number of errors that should be analyzed by an Appeal Court.”

The federal government passed legislation in December to allow farmers to use the CWB or other agencies to sell their wheat or barley.

Member of Parliament for this riding, Leon Benoit said ending the CWB monopoly was a “rights issue” (see PN Oct. 26, 2011). The historic change is set to take place for the new crop year—August 1.

Kyle Korneychuk, a former elected-CWB director from Pelly said “For 14 years, from 1998 to the end of 2011, everyone understood that the government had to follow section 47.1 of the CWB Act and conduct a farmer vote on significant changes to the CWB’s mandate. And Justice Campbell of the Federal Court agreed with this understanding in his ruling in December. It is ridiculous for the government to now argue that 47.1 did not extend to farmers the right to vote on important marketing changes. We believe that Justice Perlmutter was wrong in taking a restrictive approach to farmers' right to vote.”