Last Wednesday, the Federal Court of Canada issued a judgment condemning the tactics used by the Harper government to eliminate the Canadian Wheat Board’s single-desk marketing system.
Before last spring’s election, the Conservatives said they would NOT act arbitrarily, and promised to hold a producer-vote about the CWB’s future. But 48 hours after the election, all that was swept away.
There was no vote. No consultation. Anyone with a different opinion was told to just get out of the way. Legislation is being rammed through Parliament before Christmas, no matter what. And if you don’t like it, lump it. That’s the official position, directly from the Prime Minister.
But for 14 years, the CWB has been producer-controlled by elected farmers. And Canadian law says prairie grain producers are guaranteed a democratic plebiscite before the single-desk can be changed.
Never mind the law, these law-and-order Conservatives said. Other people have to play by the rules, but not the government. Conservatives are above the law.
Not so, says the Federal Court.
In a detailed 21-page judgment, the court carefully examined the intent of the law and the government’s argument that farmers’ basic voting rights can be ignored.
The conclusion was crystal clear. And it didn’t turn on some minor technicality. What’s at stake here is pretty fundamental.
Here’s what the Judge ruled: “The Friends of the CWB request a declaration that the Minister’s conduct is an affront to the rule of law … I have no hesitation granting this request.”
The Conservatives are now forcing the Senate to pass a Bill that’s been ruled illegal in Federal Court? Will they force the Governor-General to put that illegal Bill into effect?
As a result, there’s uncertainty and lost opportunity in grain marketing, all because of this government’s reckless, ham-fisted tactics that violate “the rule of law”.
