Former Directors Appealing CWB Ruling

The eight former elected directors of the Canadian Wheat Board are appealing a Manitoba court ruling that upheld the federal legislation that ends the CWB's single desk.

Swift Current-area farmer and former CWB Director Stewart Wells says a key concern is that the Manitoba Judge did not give any credence to a federal court ruling in December relating to the legality of the federal governments actions.

"We argued that without a stay of implementation, the Wheat Board would be systematically dismantled, before these other questions were cleared by the Federal Court," Wells said. "Of course, that's what's happening, there's all sorts of terminations on a weekly or monthly basis."

Wells added they are concerned that the changes happening with the CWB as a result of Bill C-18 are not in farmers best interests: "Rumours are rampant out there that grain companies are not paying out protein the way they used to be paid out. Farmers are most likely going to lose up to half a percentage point of protein that they used to get some value for."

The former directors are also involved in two other court cases regarding the end of the single desk - the government's appeal of the federal court ruling in the CWB directors' favour in December and a constitutional/class action suit launched in February.