BSE class action petition builds momentum

Earlier this year, a group of producers launched a Canada-wide petition on behalf of farm producers, to fellow farm producers, to the public, and to any business or organization affected by the continuing fallout from the 2003 discovery of BSE in the Canadian cattle herd.

So far, there is no resolution to a class action lawsuit launched in 2005 and designed to compensate Canadian cattle producers for lost income. The lawsuit alleges Ottawa was negligent in allowing BSE to infect Canadian cattle.

Cameron Pallett, the lawyer acting on their behalf, said it could be another 10 years before the case is settled.
Several producers have taken some advice he offered at a rally in Red Deer earlier this year, to work together toward an earlier settlement. Otherwise, producers might as well include any possible compensation in their estate planning, he said.
Producers launched a petition campaign in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec and in Ontario, said Gail Kasprick, a cattle producer from Neepawa, MB who is simply fed up and tired of waiting.

“Who knows,” she said. “Ten years from now, how many cattle producers are even going to be left. Tens of thousands have already given up and more are leaving the industry.

The petition calls on the federal government to appoint retired Supreme Court justice Frank Iacob-ucci as a mediator to negotiate an out-of-court settlement.

Kasprick said the loosely knit group of petition organizers wants all 308 MPs in Canada to receive a petition. Each petition requires 25 signatures to be valid but the organizers say they want more signatures in case any are disallowed.

“Manitoba has done extremely well,” she said commenting on the progress of getting petitions. “I have two more petitions on my desk, which once they’re mailed, will put a petition on the desk of every MP in Manitoba. We have a number of petitions still out in the country, and are planning on collecting signatures until we run out of people to sign them. The extra petitions will be put to good use as we find specific MP’s who are in a position to help us.”

She mailed one to Alex Atamanenko, who is the NDP Agriculture Critic, and a member of the Standing Committee on Agriculture. His office has been very supportive, and helpful.

“Other than Steven Fletcher, his office is the only one I’ve received a response from, and that response came in the form of a telephone call,” said the concerned cattle producer from Neepawa. “I have been told that he will bring our petition up at the first Standing Committee meeting in the fall, and recommend it be put forward to the house as a motion for a full debate on the floor of the House.

Kasprick said the group’s next priority is to make sure every member of the Standing Committee has a petition, and so far half of them have already either received a petition, or will soon receive one.

As for MP Steven Fletcher of Winnipeg, all she received from him was a copy of the letter he sent along with the petition when he forwarded it on to Gerry Ritz.

“I suspect a lot of Conservative MP’s will take this approach. I hope that he at least read it before sending it on. I’m not sure if he acknowledges that people in the city have an interest in being able to buy Canadian beef,” she said.

There are people in Quebec, PEI, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta and B.C. working on this now.

“How they are doing, I’m not sure, but I do know they’re working hard on it. It’s a work in progress,” said the Manitoba petition coordinator. “Our plans now are to keep up the effort for the summer, and collect as many signatures as we can. In the fall, when the House goes back into session, we’ll be following up with the MP’s who received petitions, and contacting other MP’s to remind them that we’re out here, and what our issues are, so that if it does come up for debate, as many MP’s as possible will be aware of the situation, and be able to have an informed debate that might actually mean something.”