Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Suing the government for incompetence
This is interesting. These people are suing the government for creating a bad policy. My question is this a matter for the courts or for an election. This would be a dangerous precedent (Assuming the precedent doesn't already exist). Especially considering that the bad policy may have existed well before the current government, hence an election (the standard way of dealing with bad policy) may have already been held, and the offending government been removed.
Jax
Four lawsuits against the federal government, potentially worth $7 billion, are getting long looks from some Alberta cattle producers. The co-ordinated class-action suits, launched in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec, seek at least $7 billion, the industry's estimated losses to date from mad cow disease, and another $100 million in punitive damages.
"If there's some truth to it, it definitely has some merit to it," said Leduc-area farmer Curtis Henkelmann. "If the government is at fault, then they owe it to everybody in the industry."
The statements of claim assert that Ottawa introduced a regulation in 1990 that specifically allowed feeding cattle parts to other cattle, the method through which bovine spongiform encephalopathy is transmitted.
That was a full two years after Britain had banned the practice and about three years after Canada barred cattle imports from the United Kingdom and Ireland that were not from farms certified as free of the disease.
BANNED FEED
It was only in 1997 that Canada banned the feeding of cattle to other cattle.
"They were grossly negligent in not taking into account the common knowledge and scientific knowledge of how mad cow is transmitted," said Montreal lawyer Gilles Gareau, who is leading the Quebec suit.
"The entire world knew about it."
The discovery of an infected cow in Alberta in May 2003, which prompted the United States to close its borders to Canadian cattle and precipitated the crisis, can be directly traced to another act of federal negligence, the suit asserts.
In the 1980s, Canada imported 191 cows from the United Kingdom. In 1993, one was found to have mad cow disease. Yet despite a federal monitoring program, the government lost track of 80 of the animals, which entered the food chain.
RECEIVED WORD
Alberta Beef Producers spokesman Ron Glaser said his organization received word on the possible lawsuit yesterday.
The group's lawyers are evaluating the suit.
"Our focus really has been on what can we do in the here and now," said Glaser, alluding to finding ways to increase packing capacity, diversifying international markets and protecting the current trade with the United States.
"Certainly there's been a high level of frustration in the producer community. I guess it's not surprising you'd see different strategies." (Link)
