Producers bite back at CFIA

By Will Verboven

January 18, 2006 -- The last few months has seen US courts faced with a barrage of lawsuits, appeals, counter-appeals and other legal maneuvering by various parties affected by the BSE crisis. All that activity is no doubt bringing smiles to numerous law firms across the USA. Most of the legal activity is targeted at the US Department of Agriculture for decisions it has or hasn't made regarding opening the border.

For better or worse that is the American way - suing government agencies for decisions they make is not really done much in Canada. It would seem that Canadians are too shy or we trust that everything our governments do is best for us - whether we like it or not.

It therefore came as surprise when a group of ranchers from across Canada launched a lawsuit against the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). That agency is part of Agriculture Canada. That would be the same department that has been pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the cattle industry to try it keep it afloat. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you - if nothing else it was an audacious move by those involved.

The lawsuit is for $7 billion in damages as it alleges that the CFIA did not properly carry out its regulations in stopping the spread of BSE. The lawsuit also implicates a feed company as being the alleged source of the spread of BSE through its animal feed products.

One can imagine the behind the scenes reaction of the Canadian government to this lawsuit - probably something to the effect of what ungrateful wretches these cattle people are. But it isn't just cattle producers suing CFIA, another group of farmers has a lawsuit that involves the way the CFIA handled the outbreak of Avian Influenza (also known as bird plague) in the BC Fraser Valley.

In both cases the plaintiffs allege that had the CFIA been carrying out its regulations properly neither disease would have spread to the extent it did. It's always easy to look back and point fingers at what should have been done. But in both cases it appears that the CFIA could have reacted in a more robust manner.

At the same time as the lawsuits were filed, the CFIA was facing opposition from the House Agriculture Committee in getting Bill C 27 passed. That legislation gives more draconian powers to the CFIA with less accountability. A recipe only power obsessed civil servants could cook up. With all the political shenanigans that are happening in Ottawa hopefully this bad piece of legislation will be delayed into oblivion.

All of this should raise some alarm bells back in the lofty Ottawa towers of Agriculture Canada that something may be amiss with the CFIA. However, I suspect those alarm bells will have little impact on deaf ears. The knee jerk reaction of government Ministers and their senior advisors is always to blindly back up their officials - at least until the auditor-general walks in the door.

One of the problems with the CFIA is that government politicians have given it power and a big budget to deal with food safety issues. As the sponsorship scandal has shown power and budget with little accountability is irresistible to some bureaucrats.

In the case of the CFIA the senior officials are mostly veterinarians. Those fine folks may be good at animal science but if the BSE crisis is any example they lack expertise when it comes to the political science and trade ramifications surrounding the issue. In addition with no oversight committee that has real teeth, the CFIA chiefs can do and say what they want with impunity.

Some may despise the way the American judicial system allows the government to be sued which in the BSE case, had such devastating impact on Canadian producers. For the CFIA, a lawsuit may be the only way this agency can be forced to be held accountable for the way it operates.

If the lawsuit is successful perhaps it will give Canadian citizens the ability to sue governments for some of the other bone-headed decisions they make that affects peoples ability to make a living- like the Kyoto accord. But I fear the lawsuit's success is about as likely as the government admitting it made any mistakes in the BSE and Avian Flu crisis.