The formal decisions made may be found
at:
Mainil
v. CWB & MNP (Word document)
Mainil
v. CWB & MNP (WordPerfect document)
Mainil
v. CWB & MNP (Text document)
Please note the WordPerfect document
is the original and the other two are provided for your convenience.
December 23, 2004 A.D.
Summary of Decision by Eduard Hiebert
In Justice McTavish's decision
released today regarding Art Mainil's application in the Federal
Court concerning election irregularities against the Canadian Wheat
Board and Meyers Norris Penny, the decision on the requested
application for an injunction failed on both required tests, first
"There is no evidence to support Mr. Mainil's claim that he
will be irreparably harmed by the announcement of the election
results, beyond his bare assertion" and contrary to Mainil's
claims the Judge found "the balance of convenience strongly
favours allowing the election to proceed."
The dismissal of the injunction
application does not end the matter here as the Court did find
"a serious issue exists with respect to the failure of the CWB
and MNP to include the Omitted Producers on the voters list"
and that "It is clear that MNP is in technical breach of
section 20 (2) of the Regulations... (for failing to) sort the
ballots... IN THE PRESENCE OF INDEPENDENT SCRUTINEERS"
(emphasis added by the Court).
As this matter may still be tried,
the Court ordered that MNP must segregate the count of the late
additions from the others to see if their exclusion and late
inclusion will have made any material difference. The Court
also raised the issue not yet replied to by MNP or the CWB, whether
Mainil has standing regarding the other three districts in addition
to where he is a candidate.
This decision paves the way for the
CWB to get on with its serious day to day business. This
decision also supports that how these privatized elections have been
conducted, not only in this election but in all others represents a
serious breach in democratic disciplines and that producers on both
sides of the CWB debate would be well served by demanding and
getting a swift inquiry run by the directors to seek out and find
ways to apply Election Canada type democratic disciplines to the CWB
elections.
Among the first that I would advance
is that the regulations defining farmers as having a conflict of
interest in running their own elections must be removed, so that the
farmers who make up the body of sovereign voters can fully
participate in the elections and have the confidence that the
elections are conducted openly, fairly and produce an honest result.
Under such rules, these accidents waiting to happen would likely
never have happened. |