Ontario Divisional Court hears Grain Farmers' neonic case

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

by SUSAN MANN

Grain Farmers of Ontario officials are waiting to hear the outcome of their arguments in court Monday calling for a temporary suspension of new Ontario government rules on the sales and use of neonicotinoid treated corn and soybean seeds.

The group representing Ontario’s 28,000 grain farmers is also asking for a court review of the rules that came into effect July 1. Grain Farmers wants the rules suspended until May 2016 or until they can be thoroughly reviewed by the court. Grain Farmers “firmly believes these regulations are not workable and we are highly concerned about how they will negatively impact the future of grain farming in this province,” chair Mark Brock said in an Aug. 18 press release.

On Monday, after four hours of arguments in Divisional Court in Toronto by lawyers representing Grain Farmers and the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, the judge “reserved his ruling,” Brock said. “We don’t have an answer yet.”

Brock said Grain Farmers’ argument was for the temporary suspension of the rules until May 2016 while the ministry lawyers argued that the case shouldn’t be heard.

“We’re waiting for a ruling to come down from the judge to decide the outcome of both arguments,” he said.

Ministry spokesperson Kate Jordan said by email, “It wouldn’t be appropriate to discuss ongoing court matters. We are prepared to defend the new rules related to the sale and use of neonicotinoid-treated seeds in Ontario, which came into effect in July of this year.”

Divisional Court is a branch of the Superior Court of Justice. It hears statutory appeals from administrative tribunals in Ontario and is the primary forum for judicial review of government action in Ontario, according to the Judges Library website.

Brock said he didn’t get a sense of how the Grain Farmers’ argument was received by the judge. The ministry’s argument was “pretty technical” of why the case shouldn’t proceed, and Brock said he didn’t get a sense of what the judge thought of that side either.
 “Technically, it was supposed to be a two-hour hearing and it went for four hours,” Brock noted. “It speaks to the complicated nature of trying to have people understand the business environment in which we operate and the complexities of our industry.”

Brock said the judge didn’t say when a decision would be released.

Once the decision is released, Brock said they’d be informing the board of directors first and then the members. “Once our members know there will be a press release as well,” he said. BF