A group of lawyers is suing the federal government in a multi-billion dollar class action lawsuit on behalf of farmers, even though many farmers don’t support it.

Ontario lawyer Cameron Pallett has filed suit against the federal government in Quebec on behalf of Quebec farmers. Pallett says that Canadian farmers lost more than $9 billion after the U.S. border closed in May 2003 when a case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) was found in one Alberta cow. The lawyers argue the BSE crisis came about because the federal government dropped the ball in handling BSE as far back as 1990 and tried to cover up its mistakes.

Gilles Gareau and Pallett are co-counsels in the Quebec action, but claims have also been filed in Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. The consortium of lawyers first tried to sue in Ontario last fall but when the suit was delayed they shifted focus to Quebec where they thought a breakthrough would be faster.

"If we win in one province," Pallett said in an interview with Farmers Forum, "the rest of the provinces will fall like dominoes."

The lone plaintive is Bill Saver, a Niagara area farmer, who had sold his milk quota and was selling bred dairy heifers in the U.S. when the border closed in 2003 to live Canadian animals. Pallett maintains the industry was growing at a rate of 16.3 per cent annually and Saver’s potentially profitable business was destroyed.

Pallett alleges that when the federal government banned British cows in 1990, it put all 191 British-imported cows on Canadian farms in a BSE-monitoring program.

In 1993, when the government accidentally found a British imported BSE-infected Saler in Alberta, it turned the monitoring program up a few notches. Only then did it discover that 72 of the 191 imported British cattle had been slaughtered and entered the food chain, while eight others went to the rendering industry. Some of the rendered material went to bone meal, a product banned in Great Britain because of the link to BSE.

What’s more, a risk analysis by the federal government in 1994 said there was a 100 per cent chance one or more animal in the group of 191 cattle still living, or their offspring, would have BSE. Further, the analysis suggested that the labeling of Canada as a BSE country would have a strong financial impact on farmers for some years.

That analysis wasn’t publicized. "It was screw up and cover up," Pallett said.

Pallett says the federal government didn’t take advantage of the British experience. It failed to regulate feed mills that ground bone meal for pigs so the meal wouldn’t come in contact with feed for bovines. A single millimetre of bone meal is enough to infect a calf, he said. Animal meal wasn’t banned from all feed in Canada until 1997.

Pallett was brought up on a strawberry and beef farm near Orangeville, northwest of Toronto, and has trained as an immunologist. He served four years as a master corporal in the Canadian army. Pallett says farmers who have claims should hold on to their receipts, even beyond the 10 years that accountants recommend.

Local farmers have doubts about the value of a multi-billion dollar lawsuit. "This (suing) is not our strategy," says Gib Drury, president of the Quebec Farmers Association and Gatineau area beef farmer. "Blaming the feds for the BSE crisis is not a good strategy. This is not producer driven."

He noted that the federal government during the BSE crisis was very helpful.

John Newman, executive member of the Ontario Cattlemen’s Association, said he wouldn’t comment on the association’s position. But he said his personal view is that a class action suit could backfire on farmers. Farmers imported the BSE-infected cattle into the country," he said. "What blame will fall on them?"

Newman points out that the federal government has already paid out billions of dollars to compensate farmers. He asks: will the money have to be paid back if the government loses the class action suit?