Quebec Cattle Farmers v Federal Government
Quebec Cattle Farmers File Lawsuit Against Federal Government
Quebec Superior Court Justice Richard Wagner granted authorization to a billion dollar class action suit, ruling that the mad cow class action on behalf of some 20,000 Quebec cattle farmers against the Federal Government will proceed to trial. This is an important step in obtaining compensation for farmers following Canada's mad cow scandal involving over 100,000 Canadian cattle farmers, including Quebec's 20,000 cattle farmers.
The class action lawsuits allege that the BSE crisis, the closing of the U.S. and other international borders to Canadian cattle and beef, and the loss of billions of dollars by the Canadian cattle industry were the result of gross incompetence on the part of the Canadian government. Statistics Canada confirmed in May of this year that Canadian cattle producers have lost more than $9B in cash receipts since the BSE crisis began in May of 2003, an amount which has been growing daily. To view this report, please visit
www.bseclassaction.ca
According to documents filed in Quebec Court, government officials jeopardized the safety of the Canadian food supply in failing to inform the public that they had allowed 80 British cattle that were supposed to be in a 'monitoring program', to enter the human and animal food chain in Canada. These same government officials' own risk analysis indicated that there was a 95% chance that 6 or more of these animals had BSE."
ABOUT CANADA'S BSE SCANDAL
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BSE is an incurable neurological disease of cattle that is transmitted when healthy cattle eat the remains of infected cattle or other ruminants. The claim alleges that the federal government was negligent in enacting, or failing to enact in a timely fashion, regulations with respect to permissible ingredients in cattle feed. It is also alleged that the federal government negligently allowed more than 80 British cattle to enter the human and animal food chain, and failed to warn cattle producers of the dangers posed by this
release of BSE into the cattle food chain when the government realized what they had done.
Please visit the BSE class action website to register and for more information www.bseclassaction.ca.
