Canada: Court's decision shocks potato farmers

New Brunswick potato farmers are stunned after a Court of Queen's Bench judge ruled against them in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the federal government.

Almost 250 farmers felt Agriculture Canada was negligent in the way it handled an outbreak of the PVY-n potato virus between 1989 and 1993.

The agency quarantined entire fields of potatoes, some of which were not infected or even at risk, the farmers say, and many farmers were left with no market for their product and took heavy financial losses.

They accused Agriculture Canada of flawed testing procedures and failure to compensate affected farmers, and launched a $38 million lawsuit against the government.

Two years after the lengthy trial wrapped up, the judge has ruled in favour of the federal government. Madame Justice Judy Clendenning's ruling said the department's actions were reasonable.

New Denmark resident Kevin Jensen said farmers were blindsided by the decision. "The people that lived through it that know … of the injustices that were done and just can't understand how this can turn out this way," he said.

The decision will resonate throughout the industry, he said. "There's going to be a major impact. There are fertilizer people calling to see if this is true. There are chemical people calling to say this can't be possible," he said.

Many farmers were counting on getting financial compensation from a favourable decision, Jensen said. The farmers are meeting with lawyers to discuss whether they will take the case to the New Brunswick Court of Appeal.

Source: cbc.ca