New Press Release

[rkaiser]

Can't wait to read these press releases coming from Saskatchewan, Mantitoba, Ontario, etc etc etc...



BSE Crisis Creates Rally in Red Deer
Hundreds of Cattle Farmers Expected to Gather in
Response to Lawsuit Against Government


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 24, 2010 (Red Deer, AB)—Almost seven years have passed but the wounds of the BSE crisis have not healed. That’s why hundreds of Alberta beef producers will gather on Wednesday March 31 in Red Deer, AB to rally behind the ongoing class action lawsuit against the Government of Canada for causing the unprecedented crisis.

“Beef producers and rural communities have suffered unnecessarily because of Government negligence,” said rancher and one of the rally team organizers Randy Kaiser. “For too long we have been ignored by the federal government, they need to address this injustice before we lose more producers.”

Beginning in April 2005, class action claims against the Government of Canada on behalf of producers who owned cattle on May 20, 2003 have proceeded, encompassing approximately 135,000 producers from across Canada. The claims allege that negligence on the part of the federal government caused the BSE crisis in Canada and the loss of income that resulted. The suits have survived several challenges, including appeal to the Supreme Court, and are now proceeding to trial.

The rally will update industry stakeholders on recent progress with the BSE Class Action. It will also inform them how they can encourage the government to fully address the wrong it caused in a timely manner. Cameron Pallett, lawyer representing the cattle producers, will be speaking at the event.

"Cattle producers from across Canada have shown tremendous support- especially in Alberta,” said Cameron Pallett. “Now that we are heading to trial, we’re holding information sessions across Canada to let producers know where they stand.”

Court documents available online show that government officials at Agriculture Canada ignored international recommendations and neglected monitoring programs designed to keep BSE out of Canada – allowing BSE to incubate into the tragedy it became. Organizers expect more than 1000 producers to attend the rally. More information on the BSE Class Action can be found at www.bseclassaction.ca

[kato]

Xcellent!!!!

[rkaiser]

BSE Class Actions Seek Merger Into One
Action seeks compensation totalling $200,000 per producer
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BSE class-action lawyer Cameron
Pallett, seen here in Winnipeg last
year, visits Red Deer next month
to update cattle producers on his
class-action suit. –Dave Bedard

Lawyers behind the two remaining class-action suits pitting about 135,000 Canadian cattle producers against Ottawa over losses due to BSE will go to court in April to ask for one last merger.

Cameron Pallett, a Toronto lawyer for Ontario producer Bill Sauer, said Feb. 17 that counsel for cattleman Donald Berneche of St-Gabriel de Brandon, Que. will appear in Quebec Superior Court before Justice Richard Wagner in Montreal on April 19.

There they’ll ask that Berneche’s class-action suit be folded into Sauer’s.

Berneche’s and Sauer’s suits were two of four co-ordinated actions filed against the federal government, feed maker Ridley Inc. and unnamed federal bureaucrats in April 2005. Suits filed by cattlemen in Alberta and Saskatchewan were stayed in 2008 and folded into Sauer’s suit in Ontario.

Ridley settled out of court in January last year, making no admission of liability or wrongdoing but paying $6 million that has since been rolled over to fund the remaining two actions.

The Quebec suit, with Berneche as the representative plaintiff for the “class” of all cattle producers in that province, was certified as a class action in 2007. The Ontario suit, with Niagara Falls-area producer Sauer as its representative plaintiff and all other cattle producers in Canada in its “class,” was certified last year.

Both suits claim negligence within the government led directly to the costly BSE-related closure of the U. S. border and other foreign ports to Canadian cattle and beef. The lawsuits’ allegations against the government and individual bureaucrats have not yet been proven in court.

Sauer’s suit, as filed in 2005, had claimed $100,000 for every member of the “class” in “general damages... for pain, suffering and loss of enjoyment of life” as well as “aggravated damages” of $100,000 per class member.

Pallett said that the Quebec suit had no specific issues that make it different from his client’s suit in Ontario, making it simple to fold into the Ontario action.

INFORMATION SESSIONS
No trial date has yet been set for the Ontario suit, and Pallett in the meantime is urging that the government seek an independently mediated settlement.

Pallett noted that he and lawyers for the government got a court order in July last year that sees all action against Ridley “dismissed without cause.”

The order blocks Ottawa from trying to apportion any possible fault to Ridley, which regardless of Ridley’s settlement could have substantially cut the potential size of a possible federal payout.

(Ridley, when it settled last year, emphasized it “will continue to contest any allegation it was responsible for the plaintiffs’ damages.”)

Pallett said in March last year that cattle producers need help now and don’t want to drag their case for years through trials and appeals, he said. At that time he said he didn’t see a trial underway for four years at best, due to “procedural song and dance” that accompanies such cases.

While the legal process lumbers toward a possible trial, Pallett has been appearing at information meetings to update cattle producers on the suits’ status.

His next such appearance is scheduled for March 31 at Westerner Park in Red Deer, at the Stockmens Pavilion. That session is tentatively scheduled to start at noon.

[kato]

Just Googling around, and I see the Red Deer Advocate has a good story.

http://www.albertalocalnews.com/reddeeradvocate/business/local_biz/Lawyer_to_discuss_BSE_case_88885237.html

[burnt]

Well it will be interesting to see what kind of response this generates.

At the very least, the potential publicity will give producers something to build on with their lobbying personal efforts.

When in the past I have sought support for the lawsuit from various parties and positions, I was greeted with a blank stare as most had no idea what I was talking about.
Good work, Randy.

[Kathy]

The response will be a bigger push by government to
implement a Monsanto type monopoly on GM cattle.
Cloned and sterile, these prion-free animals will be
the demise of our industry.

[rkaiser]

That is a pretty major assumption Kathy.

There are a lot of other assumptions and possible outcomes as well; but I don't know if you would agree with any of them.