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Farmer Takes Railways to Court PDF Print E-mail
Written by Neil Billinger - 600 Action News-Local First   
Tuesday, 13 January 2009

If it proceeds, it could be the largest class action lawsuit in Canadian agriculture.

A farmer from Unity has filed a lawsuit against the two major railways.  Gordon Wallace claims CN and CP overcharged all farmers for grain transportation going back as far as 1983.

The legal action follows a 2008 ruling by the Canadian Transportation Agency.  It ruled the amount charged for hopper car maintenance was $72.7 million higher than the cost incurred by the railways.

The lawsuit also names the federal government . . . saying its regulatory agencies should have discovered and prevented the overcharges.

Wallace's lawyer says the lawsuit will only go ahead if it ends up being certified as a class action on behalf of western farmers.

The railways and Ottawa have not yet filed Statements of Defense.  The legal proceedings will take several months . . . and possibly even years. 

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freight
written by a guest , January 16, 2009

I hope they stick it to the railways. they have been over charging us for years and while they are at it get them to sign a hard and fast pick up schedule!!!!! they only take our grain from the elevators when they don't have anything else to haul. they think that we are a captive audience and they we will be there no matter what. they should have to sign a contract saying that they will have 80% of the crop to port by a fixed date.


...
written by a guest , January 15, 2009

So why can a farmer sue the railways for overcharging but we can't sue the Arabs and other oil tycoons for overcharging? I'm not saying it's a bad thing, we need some kind of price regulations. CN & CP have billions of dollars already, suckem' dry I say!


It's about time
written by a guest , January 14, 2009

Thank you for someone to finally step forward and make the railways and the government accountable to the farmers. We get this so called wonderful price for our grain yet when you look on EVERY cheque that you get, at least one third or more goes to freight and elevation charges. Plus the farmer has to claim this as income. How fair is that. I can't think of anyone who has to give one third of their pay cheque to the government before they even pay the taxes which accounts for about another third. How much does the farmer end up with in the end?



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