RIP Canadian Wheat Board |
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Written by Chris Green
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Wednesday, 07 December 2011 10:31 |
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Now that our Happy Planet mayor is back in the saddle for another term, we can be re-assured that we can continue to convert our front lawns to grow wheat. Even better news is that, since the House of Commons last week voted to end the Canadian Wheat Board's 76-year monopoly on the sale of wheat and barley, we won't go to jail if we harvest our little urban farm to bake a few loaves of organic bread.
Actually, I'm not kidding, the CWB had a reputation for robustly enforcing its monopoly; at its worst having farmers arrested, jailed and paraded into court in shackles - all for the heinous crime of trafficking in illicit wheat. So, for many, it's a case of good riddance CWB.
For some it is simple ideology; if you believe that less government is good, and that the State has no business in the wheat fields of the nation, then you will be glad to see the last of the socialistic monolith that forced all growers to sell to the State, at a State-controlled price.
The CWB is not without its fervent supporters however, and the debate continues to rage in the prairies over the wisdom of dissolving it, and the board of the CWB itself has raised an interesting legal point: just who owns the assets of the Board?
This isn't just a point of interest to legal scholars: there are hundreds of millions on the line here. Over its long life, the Board has charged Canadian farmers a premium on every single bushel of grain sold in Canada, and has squirreled the money away by purchasing hard assets - a fleet of hopper rail cars, a few great lakes freighters, real estate, an office building, the odd grain elevator, and so forth. The Harper Government would like to just quietly pocket the money, but the CWB isn't going quietly, and it looks like a lively court battle is brewing.
For ourselves, whether this move towards de-regulation is the right one or not, depends very much upon what sort of system emerges to replace it, since now an entire segment of our economy has to re-invent itself. It should be an interesting ride, and in the meantime I think I'll just keep cutting my lawn.
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Tie a light-blue ribbon round the court house tree (*) |
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Written by Chris Green
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Wednesday, 30 November 2011 14:36 |
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(*) with apologies to Tony Orlando & Dawn
I'm not in court today, so will miss the opportunity to sport a light blue ribbon on my robes in solidarity with the lawyers’ protest scheduled for today to highlight the plight of the legal aid system in BC. So to signify my support I'm blogging instead.
As a young lawyer I cut my teeth on legal aid files. Although the legal aid tariff of the day was quirky and parsimonious, the work was plentiful, so it all worked out, and I got a lot of court time. The courtroom skills I honed doing legal aid files have stood me in good stead over the years as I graduated into paying clients, so I've always had a soft spot for legal aid.
Since those halcyon days of my youth, however, the legal aid system has suffered the death of a thousand cuts. First came the disqualification of most family law services, then a tightening of the criteria for receiving legal aid in criminal matters (where "tightening" means testing for financial eligibility), and finally, an arbitrary 10% "holdback" from the lawyers’ cheques. I had already given up legal aid work as being un-economic long before mega trials like Willie Picton, Air India and so forth sucked the last penny out of the system, and now my colleagues are leaving the system in droves.
It’s perhaps difficult for someone unfamiliar with the court system to understand how properly-funded legal aid counsel are actually essential to the efficient operation of the system. Defence counsel negotiate early case resolutions, co-operate with prosecutors to make proper evidentiary admissions, assist in the timely scheduling of trials, and generally stick handle their clients through the maze. We need legal aid, and strangle it of resources at our peril!
When you see lawyers in suits walking the protest line, as is happening today in Vancouver, you know there is indeed a crisis in legal aid. |
Occupy the mall! |
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Written by Chris Green
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Saturday, 22 October 2011 14:36 |
We have been watching with both fascination and bemusement the "Occupy the Street" protests that have popped up this month on Wall Street, Bay Street, and even locally on Howe Street. And frankly, we think we could do it better.
So, here goes: WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE AND ARISE!
JOIN US, IF YOU ARE:
1. Miserable that the winter monsoon is turning the province into a dark wet tunnel
2. Dismayed at Luongo's lacklustre performance
3. Envious that those nasty rich people get to go south and sip drinks with little umbrellas in them while you have to go to work
4. Annoyed that you have to go to work at all
5. Burned out 'cause you gotta go to work
6. Perplexed that they can find you with that parking ticket, but can't find a rioter
Show them how mad you are, show them that you aren't going to take it anymore, show them what real protest is all about - join us, and:
OCCUPY THE MALL!
Let's face it: it's climate controlled, the washrooms are clean, you can do your Christmas shopping while you protest, and you can even visit protest headquarters at GreenWay, and get your will done.
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Chief Justice Bauman on legal funding cuts |
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Written by Chris Green
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Monday, 28 November 2011 11:07 |
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The former Attorney General, Barry Penner, announced this week that he is resigning his seat in the legislature to return to the practice of law. While we are always glad to welcome a colleague back into the profession, we have to wonder if perhaps he didn't get the memo from Chief Justice Bauman. If he had he would have realized that it's going to be some considerable time before he sees the inside of a courtroom as a practicing lawyer. He is going to have to take his place in line behind the rest of us already waiting for scarce court time.
Since he couldn't get anyone in the AG’s chair to read his memo, the Chief Justice last week in a speech to the CBA midwinter meeting sounded the alarm bells about the state of the BC justice system: something that those of us who toil daily in the vineyards of the law know all too well.
The system has been starved of funding for years, and the allocation of resources to pet projects, such as the ultra high-tech, ultra high-security courtroom in New Westminster, have left the system running on empty. There are simply not enough judges, sheriffs, court register workers and court clerks to handle the load.
We applaud the Chief Justice for speaking out. It's not just the wait for trial dates that's the problem: it's the two months you have to wait after the verdict to get your order processed by the court registry, or the months it can take to obtain the payment of money out of court, or the endless weeks that the affairs of a deceased are in limbo pending grant of probate. Under-funding the justice system doesn't just mean that criminals languish in pretrial detention for an eternity and sometimes escape justice because it took too long to bring them to trial. What it really means is that ordinary citizens, who are trying to collect debts, probate estates, end their marriages, obtain access to their children and so forth cannot access the court system in a timely fashion.
We can only hope that someone from the Government was listening to the remarks of the Chief Justice. |
Will Power |
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Written by Hal
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Friday, 23 September 2011 14:47 |
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How long can your luck last? Dodging natural disasters, world-wide financial crashes and now falling space debris? Call now for our Wise Will Whoop and save yourself a headache. If you call 604-532-1215 to make an appointment before the end of September 2011 and mention this blog piece, we'll give you an unheard of lawyer's discount of 20% on your new will. |
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