BSE class-action lawsuit goes to court Feb. 16

A long-awaited class-action lawsuit against the Canadian government by beef farmers has been delayed yet again, though not for long.

The $8-billion lawsuit alleges that the federal government failed to prevent cattle from the United Kingdom from entering the country between 1982 and 1990, despite knowing that at least 10 of them came from herds known to have bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), better known as Mad Cow Disease.

A single case of BSE in Alberta in 2003 closed international borders to Canadian exports and many countries still won’t accept Canadian beef, though the Americans reopened their border in 2008.

The lawsuit was first supposed to go to trial back in September of 2019, but the government pushed it back to Jan. 18, 2021. The government requested an adjournment, which rescheduled the start date to Feb. 16, said Duncan Boswell, senior partner with Gowling WLG in Toronto, the lead counsel in the lawsuit. The court case is expected to run for 77 days in Superior Court in Toronto and will be conducted remotely via Zoom, he said. He added that 100,000 people could stand to benefit from a successful outcome , Boswell said.