Glenn Black of Providence Bay, Manitoulin Island, has lost
another appeal of the 300-bird chicken-production-without-quota to the Ontario
Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Tribunal.
Lawyer and tribunal vice-chairman Glenn Walker dismissed
Black’s request for reconsideration of his earlier loss before the tribunal,
and did it without consulting the two other members of the appeal tribunal and
without requesting submissions from the Chicken Farmers of Ontario marketing
board whose regulations and policy were under appeal.
Black filed his appeal because he wants the 300-bird limit
increased to 2,500 per year.
But Walker says in his decision that Black has been trying
to use this issue as a “toe hold” to attack the entire chicken board system of
supply management.
The tribunal ruled in September that Black’s request for
reconsideration was “frivolous and trivial or vexatious or not made in good
faith”.
Walker says in this decision that there is a possibility
that the tribunal might have been wrong to classify the appeal as frivolous and
trivial or vexatious, but he has ruled that it was made “not in good faith”.
He bases that decision on legal precedents that ruled that
an “abuse of process” is a legal motion “not made in good faith”.
Walker reminds Black that the tribunal, starting with its
decision of May 21 and repeated in its decision of Sept. 24, said it lacks
jurisdiction to deal with many of the issues Black raised.
Walker says that “up to and including his request for review
document he has insisted on bringing forward issues which this tribunal has no
jurisdiction to deal with” and failed to follow tribunal instructions to limit
his appeal to the single regulation and policy that limits production by those
who hold no chicken board quota to no more than 300 birds per year.
Walker also notes that appeals are usually limited to “one
kick at the can”. Black has made three tries.
Walker’s decision was posted on the internet on Christmas
Eve.
