Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Buckingham gets another three years

Dr. Donald Buckingham has been appointed for another three-year term as chairman of the Canada Agricultural Review Tribunal.

Buckingham hears appeals of administrative decisions and penalties imposed under legislation the agriculture department enforces.

It’s not clear whether his authority to review food-safety decisions of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency will remain, now that those programs have been transferred to Health Canada.

“I am pleased that Dr. Buckingham has agreed to remain in his key role with CART,” said Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz who made the appointment.


“Dr. Buckingham has drawn on both his extensive legal expertise and background with agriculture in leading the organization, Ritz said.

A review of tribunal decisions indicates that he deals with everything from importation of horses and dogs to beef-cattle identification and chicken catching.

Terry Greidanus of Teeswater can be thankful Buckingham's appeal tribunal exists because he won his challenge of two monetary fines the Canadian Food Inspection Agency levied.

The CFIA assumed, with no direct evidence, that Greidanus's catching crew loaded chickens on their backs and that's why they died in transit. 

Greidanus has 22 years experience catching and loading chickens, argued they were properly loaded and that deaths were due to flip-over heart disease.