Common Sense in the Supreme Court? Nah…

It appears one tiny little ray of common sense may have pierced the foggy haze substituting for the Supreme Court of Canada these days.

Oh, there’s still a long way to go before you won’t need a flashlight to pick your way through the morass of political correctness and agenda building flowing downhill from the nation’s highest court, but it’s a start… one teeny little start. The powers that be, complete with their stylish ermine robes, have actually decided in favour of Monsanto in the now infamous Percy Schmeiser case. And I can hear the gnashing of teeth and the ripping of clothes from activist groups all over the country.

How can this be? Could it be that Canada is actually – gasp – recognizing the rights of an evil, nameless, faceless corporation over the ‘rights’ of a man who planted over 1,000 acres of seed that he didn’t pay for?

If you’re not familiar with the case, Monsanto created a genetically modified canola seed that is resistant to the herbicide “Roundup.” This “Roundup-Ready” canola is sold to farmers across Canada with an agreement that the farmer will not re-use the seed from one year to the next. It’s Monsanto’s method of ensuring a return on their investment for the research and development they’ve put into the seed product.

Percy Schmeiser is a Bruno, Saskatchewan farmer who was found with 1,300 acres of neatly planted Roundup-Ready canola seed… and no agreement with Monsanto. Schmeiser claimed the seed was wind-borne and polluting his land, Monsanto disagreed.

In a way, it’s rather similar to finding a popular music CD on your doorstep one day. You can claim that you didn’t know how the CD arrived, but just because it polluted your doorstep doesn’t give you the right to duplicate the CD and sell it to 1,000 of your friends.

The entire issue is undoubtedly controversial, and those opposed to GM foods have been riding the issue hard. Mr Schmeiser has made good use of his newfound martyr status over the past several years. Whether it’s speaking at a Greenpeace rally opposed to genetically modified foods, holding a news conference on Parliament Hill, or running for Town Council in Bruno, Mr. Schmeiser hasn’t avoided the spotlight. Within minutes of the Supreme Court decision, several activist groups issued news releases condemning the decision. Brace yourself for the onslaught of “GM foods are evil for you” stories sponsored by activist groups in the next few weeks.

The case has huge ramifications for the future of biotechnology in this country. This is even more important considering the ramifications biotechnology will play in our everyday lives over the next 10 years. Within the next decade, everything from medicine to auto-parts is going to be grown on farmer’s fields – provided the legal structure is in place to respect those intellectual properties.

It’s mind-boggling, really – this was still the same organization that decided that allowing Canadians to support an issue during an election shouldn’t be allowed. It’s a right guaranteed by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but the Supreme Court is there to protect us from big nameless corporations with large pocketbooks, right?

So, knowing all this, could the Supreme Court actually be recognizing the merits and need for intellectual property rights?

And whoa - hold on to your hats – do you think it’s possible they could actually be making a statement, to recognize the significant impact that biotechnology is going to play in our lives in the 21st century?

After all, the Supreme Court of Canada and ‘judicial activism’ are hardly opposites. Have they smartened up? Is common sense finally starting to spoil the well of judicial nonsense that we’ve had to live with for decades?

After all, how can this same group of swashbuckling justice wielders decide in favour of common sense… and, by extension, big, nameless, faceless corporations? What could possibly change from one week to the next?

Well, it was only a 5-4 decision. I think one of the judges got bored, and decided on a coin flip. After all, that makes as much sense as anything else they’ve decided lately.