B.C. Supreme Court dismisses mink farms’ lawsuits [Video]

Five different lawsuits from B.C. mink farms seeking to reverse the provincial government’s ban on their industry have been tossed out of the province’s Supreme Court.

The five cases all raised the same legal arguments and were based on “nearly identical facts,” explained B.C. Supreme Court Justice Amy D. Francis in a single decision for all five cases that was issued Tuesday and posted online Wednesday. 

The defendants – the province, former agriculture minister Lana Popham, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and former chief veterinarian Dr. Rayna Gunvaldsen – asked the court to strike the lawsuits, arguing their claims were “bound to fail.”

The lawsuits claimed the defendants had engaged in “misfeasance in public office” and that the province had engaged in “constructive taking” of the farms’ property.

For a variety of reasons, Francis found both claims were bound to fail and dismissed the lawsuits in their entirety.

The mink farming ban

In November 2021, the provincial government announced …