OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA — The fight over the future of the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) is continuing on May 23 with a hearing the Federal Court of Appeals.

The Federal Court will hear an appeal from the government on a December 2011 ruling that said Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz breached the CWB Act by making changes without having a plebiscite for farmers.

The court will hear from government officials and Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board, which brought the initial challenge to the end of the CWB.

In December, the bill that ended the CWB’s 60-year marketing monopoly on western wheat and barley by next August became law.