Guest Speaker - Dr. Chidi Oguamanam "Canada's Bill C-18: Agricultural Growth Without Farmers"

Event Date: 
Tuesday, February 24, 2015 - 12:00pm EST
Event Location: 
PACI Auditorium

Dr. Chidi Oguamanam will be speaking on the topic: Canada's Bill C-18: Agricultural Growth Without Farmers

Dr. Chidi Oguamanam, University of Ottawa Law Faculty, is called to the Bar in Nigeria and Canada and affiliated with the Centre for Law, Technology and Society and the Centre for Environmental Law and Global Sustainability at the University of Ottawa. Formerly the Director of the Law and Technology Institute at the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University, some of his publications include International Law and Indigenous Knowledge (University of Toronto, 2010), Intellectual Property in Global Governance (Routledge, 2012) and Innovation and Intellectual Property: Collaborative Dynamics in Africa (University of Cape Town, 2014) [co-editor]. 

In the early 2000s, a Saskatchewan farmer exploited genetically modified canola that contained patented glyphosate-resistant gene, marketed under the Roundup Ready (herbicide) brand. He found the Roundup Ready canola growing in an isolated portion of his farm. The corporate patent holder, Monsanto Canada, successfully sued the defendant farmer for patent infringement at the Supreme Court of Canada. The operational and legal marginalization of indigenous and local community stakeholder farmers across the globe, including Canada, by agro-biotechnology stakeholders is placed in focus in the ongoing deliberations over Canada’s Bill C-18 (Agricultural Growth Act). We examine how the core aspects of plant breeders’ rights portion of omnibus Bill C-18 effectively, even if expectedly, has pulled Canada further into the world of agriculture without smallholder farmers.