Canadian Lawyer

w w w . c a n a d i a n l a w y e r m a g . c o m F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 9 11 S A S K A T C H E W A N AGRIBUSINESS DELIVERING BUMPER CROP FOR LAWYERS R egina lawyer Patricia Warsaba has been involved with the business of agriculture for almost her whole life. She grew up in Manitoba, where her father was a grain elevator opera- tor, in the town of Ninga. She recalls as a child helping him test grain moisture levels. Grain elevators, which were once so prominent on the vast Prairie skyline, have become a thing of the past. In the last 35 years much else has changed in the business of Western agriculture, in fact in agriculture in general. Farms are getting bigger, and farmers fewer. Comput- ers drive combines and trac- tors and feed the livestock. Prairie producers are growing not just wheat but a variety of agricultural products for a hungry world. Big inter- national money is seeing the Canadian Prairies as a promising place to invest. The family farm may be dying but the overall agricultural sector is thriving and land prices in parts of Saskatchewan are up, in some areas significantly up. But it's not just the pro- ducers, the shippers and the entrepreneurs who are busy. So is Warsaba. Today, she is a leader in the business of agri- cultural law in Saskatchewan. She and her team from McK- ercher LLP in Regina have been part of several major agricultural deals. It is not, of course, the only law firm doing agricultural business in the province. As Warsaba observes, "just about all cor- porate-commercial law is not many degrees separated from agriculture in Saskatchewan." However, McKercher has recently been getting a good piece of that legal action. Business is being driven, in part, by a surge in interest in so-called pulse crops (beans, chickpeas, lentils and peas). And the demand for pulse crops isn't coming only from overseas. In North America there is a growing appetite for plant-based protein alterna- tives, in other words, consum- ers looking for protein from something other than meat. Warsaba's legal team has been providing ongoing legal services for Verdient Foods, which in 2017 opened a major pulse processing plant in Vanscoy about a half-hour from Saskatoon. One of Ver- dient Foods' backers is Oscar- winning Canadian-born film- maker James Cameron. For Cameron, a dedicated vegan, it is not just an investment but a commitment to developing alternative protein sources. Cameron says he hopes the plant will be an example of how "you can do something that's good for the environ- ment for future generations." When Verdient, late last year, entered into a joint- venture deal on the pulse plant with U.S. firm Ingredion Incorporated, Warsaba and McKercher advised them. And the legal landscape in agriculture looks promising. "Agriculture has changed," Warsaba says, "farmers now have degrees. They are high tech, all about increased productivity. Yields are way higher, based on science." But, at heart, Warsaba is still a farm girl. She knows, just like her father did back at the grain elevator, that it's not all science and legalities. "No matter how high tech you become," she says, "it's still Mother Nature that rules." — Geoff Ellwand R E G I O N A L W R A P A L B E R T A CALGARY PROF EXPLORING REFORMS TO PRIVACY AND ONLINE ABUSE LAWS T he digital age in all its rapidly evolving forms and permutations has got Canadian law running hard to keep up, especially when it comes to individual privacy and online abuse. University of Calgary law professor Emily Laidlaw has embarked on a four-year project under a federally funded Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council grant to specifically explore "how we reform privacy law in the area of online abuse." Laidlaw is promising to look at the issue "from A to Z," which is no small undertaking. Some of the areas she has earmarked are "re-conceptualizing what the tort of privacy should be." That includes examining "specific online issues connected to online abuse; the right to privacy in public; and controlling your online narrative." And furthermore, she wants to probe how disputes, when they arise, can be resolved. She acknowledges it is a very big project, especially in an ever- changing social and technological landscape. Laidlaw argues privacy law is not well developed in this country. In her view, Canadian law has not kept up with techno- logical change. She points to the relative poverty of case law involving personal privacy and online abuse. "It's one thing to "Farmers now have degrees. They are high tech, all about increased productivity. Yields are way higher, based on science." Patricia Warsaba, McKercher LLP Continued on page 12

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