B.C. Supreme Court certifies class-action lawsuit over herbicide alleged to cause Parkinson's

The B.C. Supreme Court has certified a class-action lawsuit against global agriculture firm Syngenta over claims that its herbicide products cause Parkinson's disease. 

A decision released online this week says the case was filed in B.C. in August 2022, alleging the Switzerland-based firm's family of herbicide products, marketed as Gramoxone, causes Parkinson's disease.

The ruling says the proposed class members include anyone diagnosed with the condition after handling Gramoxone products any time after July 1, 1963.

The original representative plaintiff Wayne Gionet died last August, and the ruling says he claimed to have developed Parkinson's after decades of handling the products while working for Agriculture Canada in Saanich, B.C. 

The decision says the plaintiffs submitted evidence including transcripts of depositions from similar cases in the United States involving the products' active ingredient, paraquat, including internal documents from the company "dating back decades." 

Judge Sandra Wilkinson's ruling says proceeding to trial as a class is "less burdensome" to the court over numerous individual cases and favourable because the company allegedly concealed the risk and, if proven, the case will "create incentives for all industry participants to avoid similar conduct." 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 14, 2024.