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The lawsuit was launched against Monsanto Canada ULC (now Bayer CropScience Inc.), Monsanto Company, and Bayer Inc.

The allegations have not been tested in court.

Bayer said it firmly stands behind the safety of glyphosate-based products and will vigorously defend them.

The litigation seeks financial compensation for Canadian residents who have developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after “significant exposure” to glyphosate-based herbicides made, marketed, sold or distributed by the above companies prior to Dec. 8, 2023.

Significant exposure means application of the product on more than two occasions in a 12-month period and more than 10 occasions in a lifetime.

The class action is also open to certain family members of persons who meet the criteria, such as a living spouse, child, grandchild, parent, grandparent or sibling.

“This class action litigation asserts that the active ingredient in Roundup products, glyphosate, is a human carcinogen that has been associated with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The claim alleges that the defendants knew or ought to have known that significant exposure to Roundup products can cause cancer; but the defendants distributed and/or sold Roundup products nonetheless and failed to warn users and the public about those cancer risks,” Merchant Law Group LLP said on its website.

McKenzie Lake Lawyers LLP, Koskie Minsky LLP, and Merchant Law Group LLP are named as pursuing the class action litigation.

Jeffrey DeBlock is named as the representative plaintiff.

According to a statement of claim, DeBlock was hired as a teenager to spray agricultural crops with Roundup for one to two weeks each summer between 1991 and 1995. In 1995, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and suffered further physical and mental injuries as a result of his cancer diagnosis and treatment.

“Certification is a procedural decision only. It does not involve a finding on the merits of the claim, or on the allegations made against the defendants. While we have great sympathy for Mr. DeBlock’s medical issues, Bayer is confident our glyphosate products are not the cause of his illness, and we will continue to defend our products,” Bayer said in an emailed statement.

“Bayer firmly stands behind the safety of glyphosate-based products and will vigorously defend them. Our glyphosate products have been used safely and successfully in Canada and internationally for nearly 50 years. Leading health regulators around the world have repeatedly concluded that glyphosate is not a carcinogen and that glyphosate products are safe when used according to label directions.”

The company pointed to recent findings that suggest the product is safe for use. Those include:

• In 2017, Health Canada concluded that “An evaluation of available scientific information found that products containing glyphosate do not present risks of concern to human health or the environment when used according to the revised label directions.”
• In 2019, Health Canada completed an additional, in-depth review of its 2017 conclusion and reaffirmed that glyphosate is not a cancer risk, noting that “No pesticide regulatory authority in the world currently considers glyphosate to be a cancer risk to humans at the levels at which humans are currently exposed.”
• In November of 2023, the European Union approved the extension of glyphosate’s authorization for 10 years, ensuring the availability of important integrated weed management technology to farmers.

More information on the class action is available at , , and .