An expert on the Supreme Court of Canada says a British Columbia ostrich farm faces an uphill battle "with very low odds" to get a hearing to stop the cull of about 400 birds.

Emmett Macfarlane, a political-science professor at the University of Waterloo, has written a book on Canada's highest court and says the court focuses on cases where there is a question that needs to be clarified about the law, not to re-litigate possible errors in individual situations.

Macfarlane says that in the case of Universal Ostrich Farms in Edgewood, B.C., multiple lower courts have decided not to stop the cull, suggesting there isn't much legal "controversy."

The farm has been fighting for months to try to stop an order by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to cull the ostriches over an avian flu outbr

See Full Page