I was listening to Gormley on 650 today, and he put me on this "progressive" site.
http://www.rabble.ca/news/2010/03/harpers-hitlist-senate-and-canadian-wheat-board.
I have really been down on the Conservatives lately and their in-action on the CWB file since the first election way back in 06.
Rabble and the NFU has quite a good list of Actions that the Conservatives have done to try and give us marketing freedom.
Where we can argue is on the strategy and how some of their movements were ham handed and ill advised.
What we have to remember is that political capital has been spent, but we also have to remind our MP's that the fight against the monopoly is still on, and to keep putting on the pressure.
I guess the point of my post is to remind people that sometimes the measure of how successful we have been is that we are not farther behind.
sorry for the long cut and paste, but I find it sometimes helps.
The list of dirty tricks used by the government to undermine or destroy the CWB is a long one. The National Farmers Union (NFU), the principal defender of the Board in its long fight to survive, provided this chronology of attacks on the CWB:
œ Then-minister, Chuck Strahl, holds a closed-door meeting in Saskatoon with anti-CWB organizations (July 27, 2006);
œ Minister Strahl appoints a "Task Force" on the CWB stacked with industry-linked, CWB-opponents (Sept. 19, 2006);
œ Minister Strahl issues a gag order on the CWB -- it cannot publicly defend its single-desk mandate (Oct. 6, 2006);
œ In the middle of a CWB board election, Minister Strahl summarily cuts 16,000 farmers from the CWB directors' elections voters' list, out of a total of 44,000, with no consultation with the board (Oct. 17, 2006);
œ Strahl begins firing incumbent government-appointed CWB directors and replacing them with anti-CWB directors (Oct.-Nov. 2006);
œ The government fires CWB CEO Adrian Measner (32 years with the board) for refusing to obey the gag order and refusing to promote the government's position of "choice"(Nov.-Dec., 2006);
œ The government conducts a sham "plebiscite" -- unclear question, no public voters' list, no spending controls, and no guarantee of ballot secrecy. Some farmers received multiple ballots (Jan.-Mar. 2007);
œ The government introduces a Cabinet Order in Council to strip barley from the CWB mandate (Apr. 21, 2007);
œ The federal court rules the government's actions illegal (July 31, 2007);
œ The federal government appeals (Aug. 30, 2007) and loses, again (Feb. 26, 2008);
œ The Harper government introduces legislation, Bill C-46, to fast-track removal of barley from the CWB, to terminate farmers' right to vote on removals, and to create a CWB-harassment mechanism in the form of an arbitration system (Feb. 29, 2008);
œ Another ministerial letter of instruction forced the CWB to remove thousands of legitimate voters from the initial voters' list for the fall board vote. These farmers were never directly contacted by anyone to tell them that they had been removed (July 2008)
http://www.rabble.ca/news/2010/03/harpers-hitlist-senate-and-canadian-wheat-board.
I have really been down on the Conservatives lately and their in-action on the CWB file since the first election way back in 06.
Rabble and the NFU has quite a good list of Actions that the Conservatives have done to try and give us marketing freedom.
Where we can argue is on the strategy and how some of their movements were ham handed and ill advised.
What we have to remember is that political capital has been spent, but we also have to remind our MP's that the fight against the monopoly is still on, and to keep putting on the pressure.
I guess the point of my post is to remind people that sometimes the measure of how successful we have been is that we are not farther behind.
sorry for the long cut and paste, but I find it sometimes helps.
The list of dirty tricks used by the government to undermine or destroy the CWB is a long one. The National Farmers Union (NFU), the principal defender of the Board in its long fight to survive, provided this chronology of attacks on the CWB:
œ Then-minister, Chuck Strahl, holds a closed-door meeting in Saskatoon with anti-CWB organizations (July 27, 2006);
œ Minister Strahl appoints a "Task Force" on the CWB stacked with industry-linked, CWB-opponents (Sept. 19, 2006);
œ Minister Strahl issues a gag order on the CWB -- it cannot publicly defend its single-desk mandate (Oct. 6, 2006);
œ In the middle of a CWB board election, Minister Strahl summarily cuts 16,000 farmers from the CWB directors' elections voters' list, out of a total of 44,000, with no consultation with the board (Oct. 17, 2006);
œ Strahl begins firing incumbent government-appointed CWB directors and replacing them with anti-CWB directors (Oct.-Nov. 2006);
œ The government fires CWB CEO Adrian Measner (32 years with the board) for refusing to obey the gag order and refusing to promote the government's position of "choice"(Nov.-Dec., 2006);
œ The government conducts a sham "plebiscite" -- unclear question, no public voters' list, no spending controls, and no guarantee of ballot secrecy. Some farmers received multiple ballots (Jan.-Mar. 2007);
œ The government introduces a Cabinet Order in Council to strip barley from the CWB mandate (Apr. 21, 2007);
œ The federal court rules the government's actions illegal (July 31, 2007);
œ The federal government appeals (Aug. 30, 2007) and loses, again (Feb. 26, 2008);
œ The Harper government introduces legislation, Bill C-46, to fast-track removal of barley from the CWB, to terminate farmers' right to vote on removals, and to create a CWB-harassment mechanism in the form of an arbitration system (Feb. 29, 2008);
œ Another ministerial letter of instruction forced the CWB to remove thousands of legitimate voters from the initial voters' list for the fall board vote. These farmers were never directly contacted by anyone to tell them that they had been removed (July 2008)
Comment