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Myth: The CWB Put Farmers In Jail For Selling Wheat.

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    Myth: The CWB Put Farmers In Jail For Selling Wheat.

    Myth: the CWB put farmers in jail for selling wheat.

    By Ken Larsen, an Alberta farmer, and member of the Board of Directors of the Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board

    On August 1, 2012, the Prime Minister made a commitment to pardon some farmers who broke the Customs Act by refusing to present grain export licences to Canada Customs (now Canada Border Services). Several of them went to jail and a gullible and lazy media took their word they were sent there by the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB). That the Prime Minister has just repeated this nonsense about the Wheat Board is contemptible.

    The facts are straight forward. No farmer was ever charged under the Canadian Wheat Board Act which had its own penalty section. The Manitoba "poster-child" for the border-runners was found guilty of breaking section 94.1(f) of the Immigration Act, sections 11, 31, and 153(c) of the Customs Act, and section 145.3 of the Criminal Code all arising out of smuggling grain into the U.S. from Canada.
    (R. v. McMechan, March 16, 1998)

    In Lethbridge a dozen people were also convicted of violating several sections of the Customs Act for refusing to do what every other exporter of products from Canada does: present an export licence to Canada Customs. These convictions included: failure to report exporting goods, evading the payment of duties, and illegally removing lawfully seized property.
    (R. v. Duffy, May 17, 2001 AB Court of Appeal 124)

    Rather than pay small fines many of them chose to spend a few hours in jail while loudly proclaiming the Wheat Board had put them there. In fact they had put themselves there by willfully and deliberately violating many Canadian laws, then being convicted in a court of law and being sentenced by a judge. Since the Canadian judicial system is independent, the Wheat Board had no control over the process.

    Export Licences are required under the Customs Act and are administered by various agencies which issue licences under the authority of the Customs Act. An Alberta oil producer would get such a licence as would a car manufacturer. For grain, the Wheat Board normally issued export licences to farmers who used the CWB’s no-cost “Producer Direct Sales Program” to export their own grain.

    However, Prime Minister Harper has done more than spread misinformation and pardon a few malcontents. Among the many charges this group faced, several included removing their lawfully impounded vehicles from the Canada Customs impound lot. The evidence at trial showed they ignored the unarmed Canada Customs Officers as they drove off.

    To quote Madam Justice C.L. Kenny’s judgement: “the Appellants were properly charged for violating section 114 of the Customs Act. The trial judge found that customs officers, acting in the scope of their duties, did seize the vehicles, and that the Appellants did willfully evade the customs officers attempts to place those vehicles into custody.” (Harrison v. Canada, Feb. 1998 ABQB 138)

    At one border crossing unarmed Canada Customs Officers were intimidated by a group of people who showed up. They were fortunate nobody was injured as a result of their actions.

    Those Canada Customs Officers who were intimidated and had to get out of the way of those vehicles had husbands and children, wives and families. By pardoning the people who did this, Harper is saying he does not care about the rule of law or those whose job it is to protect us all. Mr. Harper’s behavior reveals he is one who believes the end justifies the means.

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/08/01/pol-wheat-board-monopoly-over.html?ref=fh,www.mymanitoba.com

    #2
    And had they been charged under the cwb act, the cwb would have been gone long ago.

    Simply because it was a discriminatory act/organization.

    Comment


      #3
      Trash Talk... Ignorant and chilling...

      " the Wheat Board normally issued export licences to farmers who used the CWB’s no-cost “Producer Direct Sales Program” to export their own grain."

      'NO-Cost' ... A CWB 'single desk' MYth... that cost our farm and family $$$ Millions.

      The CWB Myth must go on... and on...-------

      Comment


        #4
        Would these farmers have done what they did if they'd had the ability to sell their wheat to whomever they wanted? No.

        Yes they knowingly broke the law. Its called civil disobedience. And it was done in protest of the single desk monopoly wheat board.

        Funny how these little facts of reality never enter a boardies head. People who are pretending to be asleep are the hardest ones to wake.

        Comment


          #5
          In reply to Ken Larsen:

          The CWB Board of Directors took it upon
          themselves to deny each and every Western
          Canadian farmer, every CWB export application.

          Meantime the same group of Policy bandits
          GRANTED every Ontario and Quebec 
          CWB export application.

          It was arbitrary discrimination at the highest level,
          a backroom decision that could have been
          reversed by Minister Goodale  OR by the CWB
          directors. The policy was defended, tightened
          and abused until it fell apart. 

          That decision to arbitrarily deny export licenses
          to ONLY Western farmers had a cost, Ken
          Larsen. 

          It cost the Canadian Wheat Board. 

          Expensive, huh. 

          Forcing each farmer  to hand over  the ownership
          of the grain HE grew, to Wheat Board ownership,
          by paper transaction,  and then have to legally
          buy his own grain back from the CWB, showed
          farmers the CWB's intent to expropriate property. 

          The farmer understood he had to legally sell his
          grain TO the Board and then legally buy back the
          grain FROM the Board.

          It showed growers that the CWB viewed farmer
          grain as THEIR grain. 

          It showed the farmer that the CWB placed the
          regulatory power of the CWB above the property
          rights of the farmer. 

          Just as  Barack Hussein Obama views
          Americans as: "you didn't build that" ; the CWB
          viewed Western farmers as : 'you can grow it but
          you don't own it.'

          And that, Ken Larsen is why you, and Ralph
          Goodale, and the NFU have negligible credibility,
          why the monopolists have dwindling support, and
          why single deskers have no political clout. You
          deserve the same kind of disdain as you
          continue to dish out to hard working farm families
          who are the owners of their property.

          And the monopoly crowd sounds very alike the
          two year old who thrashes and screams on the
          floor of a brand new supermarket stocked with
          fresh candy. "I want! I want! I want !" 

          The single desk is the remnant of an idea that
          will remain on typewriters.  On threshing
          machines. On pillars rottened by dishonor and
          disservice.

          The Monopoly Wheat Board and MInister had
          their hand in every decision to jail and fine and
          intimidate and alienate farmers. Customs and
          police were merely the tools. 

          Write this down, Ken Larsen and  Communist
          adherents:

          Farmers grow their grain. Own their grain. And
          will sell their grain. 

          Western farmers built it. Parsley

          Comment


            #6

            Comment


              #7
              "This was not a peaceful demonstration of thoughtful and decent folks who merely wanted Canadians to see how crazy and foolish the CWB WAS..."

              What could have been more law abiding... than following the Customs Agents Instructions...

              Which by the way...I did NOT follow, so that means I obeyed the law but was NOT peaceful???

              Ken... were you there?

              You are insinuating actions that were neither fair to the folks you smear... nor are born out in the legal record.

              Comment


                #8
                You all seam to have very good memories about who said what, and the good part no one can realy prove you right or wrong.
                You border blokes are smiling and just waiting to roll across the border, sure hope you dont runinto a bunch of those redneck yanks with guns. ALASS time will be the Judge not all the bulshit you all peddle.
                I am quite sure those grain buyers are not just throwing thier own money into the pot They want an return and they will get it come hook or CROOK.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Horse,

                  I am selling milling wheat at a better net returns to our family farm... than hauling our wheat to Montana... and I have NO border crossing or trucking costs to move the wheat to Montana.

                  We have international wheat prices in our elevators IN Alberta... just as was always known would occur... Aritrage actually occured months before the Aug 1 2012 end to the 'Single Desk'...

                  You can haul to the US if YOU want... be my guest... it is very unlikely to be any line of CDN folks at the US border... other than to travel south to pick up and return with Ag Equipment at bargain prices.

                  In fact US milling wheat may well end up bringing more to US growers delivering in Canada now after Aug 1/2012... than the they can net in the Northern US.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Horse, oh my god! A company making
                    money, how terrible? Better go read some
                    more Marx to cleanse your soul. I would
                    rather sell to company that has to make
                    money than a government bureaucracy
                    destined to lose money.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      The bottom line is the CWB single desk monopoly in the designated area was just so WRONG! It violated just about every principle of property rights, personal freedom, and justice, in the known world! It was an evil comparable to eastern communist countries!
                      Thankfully it is over and Harper did the right thing and pardoned those who never should have been charged in the first place! A very black mark on the country has been erased!

                      Comment


                        #12
                        horse, we have to look at the big picture. Your
                        family shops in any store, any supermarket you
                        choose, and the variety and quantity of food is
                        overwhelming, nutritious, fresh, constant, and
                        affordable.

                        We take food for granted.

                        If a grain company's or a merchant's or a
                        grower's profit is out of sync with competitors ,
                        he loses business; he void is quickly filled, but
                        the consumer continues to fed.

                        Does the system work?

                        Very well.

                        Consider an alternate communist system:

                        North Korea has officially  requested food aid
                        from the UN.

                        Again. 

                        The BBC informs us: "North Korea relies on food
                        aid because it cannot grow enough food to feed
                        it's people. Famine in the mid-1990's is believed
                        to have killed hundreds of thousands of people."


                        So, horse, why is it that Hong Kong and New
                        Zealand and Finland can feed its' people, but
                        North Korea cannot?


                        "A UN report released last month estimated that
                        two-thirds of North Korea's 24m population suffer
                        from a chronic shortage of food."

                        horse, Canada has app. 34 million people, and
                        we have no past, or present or future food
                        shortage, do we.

                        Why is it that no one in Canada worries about
                        starving? Instead, we are fat. Not skinny. We
                        need to support the system that we so take for
                        granted, don't we.

                        Be very careful wanting to support or adopt the
                        ideology of nations who cannot even feed their
                        own people, because your progeny will be
                        malnourished, become dull-minded and
                        genetically screwed. And begging Pars.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          There are people who will give you the big song
                          and dance about how wonderful they will treat
                          you.

                          But they don't treat you wonderfully.

                          There are communist nations who tell you how
                          great they will be to you.

                          While they watch you starve. Pars.

                          Saying and doing are not the same.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Funny how the rhetoric between the "Wheaties" and the "Freebies" keeps going, even when it doesn't even matter anymore. The CWB is trying to exist in the free market with a new board, so the old board members opinion doesn't even count anymore. Other than if the Liberal's or the NDP ever form a government they will try reverse it if they can. Ken Larson's point...well so what, it's cheaper to let them go than prosecute them (and for Harper to do anything else would be political suicide). Frankly when the "arrests" were going on there were assholes on both sides those who wanted to be arrested to prove a point and those who wanted to do the arresting to prove a point. Funny how things never change there are still assholes on both sides and both sides are just as big morons as always. Debate is one thing but preaching rhetoric is not debate. I wish all the rednecks and all the lefties would take up boxing each other and do that instead of flapping their gums. It's not like you'd have to worry about brain damage, you need to have a brain for that to occur.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Without protest, dissent and arrests , change
                              would not have happened. Now would your wife
                              be able to yet vote.

                              When dealing with unreasonable governments
                              and institutions, knowing they will employ every
                              measure of force to maintain their powers,
                              morons and assholes, as you call them, such as
                              myself, can only resort to civil protest.

                              The people jailed forced change.

                              And then there are those who slacked back and
                              watched....... Right? Pars.

                              Comment

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