I Beg Your Pardon...

[Horse]

Do you realy think this was done for a few stupid farmers ? Way less than 1/2 % of canadian voters I think not. It looks more like the way they sold us out to Rogers,telus. I realy believe it was done for the benrfit of the global companies, that realy seems to be the agenda for this gov globilize everything.
But as someone else said there will be no changing of minds.

[Jay-mo]

Good article Tom.
Funny how Wilagro/Butch are in love with fascism yet use it as an insult at the same time!

[Burbert]

Heil Harper!

[Choice2U]

Horse...."stupid" farmers????? Should we now question your intelligence?

[sumdumguy]

We hauled lots of seed over the border, then
dumped it in the American pit. Beong a registered
seed grower gave us some privilege to be the
same as all other farmers.

We all paid the price for freedom. Lets enjoy it.

[haveapulse]

OMG, that is a rant... have read this type of thing before from editorials, and called the editor to suggest even in an editorial a little balance in perpective would be considered better journalism, but hey she is the editor...! Go figure!

May I suggest an assigment for Laura: Interview the persons involved. Get some perseptive of how this law was enforced, real stories from the farm families involved and ask the questions journalists are taught: especially the how, why and who enabled such events to evolve.

Ironic that the "Human Rights" museum is in Winnipeg! Perhaps, a section will now be dedicated to this part of Canadian history.

[bucket]

Rocking Roddy Flaman/vader must be close to the rubber room. He didn't like the cwb then he loved it. Now its an open market just like his organic farm (which he used to have choice).

I wonder if he has switched back as he has probably figured out the cwb is now an open market participant.

Come on back vader an give us some of your analysis. We are still waiting.

[wilagro]

The current CWB might as well be shut down or sold NOW as it is going nowhere with it's feet dragging, don't rock the boat attitude. They are NOT aggressively marketing anything except BS after all their proclaimed aim is to SELL it or SHUT IT DOWN within the next five years OR sooner.

How can the farmers have any enthusiasm for an agency with no future and a built-in DEATH WISH?

I read this "Use it or lose it' BS about the current pooling available through the CWB when the plan is already in motion to LOSE it deliberately...government double-talk and duplicitous policy at its best.

[bucket]

Is that because you realize there is no premium pricing from the cwb?

The cwb said a few weeks ago they had a good chunk of Japanese business secured. If this is true and that is a premium market why do their prices not reflect it? Phone the cwb and ask why.

I did and they have said it was because they have also sold to other markets that are not as lucrative. That tells me they have given grain away if they have averaged out the premium. Its idiotic.

Why not create a japanese pool similar to the warburton scam and get that business premium. They might also find they get some interesting people contracting with them.

The cwb biggest and only achievment to date is that they changed their logo. And by the sounds of it their high priced lawyers spearheaded the change. Interesting use of resources.

[FarmRanger]

The CWB has marketing contacts all over the world. Now with their reduced volumes, they can "cherry pick" all those premium markets that they didn't want individual farmers to be able to access.

If they can't compete, in fact if they don't flourish, the only possible reason will be that the "premium marketer" label the CWB gave itself was just a self preservation myth designed to deceive captive farmers.

[jdepape]

Is it just me or do the single desk supporters
seem to contradict themselves? Perhaps not
directly, but implicitly.

Those that vilify the border runners are also the
ones that support the left-leaning Council of
Canadians, an organization that embraces the
following (taken from their website):

"The Council of Canadians fights for economic
and social justice."

"The Council of Canadians believes in peaceful
protest and non-violent civil disobedience. "

The definition of civil disobedience is:

"Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal
to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of
a government"

"Non-revolutionary civil disobedience is a simple
disobedience of laws on the grounds that they are
judged "wrong" by an individual conscience, or as
part of an effort to render certain laws ineffective,
to cause their repeal, or to exert pressure to get
one's political wishes on some other issue."

Based on these statements, the C of C should
support the jailed farmers yet there is no evidence
they ever did. They did, however support the
efforts of the "crazy eight" CWB directors to fight
the government in court over Bill C-18.

It's their view of the CWB as a social instrument
that colors their view of those that support an
open market. And unfortunately, their view of the
CWB is blinded by their ideological view of
anything "collective". This has always kept them -
and others that support the single desk - from
assessing the single desk objectively. "If it's
collective, it must be good."

Although I can't draw a direct connection between
Laura Rance and the C of C, they clearly are of
like minds. They both believe anything about the
CWB and single desk is good and worth fighting
for and anything working against the single desk
is evil.

Laura is quick to point to all the "tactics" of the
Harper government as evil, yet never once
criticized the likes of Ralph Goodale or Pat Martin
for their "tactics" - such as misrepresenting to
Parliament the CWB and it's economic value,
which is the same as lying.

And since she continues to spout the same
misrepresentations, she too is in contempt of
good debate (an evil for any good editor).

Comments like "... the silent majority of farmers in
Western Canada actually supported the CWB
monopoly" are a strong indication that Laura is not
willing to accept the FACT that there is no
reasonable, objective evidence that supports that
statement. She repeats it simply because she
wants people to believe it because it supports her
"world view" and she's still fighting the pro-CWB
battle.

Laura clearly does not support civil disobedience
by farmers that wanted the end of the single desk.

I wonder what she thinks about Brigette De
Pape's civil disobedience with her little escapade
as a Senate Page.

My guess is she thought Brigette's actions were
justified. After all, Laura hates Harper too.

[bucket]

And had those border runners been charged under the cwb act for whatever reason the cwb would have been long gone by now and the farmers would have never been charged or convicted of anything. That is why they pardoned, because had they been charged under the corresponding act they were disobeying, the law would not have stood.

[hoppsing]

Lost in all of this is the evidence that not all but many of the border runners were actually tax and creditor evaders.

[ASRG]

The border runners were "tax evaders or creditor evaders"?
The two I knew weren't? They walked across the border with a bushel of grain! They were standing up for a principle not trying to rip off the government!
Maybe TOM4 should tell us if he was trying to rip off the government or ripping off his creditors?
No one should smear honorable people, doing what they believe is right, by implying they were common criminals?

[wilagro]

Even today if you "run the border" without proper permits, inspection or proper bills of lading and don't obey protocols from either side you will be subject to the same treatment those "freedom fighters" received and with similar penalties.

Those people where not "heroes" in the true sense of the word but friggin' REBELS like Louis Riel was years ago and they hung him.