13 Alberta farmers jailed - News Stories

[bobn]

13 Alberta farmers jailed for violating custom rules by hauling grain to U.S.

LETHBRIDGE, Alta., Oct 31, 2002 (The Canadian Press via COMTEX) -- Thirteen Alberta farmers who broke customs rules by taking their grain over the border were taken to jail Thursday as their wives and children broke down in tears and hundreds more - including Premier Ralph Klein - rallied in protest.

The cheering, clapping protesters formed a human corridor to block traffic and allow the 13 and their families to walk into the courthouse, where the farmers gave themselves up to security staff. The first two were handcuffed but the rest were not after Canadian Alliance MP Art Hanger, whose nephew Rod is among the 13, intervened to ask, "Are the handcuffs really necessary?"

Please see below for:

The text of Alberta Premier Ralph Klein's Thursday speech

The penalties faced by the 13 Alberta farmers

The 13 said little while they were processed and taken away.

Noel Hyslip, a 42-year-old farmer from Vulcan, paused for a last good-bye to his wife and three children.

He kissed his teary nine-year-old daughter Erin on the cheek and whispered in her ear: "I love you."

He said he shared his children's pain and confusion.

"I can't understand it so I can't see how they can," he said, tears filling his eyes.

"It's hard to believe you're in Canada"

Jim Ness, the second one handcuffed, shouted "Chretien the scumbag!" as he was led down the hallway.

They face paying fines ranging between $1,000 and $7,500 or staying in jail for terms ranging from just under a month to half a year.

Earlier Thursday, about 500 placard-waving farmers from as far away as Manitoba and Montana rallied outside the courthouse to protest the Canadian Wheat Board policies that dictate they sell their grain to the board instead of trying for a better price through independent marketing.

Many carried signs bearing slogans such as: Why do Eastern Farmers Have a Choice? We Don't! and The Canadian Wheat Board is a Monopoly.

One woman wore prison stripes and a ball and chain. Musicians played guitars and sang about life on the farm.

Lindsay Hall, 12, of Vulcan, Alta., said she understood why her father Martin was willing to go to jail for more than four months.

"I'm going to miss him but I know that he's doing the right thing because it isn't fair that they can't sell their grain to whoever they want," she said.

Many wives said it will be the longest time they've ever spent apart from their husbands.

"This is really hard on me," said Martin's wife, Marty. He'll be jail for their 14th wedding anniversary.

Those going to jail are members of Farmers for Justice, a coalition of grain farmers who want the option to market their own barley and wheat.

In 1996, they were charged under the Canada Customs Act for illegally transporting grain across the U.S. border because they didn't have proper export documents.

At the time, Canadian farmers were fetching $8.50 Cdn a bushel for durum wheat south of the border, instead of $3.50 from the wheat board.

The farmers claim they are being discriminated against because their counterparts in Ontario and Quebec are allowed to market their own products, but farmers in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba have to sell their barley and wheat to the board.

Klein told the rally that the prison terms show the system is not working.

"Today Alberta farmers will face punishment for doing what farmers are supposed to do and that's to raise, harvest and sell their crops," Klein said as the crowd cheered.

"When decent, hard-working Alberta farmers are willing to take the extreme measure of going to jail for the sake of fundamental freedoms that other businesses take for granted, there is something wrong with the laws of the land."

In Ottawa, Canadian Alliance Leader Stephen Harper and Tory Leader Joe Clark also criticized the federal Liberals for the marketing rules they say are unfair to western farmers.

But Ralph Goodale, the federal minister responsible for the wheat board, said the board enjoys wide support from farmers. He suggested the jailed 13 were grandstanding.

"They have been seeking to maximize their publicity in this matter and that is their right. But let's be clear - the choice, with respect to the jail proceedings, was one that was chosen by them."

The events leading to Thursday's jailing began in 1995 and 1996, when 200 farmers across the Prairies provoked the federal government by crossing the border with their grain.

Some farmers donated symbolic sacks of wheat and barley to 4-H clubs in Montana, while others hauled commercial truckloads for profit. For that, most farmers eventually paid court-ordered fines. Others lost court battles and went to jail for up to 155 days.

Rather than being charged under the Wheat Board Act, which allows only for fines, the Alberta growers were charged under the Customs Act, under which the punishment can include jail and fines.

Ken Ritter, the wheat board chairman, urged the farmers to pay the fines "and return home to their families."

Ritter defended the wheat board's single-desk marketing model. By having the board combine and sell the farmers' grain as one unit, it can command top dollar in the world market, he said.

The Winnipeg-based wheat board is the largest single seller of wheat and barley in the world with annual sales revenue approaching $6 billion.

Ritter maintained that the need for the wheat board in the West is a quantity issue. Far more grain is produced in Western Canada than in other parts of the country and western farmers are further away from the major markets, he said.

Ritter also said that the wheat board has changed since the 1996 protest. Ten of the board's 15 directors are now elected and farmers are given options as to the way they price and are paid for their grain.

"The facts are, we are a democratic organization," he said.

But the organization still had several Montana farmers, who drove north for the rally, shaking their heads.

"It's a sad day in history for Canadians," said Ron Jensen, from Shelby, Mont.

"You can't put the people who grow the food you eat in jail."

The text of Alberta Premier Ralph Klein's Thursday speech at a Lethbridge, Alta., rally prior to 13 farmers going to jail for violating the Customs Act for hauling their grain to the United States to protest Canadian Wheat Board policies:

What a crowd and it is incredible to see so many people here standing up for an important principle - the principle that is freedom.

Yes, the principle that western farmers should be treated fairly and with respect by the Canadian Wheat Board.

Today, Alberta farmers will face punishment for doing what farmers are supposed to do and that's to raise, harvest and sell their crops.

You know, as the sign says there, farmers in other parts of Canada are free to make their own decision about how they do all of these things.

But, for some reason, western producers are treated differently. They have no choice about how or to whom they market some of their crops - particularly wheat and barley.

This is unfortunate and it's also unnecessary. It's a system that has to change and, folks, change is what this rally is all about.

The reason I am here today, along with all of my colleagues, is to promote the Alberta government's position regarding marketing choice - marketing choice for wheat and barley producers - and to assure Alberta farmers that the government will not relent in its pursuit of a voluntary marketing structure for wheat and barley.

Now we have Bill 207 and debate on that bill will continue in the fall session of the legislature.

It's a bill that was introduced by Mark Hlady (member of the legislature for Calgary Mountain View), who is with us today.

And it's a bill that says that in Alberta, farmers are free to market their wheat and barley. I don't think that Ralph Goodale is going to sign off on it, but, nonetheless it sets the stage for a constitutional challenge relative to this issue and I believe that there should be a constitutional challenge.

When decent, hard-working Alberta farmers are willing to take the extreme measure of going to jail for the sake of fundamental freedoms that other businesses take for granted, there's something wrong with the laws of the land.

As I understand it, some of these farmers simply donated a sack of grain to the 4-H club in Montana and I can't believe that the Canadian Wheat Board can't find a way to enable farmers such as these to market their own grain as they are able to do with their other open market crops and with their other cash crops.

I can't believe that the federal government thinks it's right that farmers in Ontario have marketing choice while farmers in western provinces are treated differently.

I can't believe that anyone thinks it's fair to make Alberta producers pay inflated prices to buy back their own grain before re-selling it to buyers.

You know, when Ralph Goodale - the federal Liberal minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board - says the government doesn't understand the West, he is absolutely right.

I could go through a litany of issues that have led to this misunderstanding of the West.

Well, we have the Kyoto protocol, we had the national energy program, we had the gun registration, we have the Canadian Wheat Board.

You know, this government doesn't understand that western producers deserve to be treated fairly.

They deserve to have their concerns heard and responded to instead of ignored.

They deserve the opportunity to prove that they are every bit, every bit as capable of making their own marketing choices, just as farmers in other parts of the country do.

Absolutely, it's time for the Canadian Wheat Board and the federal government to allow western producers to market their own grain.

So, the Alberta government will continue to press the federal government and the Canadian Wheat Board to make this happen and today's incredible show of support will only help to keep the pressure on.

So, congratulations and thanks to all of you, each of you, today who showed up to lend your voices to a call for change and meaningful change.

The penalties faced by the 13 Alberta farmers who went to jail Thursday rather than pay fines under the Customs Act for taking their grain over the U.S. border:

Gary Brandt - Age 33, of Viking, faces 62 days in jail. He took a bag of wheat across the border, forgot about it and ended up carrying it back into Canada.

Ron Duffy - Age 50, from Lacombe, faces 68 days in jail. He took one bag across the border, then a commercial quantity of wheat across the line.

Jim Chatenay - Age 59, from Penhold, faces 62 days in jail. He took a bushel of wheat to the U.S. and donated it to a 4-H club.

Martin Hall - Age 42, from Vulcan, faces 131 days in jail. He took a semi-trailer full of wheat across the border and sold it.

Rod Hanger - Age 32, from Three Hills, faces 75 days in jail. He took a commercial load of wheat across the border and sold it.

Noel Hyslip - Age 42, from Vulcan, faces 131 days in jail. He took a semi-trailer full of wheat across the border and sold it.

Ike Lanier - Age 72, from Lethbridge, faces 60 days in jail. He trucked 300 bushels across the border.

Bill Moore - Age 63, from Red Deer, faces 131 days in jail. He donated a bag of wheat to a 4-H Club, then took a half-ton truck of wheat across the border.

Jim Ness - Age 58, from New Brigden, faces 25 days in jail. He drove 100 lbs. of barley across the border and donated it to the 4-H Club.

Mark Peterson - Age 42, from Cereal, faces 124 days in jail. He hauled a truckload of wheat across the border.

Rick Strankman - Age 49, from Altario, faces 180 days in jail. He took 756 bushels of wheat across the border and sold it for $1.50 per bushel higher than the Canadian price.

John Turcato - Age 42, from Taber, faces 131 days in jail. He drove 900 bushels of barley across the border.

Darren Winczura - Age 35, from Viking, faces 24 days in jail. He drove a bag of wheat across the border.

Source - Farmers for Justice coalition

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[bobn]

Jailed farmer jokes about his new 'coveralls'

Jim Chatenay
National Post

Jim Chatenay is one of 13 Alberta farmers who went to jail on Thursday to protest the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly over Western grain growers. Throughout his incarceration at the medium-security Lethbridge Correctional Centre he will provide a jailhouse diary to readers of the National Post. Chatenay, 59, of Penhold, Alta., is one of 10 elected directors on the wheat board, but he believes farmers should have the choice to market their grain independently of the board.

- - -

At the courthouse they took us to a holding area and took our wallets and belts and gave us leg irons, chains or whatever you call it, and two of us were handcuffed together. Then we were taken by an armoured-looking car to the facility, where we were supplied with jail garb.

I'm a member of the Canadian Alliance but I'm wearing this Tory blue outfit. Blue is the colour of the day here, although the tables and chairs are orange. It looks like something out of Fred Flintstone.

They give you privacy to change into the coveralls. Most of my fellow farmers had already put theirs on -- I was about second to last and put mine on backwards. They got a kick out of that. You have to make your own fun when you're stressed.

You're not allowed anything of your own -- socks, shorts, they provide everything, even toothpaste. The beds are hard, the pillows are like leather and only an inch thick. The meals so far have been pretty good.

The guards are exceptionally kind and sympathetic. Two of them had tears in their eyes -- they come from farm backgrounds -- and the other inmates can't believe what's happened to us. I guess we're something new and special in this joint.

I'm bunking with Ron Duffy [50, another farmer from Lacombe, Alta.]. They have us two to a cell and we have two blankets each. Breakfast was at 7. We had porridge, a glass of juice and a couple of slices of toast. Lunch was grilled cheese sandwiches. Last [Thursday] night was a great meal -- pasta with roast chicken, kind of like Swiss Chalet. They are accommodating us in every way. There's a lot of paperwork here. You have to fill out forms to get a pin number to call out, forms for visitors. I have 10 visitors on my list.

My biggest issue was my wife worrying about me and about where I was. I tried to call her today but I think she's gone shopping. I'll get hold of her later. For 40 years she's been trying to get me to wear coveralls, so she'll be happy to see me now.

The good news is that I got 40 days off my sentence [of 62 days] so I'll be out Nov. 23. The longest anyone will stay in here is Dec. 3, so we'll all be home for Christmas. They have a formula that applies to everybody. You can get time off for community service and so forth. The feeling [among some] is that we told our story. Me, I want to be in here. I don't need to chop down a tree at my age. I'm almost 60.

So far we've been separate from the general population but we're getting some new guys in [our section] tonight. These guys [other inmates] are OK. I'm not worried about it.

Our meals are brought to us. We have a rumpus room/dining room type of area, about 40 by 25 feet, with five tables. Our cells are just down the hallway. My cell is Number 5. I've got a view toward the road. I see the sunrise every morning but that's about it. The bars are real thick. It's going well, although the air's a little stale. You can't open the window [laughs]. So far, that's about all.

http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?id={D3779E98-8948-40C2-9955-1C1205EE3521}

[AdamSmith]

Here's another one from the US media

This from google news headlines:
Morons in the News: Sell Wheat Outside Canada, Pay A Thousand Dollars

And yet, marijuana is being legalized there...

Demonstrating that governmental stupidity is not exclusively an American
phenomenon, a dozen Canadian farmers are being arrested for the crime of
selling...or just donating...wheat to a foreign country.

No, really. You see, when dealing with foreign entities, Canadian farmers
have to sell through the "Canadian Wheat Board", a government organization
which (theoretically) negotiates the best possible price for the farmer and
pays them that amount. Distributing wheat to, say, an American organization
directly is "exporting grain without a licence", punishable by fines or jail
time.

A dozen Canadian farmers, angry with that, openly commited this "crime" back
in April of 1996, choosing for jail time rather than paying the fine now
that the appeals process has ended. For every $1,000 Canadian they would
have to pay, they will instead spend 16 1/2 days in prison.

One of these farmers is a director of the Wheat Board itself: Jim Chatenay,
who in 1996 gave a bushel of wheat to a Montana 4-H club. He favors a dual
system, where farmers may either sell to the Canadian Wheat Board or attempt
to obtain higher prices by selling directly.

And lest you think that the Wheat Board actually will get higher prices all
the time like they claim, talk to Rod Hanger. In the 1996 protest, he sold
1,500 bushels of grain to a U.S. elevator company and was paid $5 a bushel,
US. The wheat board price at the time would have netted him $3.30 Canadian.

"Why can't we be end users of our own product?" Hangar asks. "Right now, we
can't even set up mills."

Why, indeed.

[bobn]

"An Unjust Law Is Not A Law"

"How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust: I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. Therefore 'an unjust law' is no law at all."

"Let us consider a more concrete example of just and unjust laws: An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This difference is made legal. By the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal."

"One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law"

Quotes from Martin Luther King from "The Book Of Virtues" page 260-61.



The above quotes are very much applicable to the CWB Act in Canada. This law was brought into place by the Government of Canada and presumably applied to all wheat grown in Canada at the time which was 1945. You might reason that it was just because it applied to all wheat farmers equally across the land, but many wheat farmers would disagree because it only applied to them and not all farmers or even all producers of any other products grown, manufactured or whatever.

The reason it was accepted at the time, was most likely because it was during war time and it was supposed to be a temporary measure. However as it turned out, this temporary measure was not discontinued after the war was expanded further and made permanent. To add insult to injury it was only applied in actuality to wheat and barley farmers in the 3 prairie provinces. Now we certainly have an unjust law as it was made by all of Canada but only applies to a minority.

As any honest person can see, the 13 farmers from Alberta broke an unjust law openly and with a willingness to accept penalty after exhausting all means of testing the law in the courts. They did their part, now it is time for the CANADIAN public to look into their conscience to see if they agree that the CWB Act is an unjust law. It's not just an issue of wheat and barley growers. Farmers did NOT vote in this law. If Canadians agree that this is an unjust law, it is their duty to let politicians know about it.

[bobn]

Incarceration of Farmers Shows Need for CWB Flexibility

WINNIPEG, MB, Nov 06, 2002 (Resource News International via COMTEX) -- The recent incarceration of the thirteen Alberta farmers for selling grain outside of the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) demonstrates the need for immediate changes at the Board, according to Brian Kriz, president of the Grain Growers Of Canada.

The farmers began their jail sentences on November 1.

"All that western producers are asking for is the same flexibility that farmers in the rest of Canada have already been given," stated Ken Bee, Vice President of the Grain Growers of Canada.

"This is not a philosophical argument," Bee said. "Increased marketing flexibility has increased Ontario wheat farmers' ability to maximize their returns."

The regional inequities in grain marketing must be addressed, Kriz said. "Western farmers want to diversify, build their own pasta and flour plants, process ethanol, and explore niche markets. They are being denied this chance, which is available to the rest of Canada, because of the CWB's marketing monopoly. This is simply wrong," he said.

Kriz said the Grain Growers of Canada have presented the CWB with a plan that would give farmers marketing choice. "Unfortunately it was rejected out of hand by the Board, demonstrating the CWB's inflexibility."

Established in 2000, the Grain Growers of Canada is the only national organization representing grain producers from across the country.

Members of the Grain Growers of Canada include: Alberta Barley Commission, Alberta Winter Wheat Producers Commission, Atlantic Grains Council, British Columbia Grain Producers Association, Canadian Canola Growers Association, F?d?ration des Producteurs de Cultures Commerciales du Qu?bec, Manitoba Corn Growers Association, Ontario Corn Producers' Association, Ontario Soybean Growers, Ontario Wheat Producers Marketing Board, Western Barley Growers Association, and the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association.

[bobn]

Cdn Farm Group Charges Discrimination Against CWB

Winnipeg, MB, Nov 04, 2002 (Resource News International via COMTEX) -- The Western Barley Growers Association (WBGA) continued its assault against the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) by accusing the CWB of discrimination, the group said in a news release.

"Going to jail for doing something that every other business person in Canada takes for granted is a crime committed by the state against its citizens," said Alberta Wagner, President of the WBGA.

Wagner was referring to the plight of thirteen Alberta farmers that were charged with removing materials seized by Canada Customs. The farmers took part in a 1996 protest where they each took a small amount of wheat into the US. While not officially charged with violating the CWB Act, the farmers had their vehicles impounded by Canada Customs. When the farmers drove off in the impounded vehicles, they were assessed a fine.

After years of legal wrangling, the farmers had until October 31 to pay the fines or face jail time. All chose jail in an effort to cast attention on the situation they disagree with.

Wagner pointed out that Eastern Canadian farmers do not have to wait for an export licence from the CWB. Additionally, Eastern Canadian farmers do not have to buy back their own wheat from the CWB before selling it like Western Canadian farmers have to.

"The CWB uses our money to cover the administration costs of issuing export licences for companies selling grain under the Export Feed Manufacture Agreement and farmers in other parts of Canada - that adds insult to injury," said Wagner.

"Mr. Ritter understands that CWB policies treat farmers differently depending on the region in which they farm. He also understands that this is discrimination, so why does he continue to champion the inequity?"

Wagner continued by demanding that the farmers be released and that a trial voluntary market for western Canadian wheat and barley, as recommended by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture, be established.

The WBGA also noted that a fund-raising effort called Free the Farmers has been opened in an attempt to offset the outstanding fines, legal costs and other needs of the jailed Alberta farmers and their families. The effort includes the WBGA, the Western Canadian Wheat Growers, Members of Parliament for the Canadian Alliance, and Farmers for Justice.

Over the weekend, four of the thirteen jailed farmers paid the fines levied against them and were released. One of the farmers released noted that his point had been made, and there was no further need to stay in jail.

[bobn]

Monopoly of CWB Must End, Cdn Farm Group Says

Winnipeg, MB, Nov 05, 2002 (Resource News International via COMTEX) -- The Canadian Wheat Board's (CWB) monopoly over the sales of wheat and barley must end, according to the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association (WCWGA). The WCWGA noted that the incarceration of 13 Alberta farmers for selling their own wheat was just one more reason that the monopoly must end.

"By choosing to go to jail, these farmers have drawn worldwide attention to the injustice of the CWB monopoly," said WCWGA Vice President Bernie Sambrook. "Marketing choice has been a core objective for the wheat growers for over 30 years. We respect the difficult decisions these farmers have made to try to change an unjust and outdated law and give western farmers the kind of market choices enjoyed by grain farmers elsewhere in the country and around the world."

The WCWGA called on the Canadian federal government to take stock of the issue and come up with an equitable solution for Western Canadian farmers.

"When an Act of Parliament dictates that farmers in only one part of the country can be jailed for selling their own wheat, while farmers in the rest of the country may do so free of that threat, then clearly the federal government has a responsibility to change the law," Sambrook said.

Sambrook noted that Western Canadian farmers can help bring about the process of change to the CWB Act by voting in the upcoming CWB elections.

"We also want to stress to farmers how important it is for them to vote in the upcoming CWB elections," said Sambrook. "We need CWB directors who support marketing choice through a voluntary CWB to make the Board relevant to farmers in the 21st century."

Thirteen Alberta farmers crossed the US border during a 1996 protest of the CWB, bringing with them sacks of wheat for either sale or donation. Their vehicles were impounded upon return to Canada by Canada Customs. However, the farmers took the impounded vehicles and returned to their homes.

The farmers were charged with a violation of Canada Customs, and were fined for removing their vehicles without proper authority. They had until October 31 to pay the fine, or face jail-time.

Four of the thirteen farmers chose to pay their fines after one night in jail, feeling that their point had been made.

[bobn]

The tyranny of farming in the West

Barry Cooper and David Bercuson
Calgary Herald

Wednesday, November 06, 2002

CALGARY - Thirteen shackled men entered the dark confines of the Lethbridge Correctional Centre last week, dangerous criminals who had violated the laws of society and the morals of civilization as we know it. Their crime? Several years back they took grain grown on their own farms, loaded it on to their trucks and drove it across the border into the United States.

Worse, some sold it to private U.S. grain dealers at market prices. Others gave it away. No matter. By taking wheat and barley outside Canada, they were in violation of the Customs Act. But the farmers, the RCMP, even the customs officers know the Customs Act is a front. Their real crime was defying the bureaucratic sway of the Canadian Wheat Board, the last major remnant of total wartime control of the private sector market in agricultural products.

Western Canadian wheat and barley farmers are subject to a unique tyranny, the worst kind of tyranny, a tyranny without a tyrant, a tyranny of mere rules and faceless bureaucrats for which even Parliamentary oversight is absent. Alone among Canadian farmers, prairie wheat and barley producers must, by law, market their product through the Canadian Wheat Board. They have no choice. The Wheat Board is a compulsory monopoly run by and for the people who staff it. Like CSIS, the spy agency, the CWB is exempt from access to information requests. Unlike CSIS, their adversaries are compelled to pay for the privilege. It is hard for most Canadians to understand the offensive implications of the Wheat Board monopoly. These prairie farmers, private entrepreneurs to a man, cannot sell their own product on the open, or even on a regulated, market. They plant the crops, they nurture them, they harvest them, they assume the risks. But the second their grain moves through the farm gate it belongs to the CWB. This happens nowhere else in Canada -- certainly not in Ontario. It doesn't even happen in Quebec or the Maritimes, which are hardly centres of entrepreneurial marketeers.

Imagine if the government had the right to be the sole agent for every artist, for every writer, for anyone who, by their own sweat, toil, intelligence, or imagination produced a book to sell and earn their own living from the proceeds. All Canadians except prairie wheat and barley producers have that option. Where is Margaret Atwood when she is needed?

Even devout supporters of the welfare state, to say nothing of the great body of ordinary and productive Canadians, believe that individuals have a right to own property and to reap for themselves the benefit of the work they invest in the product of their brains or their back. Not so the prairie wheat or barley growers, held in thrall by a compulsory monopoly since the desperate days of the Second World War.

The Canadian Wheat Board has changed in many ways over the past few years in response to farmers' demands. The board now operates with a majority of farmer representatives elected to its governing body. Farmers can now choose the international price at which they desire to sell their own grain.

Wheat Board supporters make much of the recent reforms. They also point to the referendums held during the late 1990s by the federal government when a slim majority of wheat and barley growers voted to market their grain through the board. In fact, those claims are beside the main point, that in no other sector of Canadian society or of the Canadian economy would a majority vote of manufacturers, of merchants, of poets, of fishermen or of any other category of people bind all members of the group against their will. Democracy has never meant the tyranny of the majority, especially a manipulated majority. In practice, the CWB is simply oppressive. The 13 jailed farmers are eloquent witnesses to its despotic power.

This compulsory and geographically discriminatory monopoly is probably the last fundamental human rights issue that remains largely ignored by governments, by the courts, and by the media. An individual who is determined to grow wheat or barley on the Prairies is an economic slave whether he or she favours that slavery or not. The Wheat Board issue is not just about choice. It is not just about secret prices set by unknown bureaucrats.

It is not even about what benefits the farmer and what does not. The basic issue is whether or not a prairie grain producer can be a responsible citizen, and raise and dispose of his own crops as he wishes.

Barry Cooper is with the department of political science at the University of Calgary, where David Bercuson is director of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies.

© Copyright 2002 National Post

[bobn]

Farmers Convicted on Policy - Not the Law
Original Release: October 29, 2002
Re-released with permission

Ottawa -- Today, Saskatoon Wanuskewin MP Maurice Vellacott stated, "It is a travesty when the judiciary is manipulated into enforcing executive branch policy instead of the Acts of Parliament."

Of the most famous cases where this has occurred, David Milgaard, John Sophonow and Guy Paul Morin, there was enormous public pressure to capture a suspect and get a conviction. So capture and conviction of somebody became the policy, and the law was trumped by policy. The results were the destruction of many lives and costly compensation to the victims of this horrendous miscarriage of justice. Injustices will occur whenever judges aren't careful to make the distinction between the law and policy.

Farmers in western Canada who have been convicted for selling their own grain broke no law, and the transcripts of many trials confirm this. In fact one just in Manitoba declared that nowhere is it explicitly written that a farmer must have an export license to export grain. However, he went on to say that one must construe the intent of parliament (policy) so as to create harmony between the two acts (The Canadian Wheat Board Act and The Customs Act). In other words, the judge's view was that if there was no law then one must rely on policy, and it was then that the policy resulted in the conviction. The often repeated policy enunciated by the federal government was that "the integrity of the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly must be maintained" and "the law must be upheld" - even though there was no law. This is what the convictions were based on what the judges bought into.

When judges extrapolated policy into law and convicted, it created a situation where the crown prosecutors where able to boastfully declare that they "now have jurisprudence where it did not previously exist." It is policy turned into jurisprudence that convicted the Alberta farmers.

Maurice Vellacott said, "There needs to be a complete review of all of the transcripts of the farmers trials, the books of authorities, investigative reports, sworn information and in particular the testimony of Revenue Canada personnel and representatives of the Canadian Wheat Board. All of this must be re-examined with the purpose of determining t what extent the Canadian Wheat Board and Revenue Canada manipulated the judicial system. Relying on policy to convict farmers when there was no law must have been approved at the highest level of this Liberal government and likely included people in the Privy Council."

Vellacott concluded," They have a lot to answer for and this must be stopped before more lives and careers are destroyed."

[bobn]

Alberta's jailed farmers

National Post


Saturday, November 09, 2002


Farmers? In jail? In Canada? For selling their own grain? It seems surreal, but it's true. Last week, 13 Alberta farmers were sent to prison for challenging the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly over Prairie grain sales. The baker's dozen (several of whom have since paid their fines and been released) are guilty of little more than seeking a higher price in the United States than the Board would pay them for their wheat and barley. In the summer of 1996, when they attempted to transport their grain into Montana, U.S. millers and grain companies were paying as much as three times a bushel more than the board was giving.

It's true, as Wheat Board Chairman Ken Ritter claims, that these farmers were convicted of violating the Customs Act, not the Wheat Board's own legislation, and that they are in jail now because they refused to pay their court-imposed fines, not because they were sentenced to be incarcerated. But all this is beside the point. In a free country, farmers should have the right to market their grain to whomever they please -- the Wheat Board, a local pasta maker, the rancher down the road for feed, or an international grain giant. As the law now stands, a farmer with a flour mill on his own property cannot grind his own wheat without first selling it to the Board, then buying it back at a punitive premium.

Correction: A Prairie farmer may not do so. Grain producers in Ontario, Quebec and the other regions of the country have been largely free to market their grain to the buyers of their choice for nearly a decade. Only on the Prairies do Ottawa and the Board insist on absolute control of the crops.

In June, the House of Commons agriculture committee called for farmers to be given the choice, by 2003, of deciding each spring whether to sell that season's harvest to the Board, or independently. The Alberta legislature, and several expert and quasi-judicial panels, have requested the same. But the Board and Ralph Goodale, the federal minister responsible for the Board, dismiss all such calls for modernization. They insist that if the more entrepreneurial farmers are permitted to market their own grain, then the prices available to the farmers who remain with the Board will be reduced.

Even if this rationalization were true -- the Board seldom makes public any of the proof it claims to have that so-called single-desk marketing benefits farmers -- it would be irrelevant. Farmers should be as free to market their product as Ontario car parts and Quebec aircraft manufacturers. The Board's forced collectivization of Prairie grain is anathema in a free society.

© Copyright 2002 National Post

[wilagro]

Customs laws are not to be taken lightly.
Them thar pipples don't tolerate smugglin' whether it be grain or marijuana.