Storm the Bastille Rally in Ottawa Nov 18/2002

[bobn]

Author Topic: Storm the Bastille
Entropy Squared
Junior Member posted 11-12-2002 05:05 PM
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It's time to storm the bastille. The jailing of Canadian farmers for violating a discriminatory, government-mandated monopoly must end. In pursuit of this goal, Free Dominion is organizing a "Storm the Bastille" rally in Ottawa to be held November 18, 2002 at High Noon on Parliament Hill.
We have an excellent lineup of speakers, including many Canadian Alliance MPs, at least one Progressive Conservative MP, two of the farmers from Alberta who were jailed for selling and giving away grain, and many others who will be named, as their speaking confirmations come in.

The media has begun to interview my partner, Connie, and I concerning this rally and they have informed us the rally will be well covered.

This rally will not be strictly an 'anti-issue' rally, we are taking a proactive
stance. We are calling for the implementation of Recommendation #14 of the Standing Committee on Agriculture which recommends a test period where western grain producers can have the option to sell their grain to the highest bidder - a freedom taken for granted by non-prairie farmers - or sell their products to the Canadian Wheat board.

If you can attend this rally on short notice please do, if you would like to speak at the rally please contact us at Free Dominion. If you have a network you can use to spread the word of the Storm the Bastille rally please employ it to extend the reach of prairie farmers and to thereby benefit all Canadians.

We hope to see you in Ottawa next Monday.

Mark J. Fournier
editor@freedominion.ca

Connie Wilkins
connie@freedominion.ca

[bobn]

Read this story and still say you're proud to be Canadian! "The end justifies the means" the "Canadian Way"

Alberta farmers told going to jail for selling grain to U.S. will be tough time
CAROL HARRINGTON
Canadian Press
Wednesday, October 30, 2002

http://www.canada.com/search/story.aspx?id=cacf4f15-49dc-4a2d-a2d1-76c7175816ce

CALGARY (CP) - Frequently strip-searched and shackled in chains, Manitoba farmer Andy McMechan spent 155 days in prison for hauling grain over the American border. He says it will be hard for a dozen Alberta farmers to go to prison Thursday in a bitter protest of Ottawa's unfair monopoly for selling grain, but in the end it is worth it.

"They are doing the right thing, standing up for their rights," said McMechan, 52. "But jail is sometimes a hard place to sit, when everything is out of your control."

The Alberta farmers are refusing to pay fines for moving barley and wheat over the U.S. border in 1996 instead of selling it for a cheaper price to the Canadian Wheat Board.

They belong to Farmers for Justice, a grassroots group of grain growers. About 200 members across the Prairies moved unlicensed grain exports in 1995 and 1996.

The Alberta farmers plan to surrender Thursday to police in Lethbridge, Alta., when their time runs out to pay fines of between $1,000 to $7,500.

John Turcato of Taber, Alta., who refuses to pay a $5,500 fine, said the worst part about being jailed for 131 days is leaving his wife and four children, ages seven to 18.

"Winter time for me is spending time watching my kids play hockey, watching my daughter dance and spending time with my wife," he said from his farm 180 kilometres southeast of Calgary.

"But I have to do this. To me, I'd be lowering my own standards if I don't."

Noel Hyslip was busy Wednesday on his farm near Vulcan, Alta., tying up loose ends and spending time with his family before turning himself over to police for $7,500 in unpaid fines.

He tried explaining to his three children, 10, 12 and 13, why dad was going to jail, but it's far beyond their realm, he said.

"They are too young. It's a political thing."

McMechan said he hit some lows while in the Brandon Correctional Institute, a provincial prison west of Winnipeg. He was imprisoned from July 9 to Dec. 10, 1996 for taking back his tractor after it was seized by Canada Customs at the U.S. border.

While in jail, the federal Farm Credit Corporation started foreclosure proceedings on his farm, he was strip-searched more than 50 times and for the first 75 days, he was with high-risk inmates in an area where the lights were on 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

In all, he had 15 different cellmates.

"The very first one, you had to watch him," McMechan said of the man who threatened him because he didn't want to play cards.

"I knew he had a straight razor that he used and didn't return," the farmer said. "He told me, 'You better watch your back.' I didn't sleep for three nights."

But as the inmates watched McMechan's court case on the TV news, they gained respect and encouraged him for what they considered to be a brave stand.

"They thought it was crazy, being in jail for selling grain - not drugs, but wheat and barley."

McMechan had plenty of help from the outside. Western-based National Citizens Coalition paid about $35,000 of his legal bills.

Neighbours pitched in to harvest his grain and feed the cattle and every few days his wife picked up a large box of cards and letters from well-wishers at the post office. In all, there were about 40 boxes.

"They were from every province in Canada, a tremendous amount from Ontario and Quebec," McMechan said.

"It was encouraging but at the same time, being 110 miles away from my kids and wife - they deserve to be well-dressed, they deserve food on the table. That's what you work for, that's what it's all about."

McMechan admits that he made plenty of grain runs since 1993 from Manitoba to North Dakota, where he and his American wife own a farm. Instead of $3.40 the wheat board was offering for a bushel of wheat, farmers were getting up to $8.50 a bushel south of the border.

Many Farmers for Justice members believe that McMechan was hung out as an example - treated harshly so that other farmers would think twice before hauling their grain over the border.

"I knew it was a crap game and their game was just to break you, keep taking money out of you until you were so broke, you couldn't defend yourself or do anything," McMechan said. "I was bound and determined."

Many Prairie farmers believe that the Canadian Wheat Board's policy - that western farmers must sell their wheat and barley through it - is an outdated practice that started during the Second World War under the War Measures Act.

What's unfair, they point out, is that grain farmers from Ontario and Quebec are allowed to independently market their grain.

© Copyright 2002 The Canadian Press

[TOM4CWB]

Anyone heard how this event went?

[bobn]

Entropy Squared
Free Dominion
November 18, 2002

Storm the Bastille Report

It was freezing cold with a withering wind in front of the Bastille at high noon today, but about seventy intrepid souls braved the elements and defied the weather channel's highway warnings to make their way to Parliament Hill to show their support for western grain growers and their opposition to a political system that will jail western farmers for doing what is legal and normal for other Canadians, selling the fruits of their labour to the highest bidder in a free market system.

Canadian Alliance MPs Stockwell Day, Peter Goldring, Myron Thompson and Darrel Stinson all came through with rousing speeches and Stockwell made it a point to also address the children participating in the rally. The speakers list was rounded out by Howard Galganov, Doug McBain and Alberta farmer Rick Strenkman. Notable was the fact that the Canadian Alliance MPs remained at the rally and stood out in the freezing cold for the duration of the rally, even though they were the first to speak and could have returned to the warmth of the House. Art Hanger was an unexplained no-show and Progressive Conservative MP Rick Borotsik cancelled at the last moment, apparently choosing politics over the issue at hand.

Free Dominion wishes to extend our heartfelt gratitude to all who helped organize this event, with special thanks going to Howard Galganov, Ed Sieb, Myron Thompson, Janet L. Jackson and Ralph Forte.

Immediately following the rally, Peter Goldring arranged gallery passes in the House of Commons for Connie and her entire family, many of the Bastille stormers who had come up from Kingston and myself. Peter Goldring then read a statement on the Floor of the House explaining the historical context of the storming of the Bastille 213 years ago and demonstrating the similarities between the events leading to the original Bastille storming and the conditions in Canada today, which prompted the symbolic storming of the Bastille on Parliament Hill this afternoon. Our actions outside the House of Commons made it into the Hansard thanks to Goldring.

Once again, thank you to all who organized and participated in the 2002 Storming of the Bastille on Parliament Hill.

[TOM4CWB]

Thankyou folks;

If we work together, we cannot be defeated... truth and justice WILL never surrender to deception and fear!

LONG LIVE A FREE AND DEMOCRATIC CANADA!

[bobn]

Thank you Eastern Canadians! You did good! Hopefully more across this whole country will follow your example.

I just came across this timely quote from a NewsWeek Column on msnbc.com. It's about a Jewish grandson returning to his murdered grandfather's home in Germany.

“And how did you all get along before the war?” I ventured.
“We had no problems. We grew up together and were fine with the Jews,” one of the women replied. I glanced over at the nearby community house where in 1943, the remaining Jews of the area had been rounded up before deportation.
There was a pause, and suddenly the second woman said, “Wir haben nichts getan”—”We didn’t do anything.”
I later mentioned the curious, unsolicited remark to a young German named Andreas, who explained, “The old people, even if they didn’t do anything bad, still feel guilty that they didn’t do anything good.”

http://www.msnbc.com/news/837910.asp?vts=112020021645