PUBLICATION: The StarPhoenix
DATE: 2006.12.06
Wheat Board accuses Tories of ignoring law
OTTAWA (CP) -- The president of the Canadian Wheat Board says he's being fired by the federal government for obeying the law rather than Conservative policy.
Adrian Measner made his first public comments Tuesday since being given two weeks' notice by Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl last week.
Measner and Ken Ritter, the board's chair, were supposed to address the Commons agriculture committee on Monday, but the meeting was cancelled without explanation after they arrived in Ottawa. It's been rescheduled for Wednesday.
At issue is a Conservative campaign promise to end the board's long-standing monopoly on wheat and barley sales. The government wants to make participation voluntary, which the board argues would effectively kill the organization.
Farmers are split on the issue, but a majority of the CWB's board members -- elected by grain producers -- want to keep the single-desk model laid out in the Canadian Wheat Board Act.
"I find it quite ironic that . . . I have been asked to pledge support for the government's policy of marketing choice, which is not the law," Measner told a news conference on Parliament Hill.
"In other words, if I continue to obey the law, I will be fired."
His comments came the same day MPs were howling for the resignation of embattled RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli, who was supported by the Conservative government through controversy this year.
In the House of Commons, Liberal MP Ralph Goodale contrasted the different treatment of Measner and Zaccardelli and asked whether the wheat board president will be given due process.
"What we're intent on doing is moving toward marketing choice in an open manner," Strahl replied.
He added that all government appointees serve at the government's pleasure and "are expected to follow along on the government's point of view."
Measner's pending removal is the latest move in an increasingly bitter battle.
A plebiscite of farmers on ending the board's barley monopoly will be held in the new year, but no vote is planned for wheat.
The government has also issued a gag order on the CWB board, saying it cannot use wheat board resources to promote the single-desk model to its membership.
Goodale said the Conservatives are deliberately knee-capping CWB operations to undermine its effectiveness, a charge echoed by Ritter during an appearance Tuesday at a Senate committee.
Ritter told the senators the gag order goes to the heart of the CWB's marketing operation.
"Because of the nature of our organization, everything we do really is indirectly at least commenting on the single desk -- it is the core of what we are," Ritter said.
The board has launched a lawsuit to overturn the gag order.
In an interview, Strahl said he met Tuesday with Ritter and told the board chair the CWB must start planning immediately for the end of the barley monopoly.
Strahl said it is unacceptable the board has not made a contingency plan should farmers vote for choice in barley marketing, which he expects will happen in January.
The board, for its part, said the government is over-reaching its power.
"The CWB is not an agent of the government," said Ritter. "It is not a Crown corporation."
DATE: 2006.12.06
Wheat Board accuses Tories of ignoring law
OTTAWA (CP) -- The president of the Canadian Wheat Board says he's being fired by the federal government for obeying the law rather than Conservative policy.
Adrian Measner made his first public comments Tuesday since being given two weeks' notice by Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl last week.
Measner and Ken Ritter, the board's chair, were supposed to address the Commons agriculture committee on Monday, but the meeting was cancelled without explanation after they arrived in Ottawa. It's been rescheduled for Wednesday.
At issue is a Conservative campaign promise to end the board's long-standing monopoly on wheat and barley sales. The government wants to make participation voluntary, which the board argues would effectively kill the organization.
Farmers are split on the issue, but a majority of the CWB's board members -- elected by grain producers -- want to keep the single-desk model laid out in the Canadian Wheat Board Act.
"I find it quite ironic that . . . I have been asked to pledge support for the government's policy of marketing choice, which is not the law," Measner told a news conference on Parliament Hill.
"In other words, if I continue to obey the law, I will be fired."
His comments came the same day MPs were howling for the resignation of embattled RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli, who was supported by the Conservative government through controversy this year.
In the House of Commons, Liberal MP Ralph Goodale contrasted the different treatment of Measner and Zaccardelli and asked whether the wheat board president will be given due process.
"What we're intent on doing is moving toward marketing choice in an open manner," Strahl replied.
He added that all government appointees serve at the government's pleasure and "are expected to follow along on the government's point of view."
Measner's pending removal is the latest move in an increasingly bitter battle.
A plebiscite of farmers on ending the board's barley monopoly will be held in the new year, but no vote is planned for wheat.
The government has also issued a gag order on the CWB board, saying it cannot use wheat board resources to promote the single-desk model to its membership.
Goodale said the Conservatives are deliberately knee-capping CWB operations to undermine its effectiveness, a charge echoed by Ritter during an appearance Tuesday at a Senate committee.
Ritter told the senators the gag order goes to the heart of the CWB's marketing operation.
"Because of the nature of our organization, everything we do really is indirectly at least commenting on the single desk -- it is the core of what we are," Ritter said.
The board has launched a lawsuit to overturn the gag order.
In an interview, Strahl said he met Tuesday with Ritter and told the board chair the CWB must start planning immediately for the end of the barley monopoly.
Strahl said it is unacceptable the board has not made a contingency plan should farmers vote for choice in barley marketing, which he expects will happen in January.
The board, for its part, said the government is over-reaching its power.
"The CWB is not an agent of the government," said Ritter. "It is not a Crown corporation."
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