14 Canadian farmers will arrested today

National Post ^ | Robert Remington

[Trouble North of the Border]

...for selling grain

Farmers 'want to go to jail in the worst way' Wheat Board protest

Robert Remington National Post

Thursday, October 24, 2002

Dave Chan, National Post Farmers, from left, Jim Ness, Noel Hyslip and Rick Strankman, are prepared to go to jail for selling their wheat in the United States.

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CALGARY - In April of 1996, farmer Darren Winczura took a bag of grain across the Alberta border and donated it to a 4-H club in Montana.

For that symbolic act of defiance against the Canadian Wheat Board, Mr. Winczura will go to jail next week rather than pay a $1,000 fine for exporting grain without a licence.

"I've tried to explain it to my kids, but they don't understand," said the father of two from Viking, Alta., who will turn himself in on Halloween rather than spend it with his daughter, Ashley, 9, and son, Blake, 8.

Mr. Winczura, 35, is one of 14 renegade Alberta farmers who took part in the protest at the Alberta-Montana border 6 1/2 years ago. Their appeals exhausted, they have until 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 31 to pay fines ranging from $1,000 to $7,500 or face 16 1/2 days for each $1,000 in fines.

After that time, they will be considered wilfully at large and can be arrested for contravening Canadian Wheat Board rules requiring the board to market their grain for them.

Not wanting to be regarded as outlaws, the "defiant dozen" (two are thought to have opted to pay their fines) plan to turn themselves over to authorities at the courthouse in Lethbridge, Alta., at noon on Oct. 31.

"We didn't make this decision lightly," said Jim Ness, who is among five of the convicted farmers -- they call themselves Farmers for Justice -- who are in Ottawa today for a news conference. "The prospect of going to jail is disturbing. For most, it has been a family decision, but it's something that has to be done."

Among those willing to go to jail is a Canadian Wheat Board member, Jim Chatenay, who took part in the 1996 demonstration. Like Mr. Winczura, he gave wheat -- one bushel of it -- to a Montana 4-H club.

One of 10 elected wheat board directors, Mr. Chatenay favours a dual system whereby Western farmers can choose whether to have their grain marketed by the board, as is required now, or sell it independently on their own.

"I want to go to jail in the worst way. I don't want this to be resolved," said Mr. Chatenay, 59. "Canada is the only country in the world that puts its farmers in prison for selling their own grain, yet we're on the verge of legalizing marijuana. This is absolutely insane. It has to stop. These are the people who feed us, for God's sake."

The grain growers, who have likened themselves to peasant farmers required to sell their wheat to an overlord, are protesting what they see as the almost feudal practices of the wheat board. The board requires Western farmers, but not their counterparts in Ontario or Quebec, to sell their grain to the board rather than market it independently.

"It's blatant discrimination," Mr. Chatenay said. "The CWB Act applies equally to all provinces in the dominion, yet we are applying the rules to farmers in one part of the country. It's an unbelievable outrage."

To get an export licence, Western farmers must sell their grain to the board, while still retaining possession of it, and then repurchase it at a price determined by the CWB. The policy dates back to the Second World War, when the CWB was given sweeping powers over wheat distribution under the War Measures Act. Western farmers have been fighting the regulations in the courts since 1950.

Mr. Chatenay, who faces 62 days in prison, believes the board has no legal authority to compel Western grain growers to market their wheat. "If I'm going to jail for breaking legislation, that's one thing. But if I'm going to jail for breaking wheat board policy, that is quite another matter," he said. "Interesting, isn't it? I'm a member of an organization deciding to put myself in jail."

Ken Ritter, chairman of the CWB, says farmers can get a better price selling their grain as one unified entity. The CWB markets wheat and barley for 85,000 Western growers, arguing that it gets the best possible price and saves its members marketing costs. "It is our mission to maximize returns. Every business person ... knows that you can get more from the marketplace when you are the only one selling a given service or product. Western Canadian farmers know this, too," Mr. Ritter said in a letter on Saturday to the National Post.

Rod Hanger, 32, who's looking at 75 days in jail, sees it differently.

"I'm the one who bought the seed. I paid for the equipment to put it in the ground. I paid for the fertilizer to grow it. I'm the one who gets an ulcer worrying if it will come up, yet at the end of the day, the CWB says 'that's our grain.' There is something fundamentally wrong with that."

In the 1996 protest, Mr. Hanger sold 1,500 bushels of grain to a U.S. elevator company and was paid US$5 a bushel. The wheat board price at the time would have netted him C$3.30.

He believes that Western farmers should not only be able to market their own grain, but that they should have the right to turn it into saleable goods. "Why can't we be end users of our own product? Right now, we can't even set up mills."

bremington@nationalpost.com

© Copyright 2002 National Post

[Trouble North of the Border]

There is a rally organised on the steps of the courthouse where the farmers are turning themselves in. Free Dominion will have pictures from the rally late tomorrow. I will post a link to the rally thread here for anyone that is interested

[Slip18]

Jailed? For selling wheat?

[Trouble North of the Border]

Yep.

All those who are interested and took part in this thread
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/763803/posts
(even those who only had toilet issues)


14 Canadian farmers are going to jail tomorrow for selling wheat.

If anyone has time to do an email send to American media, it would be greatly appreciated.

It is a human rights story that American media might be interested in considering our Prime Minister's bizarre foreign affairs approach to the US.

[tiki]

Socialism

[xm177e2]

The grain growers, who have likened themselves to peasant farmers required to sell their wheat to an overlord, are protesting what they see as the almost feudal practices of the wheat board. The board requires Western farmers, but not their counterparts in Ontario or Quebec, to sell their grain to the board rather than market it independently.

Canada is an imperialist entity and Alberta is an internal colony. The central provinces have been abusing Alberta for years.

Alberta's economy has been systematically suppressed by policies created by the central government like this one which hurts only Western farmers. In the past, the Canadian government has abused Alberta through the NEP--the "New Energy Policy" which was to take Alberta's oil and not pay the Albertans much for it--and through the Crow's Pass freight rates, which discouraged Albertans from shipping anything other than unprocessed grain (Ottawa didn't want Alberta to turn the grain into food items, it wanted to keep those jobs for people in the Central Provinces).

Threatening to secede is the only answer. That's why the central gov't is so obsessed with Quebec. If Ottawa won't give in, then Alberta should leave the Confederation. Alls they have to do is sign NAFTA, adopt their own currency, and a national constitution, and they're set. It wouldn't be so difficult, much of the government is already handled at the provincial level.

The downside, of course, is that Chretien's relative power base in Canada would become much larger, and its politics would lurch violently to the left. And Canadians would become extremely resentful of Americans for encouraging Alberta to break away (in the minds of the Canadians). Canadians would then get really angry that Americans didn't acknowledge their anger. It's bad enough now that most Americans couldn't care less about Canada, but if they actually started to hate us, and we still paid them no heed, they could get very upset. Like rabid beavers. We could have a real problem on our hands with crazed suicide bombing canucks.

But if that's the price we would have to pay to get our imperialist claws on Albertan oil, then that's the price we will have to pay. No cost is too great, no hardship too burdenful, no stumbling block too stumbleful to stand between America and oil! Break away Alberta! America is with you!

[Smokin' Joe]

Try hauling U.S. grain north some time.

Fugheddaboutit.

[Trouble North of the Border]

"Threatening to secede is the only answer. That's why the central gov't is so obsessed with Quebec. If Ottawa won't give in, then Alberta should leave the Confederation. Alls they have to do is sign NAFTA, adopt their own currency, and a national constitution, and they're set. It wouldn't be so difficult, much of the government is already handled at the provincial level."

If Kyoto is rammed through before Christmas (the cretin's grand plan without a plan) Alberta may very well secede.


"It's bad enough now that most Americans couldn't care less about Canada, but if they actually started to hate us, and we still paid them no heed, they could get very upset. Like rabid beavers. We could have a real problem on our hands with crazed suicide bombing canucks."

LOL! However, with our lousy immigration policy, we more then likely have a few sleeper cells scattered across Canada.


"But if that's the price we would have to pay to get our imperialist claws on Albertan oil, then that's the price we will have to pay. No cost is too great, no hardship too burdenful, no stumbling block too stumbleful to stand between America and oil! Break away Alberta! America is with you!"

LOL!! We thought you loved us Albertans because of the potential Republican electoral vote we can offer you, and now I find out its just our "oil" you're after.

:-)

[Trouble North of the Border]

huh? It is illegal for US farmers to sell their wheat on the open market?

[Trouble North of the Border]

I don't think Canada is particularily popular in the Commonwealth these days. Not that it bothers our PM, he would rather hang out with Hezbolah terrorist leaders and human rights violators anyway.

[wafflehouse]

jeez.. helluva deal there..

[pariah]

The grain growers, who have likened themselves to peasant farmers required to sell their wheat to an overlord, are protesting what they see as the almost feudal practices of the wheat board.

Bolshevism with velvet gloves.

[Dan Day]

huh? It is illegal for US farmers to sell their wheat on the open market?

Don't say "it can't happen here". It already has, albeit in the reverse -- a US farmer broke the law by *not* selling his wheat on the open market. See: Are There no Limits to Federal Regulatory Power? Look halfway down to the section entitled "Wickard versus Filburn".

[xm177e2]

But what if Alberta remained loyal to the Queen of England? It wouldn't have to stay in the Confederation to stay in the Commonwealth. And then it wouldn't really be "treason" to secede, would it? I mean, Canadians are supposed to be loyal to the Queen more than they are to "Canada."

[exnavy]

What kind of world are we living in, when farmers can be jailed for pushing wheat?

[Cuttnhorse]

"We could have a real problem on our hands with crazed suicide bombing canucks."

I can see the headlines now: Canadian Suicide Bomber Detonates SixPack of Warm Labbatts, 10 People Drenched.

[Rebelbase]

5 entries found for socialism.
To select an entry, click on it. Main Entry: so·cial·ism
Pronunciation: 'sO-sh&-"li-z&m
Function: noun
Date: 1837
1 : any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
2 a : a system of society or group living in which there is no private property b : a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state
3 : a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done
4 : The current political government in Canada, which produces such ansine concepts as prison time for wheat farmers who give away as much as one bushel of wheat to a charitable cause in violation of the Canadian Wheat Board's policy of strictly controling wheat distribution.
Also see:(Stupid),(Idiotic), (Hillary)

[RWG]

canada is not even a real country. it has no reasonable system in place at national or province levels.

[snopercod]

More power to them. Is the press up North as biased as down here, or will they air this story?