Socialists (aka totalitarians) are immune to shame and embarassment.
Posted on 11/01/2002 7:48:50 AM PST by Trouble North of the Border
October 31, 2002
Trick or Treat? 13 Canadian farmers hauled off to jail in handcuffs
by J. L. Jackson www.freedominion.ca
It may be Halloween but it isn’t a trick and certainly no treat.
On October 31st, thirteen political protesters were handcuffed and sent to jail in Lethbridge, Alberta. These weren’t your average run of the mill anti-globalism, Marxist, hippy type of protesters, however. Believe it or not, these were – farmers.
Regular every-day kind of farmers who plant their grain, have coffee in the local coffee shop, buy farm supplies at the local farm supply store and who often buy their groceries at the same store you do.
They are in jail (you won’t believe this) for selling wheat.
These farmer’s political protest goes back six years: a convoy of farmers sick and tired of bowing to the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly made a border run to Montana. Most carried a bagful of wheat they donated to a local 4H club.
The majority of farmers who participated in this convoy quietly paid their exorbitant fines early on. “Two of my neighbours who are brothers, were fined $10,000 and $8,000 and also got 1500 hours of community service,” explains Oyen farmer Dave McKinstry.
“They were made examples of.”
Fourteen farmers, who refused to pay their fines, were served a court summons earlier this year. After being found guilty, thirteen of them, including one of the CWB’s own director’s Jim Chatenay, chose to opt for a jail sentence rather then pay their fines. Other then the Wheat board, CSIS (Canada’s intelligence agency) and Atomic Canada are the only other government agencies that are exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.
While eastern farmers are exempt from the Canadian Wheat Board’s cartel-like approach, it is illegal for western farmers to pursue free trade. Western diversification, an often talked about idea, will never happen as long as it is illegal for western farmers to mill or manufacture their grain.
Prior to the thirteen CWB “criminals” turning themselves in, a rally of close to a thousand farmers and other protesters supporting these Canadian patriots was held in the empty lot across from the Lethbridge courthouse.
Lethbridge area and most of eastern Alberta has been hit by one of the worst droughts on record and field upon field of this year’s not combined poor crops lay buried under a blanket of snow. This is the backdrop and the conditions in which the thirteen farmers marched two by two up the Courthouse steps to wait in line to be handcuffed (until no handcuffs were left) and hauled off to jail by the RCMP. Children cried as they watched their father’s being led down the hallway.
Media with cameras were ordered from the Courthouse foyer by the police with strict orders that no pictures were to be taken of the RCMP handcuffing the farmers.
Halloween also marked another momentous legal event: Canada’s Supreme Court granted inmates the right to vote.
During his rally speech University professor and Alberta Senator elect, Dr. Ted Morton commented on the irony of Canada’s Supreme Court’s decision, “I ask myself what are the Liberal’s thinking throwing all these people in jail [westerners] one group after another, and I thought I had come up with the answer until today, put enough us in jail and they figure they might be able to win a few seats in this province in the next election.
“But the Supreme Court screwed that up this morning by giving prisoners the right to vote.”
Morton went on to explain that farmers aren’t the only western faction to be placed in jail. Last month British Columbia salmon fishermen’s right to fish their local territory was taken away by the Supreme Court. The new federal government’s gun legislation Bill C-68 will kick-in January 1, 2003. “How many made in Ottawa criminals are going to be in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and BC then?” Morton questioned. If guns are not registered by the deadline, farmers who may have inherited rifles used to protect their livestock will be put in jail for not completing the paper work.
Alberta’s other major industry is also under attack as Ottawa is determined to ram the Kyoto protocol through the Liberal dominated Parliament before Christmas. The Liberal government wants to ratify Kyoto in spite of the government openly admitting they do not have a plan as well as having no idea of the economic impact the Kyoto agreement will have on the Canadian economy generally or Alberta’s oil and gas economy specifically.
Alberta’s Premier Klein was first to speak at the Lethbridge rally. Many Alliance Members of Parliament and several provincial MLAs, as well as prominent conservative activists also attended and participated in the rally.
Prime Minister Chretien recently attended “la Francophonie” conference, a semi-annual summit meeting held in Beirut, Lebanon. Reportedly, Canada’s Prime Minister sat only a few rows behind the infamous Hezbollah terrorist leader Hassan Nasrallah. In our Prime Minister’s defence, he claimed to not have a clue that he was sitting behind the Hezbollah terrorist leader and later thanked a Canadian reporter for informing him that Hassan Nasrallah was a terrorist leader and that he was at the conference.
As Prime Minister Chretien contemplates his later rather then sooner retirement, he is encircled by unending “ethics” issues of his government that just won’t go away. Perhaps it is to be expected that Chretien would continue to allow the enforcement of an archaic, feudal grain marketing system keeping western farmers serfs to the system.
By putting farmer’s in jail for selling grain, the Canadian Wheat Board and our Prime Minister are an embarrassment to Canada. When will Amnesty International take notice of the basic human rights violations that Canada is committing against her own farmers outlawing western farmers from selling the product of their labour and place Canada in the same human rights category as many of the Prime Minister’s “la Francophonie” cohorts?
http://www.freedominion.ca/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=7552
Socialists (aka totalitarians) are immune to shame and embarassment.
Geez .. their on there to being like China .. I wonder who is next to be thrown in jail
China is ahead of Canada now. Seems the grain market is freely run now. Chinese peasants have the option of selling to the state. Not the requirement.
The Grain Issue in China
... processing enterprises purchase grain from the wholesale markets; and farmers sell ... Second,
China should speed up the separation of state-owned grain ...
english.peopledaily.com.cn/whitepaper/15(7).html - 9k - Cached - Similar pagesChina Leaves Grain Price to Mercy of the Market
... Jiefang Daily reported yesterday that the State Council, China's ... The production, purchase
and sale of grain ... Presently, farmers are required to sell their ...
english.peopledaily.com.cn/english/ 200106/05/eng20010605_71825.html - 18k - Cached - Similar pages
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