Canadian Wheat Board director Jim Chatenay, before he was jailedPosted on 11/20/2002 10:36:25 AM PST by Trouble North of the Border
CANADIAN FARMERS JAILED FOR SELLING WHEAT Their reports from behind bars
Jim Chatenay National Post
http://www.nationalpost.com/search/site/story.asp?id=D3779E98-8948-40C2-9955-1C1205EE3521
Todd Korol, National Post Two guards had tears in their eyes, says Jim Chatenay, who turned himself in to authorities on Thursday.
PRISONER'S ALMANAC: A REBEL WHEAT FARMER'S FIRST DAY IN JAIL: Jim Chatenay, with his cat Emily on his farm west of Penhold, Alta., went to jail this week to protest the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly over Western grain growers.: (Photo ran on pg.A1.)
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.
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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.
bremington@nationalpost.com
© Copyright 2002 National Post
>>>>>
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 >>>>>
Posted on www.farmersforjustice.com Web forum
http://ubb.familyfarmers.com/Forum16/HTML/000011.html
Ron Duffy called us from his jail cell tonight. He is in jail for trying to sell the wheat he grows. He gets locked in at 10:30 at night. He is bunking in with CWB Director Jim Chatenay, and that is nice for the both of them. The farmers are segregated in one wing, but they have no special privileges. Jim has to wash windows and Ron has to wash floors. Jail is quite an experience for a group of farmers who have very a very strong sense of what is right and what is wrong. These farmers are the kind of people who will stop and help you change a tire in forty below. They are the kind of folks who are good neighbors. They have the kind of work ethic that built this country. And they are in jail for trying to sell what they grow.
These are not the kind of people who will be intimidated by manipulating bureaucrats. Or by white collar thugs. Or by backroom schemers dipping into the pooling accounts. The Canadian Wheat Board may want to continue pleading their bystanding innocence in this whole fiasco, but they are guilty in the eyes of the public, and they are involved, and these farmers know they are And so is Ralph Goodale. The Minister of the Canadian Wheat Board can arrange for Customs to press charges so the CWB doesn't look bad. He can change the law. He can, in all his Cabinet glory, publicly pretend that the farmers are criminal border-runners that need to be locked up because they just want to draw attention to themselves, but deep down, the Canadians I know are outraged.
Probably what is the most insulting of all to a lot of folks in the farm community, is the fact that at the same time farmers were handcuffed and put in leg irons for trying to market their grain, the Supreme Court of Canada voted to make sure hard core criminals continue getting voting privileges. Not suspending those privileges, but keeping active those privileges. Time and time again in the past few days, so many people have commented, "What is going on in our country?"
But what is so bloody disturbing about Ron Duffy's sentence is even if he had applied for an export license, the Canadian Wheat Board would have denied him the license. Over the years, the Board has decided to deny all Western farmers export licenses whilst at the same time, they have decided to grant licenses to all the other provinces. When it comes to licensing, the CWB Act itself , applies EQUALLY to every province, but the Board does not apply the Act in the way it is written by Parliament. The Board itself has decided to disregard what Parliament requires from them, and they have chosen to let their policy supercede their legislation. Licensing based on where you live is by any man's measure, discriminatory.
If the CWB Board of Directors decided tommorow, to instruct the Licensing Department in the CWB to issue export/interprovincial licenses, farmers in the West would be able to market their own grain. No legislation change necessary. No hoopla. Director Art Macklin is able to get a license for his seed grain, because the Board of Directors will issue seedgrowers licenses. Ron Duffy cannot get an export license, because Directors like Art Macklin refuse to grant them to farmers in the West.
When he called tonight, Ron Duffy said he felt very safe in jail. Safer in jail in some ways, than out of jail. It's no wonder. The Minister Responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board stood by and allowed not only good men like Ron Duffy, but allowed all these farmers to go to jail, when in fact, the CWB could have easily issued an export license to each and every one of them. Even if the CWB itself continued to refuse to issue export licenses, the Minister has the authority to order them to do so. What horrible, horrible people. It is no wonder Canadians feel unsafe. They should.
Carol Husband >>>>>
'We hope the message is still alive and well' Jim Chatenay, as told to Robert Remington National Post Thursday, November 14, 2002
Farmer Jim Chatenay of Penhold, Alta., has no second thoughts about going to jail to protest the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly.
Jim Chatenay is one of four Alberta farmers who remain in jail to protest the Canadian Wheat Board's 60-year monopoly over western grain growers. Mr. Chatenay, a wheat board director, was one of 13 farmers who went to jail after refusing to pay Canada Customs fines for taking wheat across the U.S. border. Mr. Chatenay donated a sack of grain to a 4-H Club in Montana and has been lobbying for the right of western growers to market their own wheat and barley. This is the second instalment of his prison diary.
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You wouldn't believe the paperwork to get a phone call out of here.
They moved us from unit three, the maximum security wing, to unit five. There are about 36 cells and an upstairs balcony where the guards can look down on us. I like where we're at. The farmers are all side by side.
We're doing just fine. Nothing has changed. The inmates think we're great. Their freedom has been taken away and we're fighting for freedom, so I think they can understand that. Actually we're quite popular in here. There are lots of high fives all around.
Respect comes very clearly here. It's very hard to get respect in the [Canadian Wheat Board) board room but here the support is unbelievable.
There's a board meeting shortly after I get out and I plan to be there. I'm not exactly sure of the date because they send out the notices by e-mail. My wife doesn't run the computer and I don't have access to one in here. You know, in the last wheat board elections, 52% of farmers voted for choice (to market their own grain) and they have the right to be represented at the board table. Why should we as a board fail to represent these people?
In here, the days are pretty long, especially on the weekend, when we're locked up until 9:30 in the morning and you get two meals a day instead of three -- a brunch at 10:30 and dinner at 4:30. It's a long day because there are lockups to verify the inmate count and such. I'd rather be outside, that's for sure. Did I tell you there are 11 doors we have to go through before we even get a breath of fresh air?
You can do things like rake leaves and put them in bags. It's exercise and fresh air on a nice warm morning. The crew I was on sorted potatoes. You have to knock the wet clay off them and some were rotten, so they had to be sorted out. They try to keep us busy about two to four hours a day. It's kind of nice to go outside a bit. Did I tell you I was ploughing the other day? I ran a four-bottom plough, which was really neat.
Other than that, I do a lot of thinking at night: No.1, that we shouldn't be here and, No. 2, that if this is happening to us we hope the message is still alive and well out there. We are very determined to serve our full sentences because by paying one red cent we give them the satisfaction that they won. When you are wrongfully charged and convicted and sentenced you have no choice other than to go to jail because we don't agree with what they've done.
I want to make sure everyone knows we don't begrudge any of the farmers who left jail early (their fines paid in part by a relief fund). Our whole campaign has been about choice and they are not any less committed because they left early. If we had a monopoly, they would be severely reprimanded and I know what that's like. Thank God, we have a choice. They came to jail and did their best and are as well liked as anyone else still in here.
bremington@nationalpost.com
© Copyright 2002 National Post
- Thoreau, Civil Disobedience
Reading Civil Disobedience might be a good way to pass the time for these men, while they await their release. ;)
Every liberal is a thug.
I like this guy...
When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed.--Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, 1957
Well, they didn't defraud their own stockholder.
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