Posted on 11/13/2002 9:14:20 AM PST by Entropy Squared
Wednesday » November 13 » 2002
Linda Slobodian
The Calgary Herald
Wednesday, November 13, 2002
Eastern Canadians are rising to the defence of western farmers being jailed for selling their own wheat, says the organizer of a protest rally to be held on Parliament Hill next Monday.
"Support is snowballing. We think there's the potential for there to be thousands of people there," said Connie Wilkins of Kingston, Ont.
The rally, nicknamed Storm the Bastille, is being organized through Free Dominion, a Web site Wilkins operates at www.freedominion.ca. It offers a forum to discuss political issues from a conservative point of view.
"We want to drive home the fact that our country is a place where innocent people can be put in prison for very, very minor things," said Wilkins.
The vice-president of the Western Barley Growers Association hailed the support from easterners who, unlike western farmers, are not obliged to sell their wheat and barley through the Canadian Wheat Board.
"It's tremendous that we have national support for what the Prairie farmers have been subjected to under the wheat board," said Doug McBain, a farmer near Cremona, about 75 kilometres northwest of Calgary.
Wilkins said the "amazing" thing is that the groundswell of support in Ontario extends beyond farmers.
"They're not all farmers. They see the farmers as innocent people being jailed for no reason. It really strikes people that this is a liberty issue," Wilkins said Tuesday.
Thirteen Alberta farmers went to jail Oct. 31 rather than pay a total of $63,000 in fines they received in 1996 on Canada Customs charges when they sold or gave away their grain in the U.S. without export permits.
They oppose the wheat board monopoly and want freedom of choice.
The Parliament Hill rally will take place the same day 28 Saskatchewan farmers are to appear in Regina Court of Queen's Bench to appeal fines they received after taking their grain across the border in 1996.
Four Alberta farmers are still behind bars at Lethbridge Correctional Centre. The others were bailed out a week after they were incarcerated.
To date, $23,000 has been raised through the Free the Farmers account, which is being managed by McBain.
"The support we've had has been overwhelming. It's not just the money. The guys can't thank everyone enough for the emotional support," said McBain, referring to encouraging letters arriving with money.
This isn't the first time this year easterners have rallied to aid the West.
Rail cars of donated hay made their way to the Prairies this summer to help drought-stricken farmers.
"This support now almost seems like a carry-over from Hay West. They connected in the summer and kind of locked arms," said Wilkins.
"This is the same thing. Eastern farmers and eastern people are reaching out and saying: 'You're our brothers and sisters, even though you're so far away,' " said Wilkins.
A federal government committee released a report in June called the Future Role of the Federal Government in Agriculture. It recommended the wheat board let farmers market their own grain.
The Canadian Wheat Board refuses to consider making the change. The board says the system, which handles 24 million tonnes of wheat and barley a year, fetches the best price and stops a flood of product onto the market.
Wilkins said the committee report should not be ignored.
"We want to turn the heat up a little bit on them and say if you're going to get this committee to investigate this and they're going to make these recommendations, at least act on them," she said.
Art Mainil, a Benson, Sask., farmer, is one of the 28 slated to appear in court.
He's facing about $6,000 in fines for privately selling durum wheat in North Dakota.
"The issue here is freedom. I haven't heard of any here that aren't going to jail rather than pay," he said.
© Copyright The Calgary Herald
Great work, The North IS Awake, I am proud to see that the spokesman is also a Little Bill.
Little Bill, huh? Cool. :-)
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