As the roiling Canadian Wheat Board legislative and legal war moved toward a 2011 climax, federal opposition politicians promised to keep the issue alive in 2012.
Prominent members of the Liberal and New Democratic parties said in Winnipeg Dec. 14 that the CWB issue has crossed into the realm of the general public and is no longer just a farmer issue.
“This is not just about the wheat board,” said Liberal leader Bob Rae as he took part in a joint news conference with the wheat board’s remaining farmer-elected directors as they announced their attempt to block Bill C-18’s implementation.
The farmer elected directors were removed from the board days later when Bill C-18 received royal assent.
“This is about the ability of farmers to retain some control over their own bargaining power, over their ability to get the best possible deal and the best possible price for them and for their families. It’s about the ability of farmers to ensure that there are effective ways of protecting the quality of the product that Canadian farmers produce, and above all this is an issue about democracy itself,” said Rae.
A couple of hours later, NDP leadership candidate and Churchill MP Niki Ashton said her party was also going to keep the issue alive in the new year.
“This kind of governing, this arrogant, undemocratic form of governing, is something that Canadians will not put up with. We will continue to fight this decision in the House of Commons, across the provinces and across Canada,” Ashton said in front of the Canadian Wheat Board head office.
“Today it’s for the wheat board, but tomorrow it’s for other collective organizations led by people who are most affected by them: supply management, other organizations even like the CBC, where we as Canadians ought to have a say in their future, and this government is time and again turning around and shutting down debate and most recently disrespecting the courts.”
Bill C-18, which would break the wheat board’s monopoly, received royal assent Dec. 16, but legal action launched by the board on the same day attempted to quash the implementation of the legislation and eventually declare it illegal and inoperable.
Pro-monopoly activists at the Rae/CWB director meeting said other legal challenges and tactics were coming from other organizations.
The CWB challenge was designed to prevent the government from dropping the action after Bill C-18 received royal assent and the pro-monopoly farmer directors were fired.
By having all eight directors personally named in the suit, they hoped to be able to move on with the action, simply dropping the CWB as one of the parties, after the government takeover.
These has beens need to realize we live in a world where farmers are capable and connected. We don’t need mommy government to look after us. Any farmers who want to work togeather are welcome to do so. Quit causing uncertainty and division. There is a reason the CPC won all the CWB seats.
Quit your whining you bunch of disrespectful children of a wrongful cause! The cwb has caused us injustices and the snakes at the top continue to waste our money to try to keep this dinosaur in action. Although we also grow wheat and do not market to the cwb in western Canada, we were not given the opportunity to vote in your voo-doo election. The ‘wheat board has cost us billions over the years and the ndp’s and liberals of the world are too stupid and blind to do their homework and really find out what the cwb has cost its producers. Look at the size of your demonstration groups, They are so very small. You have lost and stop wasting our money fighting something that is rightfully not yours to waste.