A rally in Saskatoon last weekend convinced a number of farmers that political disobedience may play a role in forcing government to act on their behalf.
“If we are going to get (the governments’) attention then we need to be in their face. We need them to know we aren’t going away,” said Milestone, Sask., farmer and Saskatchewan Rally Group vice-president Bob Thomas.
Sask Rally group officials are calling for a sit-in at the Saskatchewan legislature beginning Feb. 7. They hope the other rally groups and farmer organizations will join them in their effort to disrupt the government.
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The plan fits with a commitment by the Pro-West Rally group to hold a sit-in at the provincial legislature within “the next 10 days.” Farmers and organizers of the Jan. 29 event abandoned an impromptu sit-in at the Saskatoon arena after spirited debate and some loud argument.
Many farmers at that event said civil disobedience may be one of the only tools left to producers who feel their concerns are not being addressed by government.
“It has worked in Europe for generations,” said retired farmer and former National Farmers Union president Roy Atkinson. “There the farmers have taken over the airports and garbage dumps and forced the public and politicians alike to listen to them and act.”
Arlynn Kurtz, a Stockholm, Sask., farmer, led the call for a sit-in at the Saskatoon arena. With a junior hockey league game only hours away he said “it is about time farmers inconvenienced a few people instead of the other way around.”
At the event, Thomas told about 3,500 people in attendance that his group would be “taking up residence in Ottawa beginning next week,” to enable lobbying of federal politicians on a more regular basis.
“We need to hit them (federal and provincial governments) on all fronts. On Parliament Hill, in Regina and on the tax front. And that is just what we’re doing,” said Thomas.
“We have the money to rent the apartment, the phone lines and fax machines and we will be doing whatever it takes to keep the federal government’s attention,” he said.
The group is offering use of its new Ottawa office to other farm groups wanting to lobby the government.
“We waited and the coalition just isn’t working. It is time to take action,” said Thomas.
His group is asking rural municipalities to aid them in organizing the Feb. 7 sit-in.
Sinclair Harrison, of the Saskat-chewan Association of Rural Municipalities, says that will be the choice of individual RMs.
