WINNIPEG (Staff) – A group known for its pro-free market positions is helping pay for a lawyer for Andy McMechan.
David Somerville, president of the National Citizens’ Coalition said the group hired a Winnipeg legal firm to prepare a chronology of the farmer’s legal battles and show what went wrong.
Leonard Tailleur has been working on getting McMechan out of jail on bail pending appeal for the past few weeks.
Tailleur said he could not comment on who is footing the legal bills. Somerville said he showed the chronology to McMechan and convinced him to agree to legal counsel.
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“I said, ‘You’re in a real mess here, and you need some legal assistance.’ He finally said, ‘Yes, OK,’ ” said Somerville.
The group has spent $6,000 on legal bills already. “It could rise significantly from there,” Somer-ville said. “Just how far, we don’t know.”
Requests for help
The group has paid for ads in 12 prairie weekly and daily newspapers. The ads ask for money to help in the legal battle against the “offensive anachronism” of the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly.
Somerville said the group has also given some money to McMechan’s wife Pam and their four children to help make ends meet. He wouldn’t say how much.
“It must be very difficult for the family to accept help like this,” Somerville said.
The coalition has 45,000 members across the country.
