and Sylvia MacBean
Freelance writer
news
SWEETGRASS, Mont. – As each vehicle pulls up to the window of the United States customs office at this Montana border crossing, near Coutts, Alta., it is waved through after drivers answer the usual questions.
They are told not to worry about the people in coveralls and caps who stand in clusters across the highway leading to Montana.
“Y’all can get through. It’s just a farm protest,” says the American official.
For about 100 farmers bent against the bitter wind Dec. 6, it was more than just a farm protest. It was a 24-hour rally to show Ottawa and Washington they are fed up with low commodity prices that could push them over the edge.
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The Americans blame unfair trade practices and the Canadian Wheat Board for dumping grain at less than the cost of production. They are careful to avoid placing blame on Canadian farmers.
“We all work the soil. This protest isn’t against farmers,” said rally organizer Ron Jensen, who grows wheat and barley and raises cattle in the Sweetgrass Hills.
At another crossing, at Portal, North Dakota, about 100 farmers used a tractor, protest signs and themselves to block the highway. Similar protests took place at Northgate, N.D., where farmers from the Portal blockade moved when they discovered traffic was being diverted through that port.
Trucks carrying agricultural products were turned back; other vehicles were stopped and the drivers given pamphlets explaining the protest. Since the blockade was announced beforehand, there were fewer trucks than usual crossing the Montana border and in North Dakota, a snowstorm reduced traffic.
Under the terms of a Canada-U.S. trade agreement announced in Ottawa and Washington Dec. 4, the blockade should not have happened.
Canadian trade minister Sergio Marchi told a news conference that the American government had agreed trade disputes will be handled by negotiation, not border
action.
“And if people insist on other methods, we’re hopeful that the U.S. government … will do what they have to do to ensure the rules are respected,” Marchi said.
RCMP and border patrol officers stood back and watched the peaceful demonstration.
Organized by North Dakota and Montana farmers, the border rallies called for import limits on cattle and grain, as well as rollbacks on imports comparable to the amounts shipped stateside in 1994.
For some, zero imports would be even better.
“We could be self-sufficient. We don’t need the imports,” said Art Adamson, of Shelby, Mont.
The Montana blockade drew about a dozen Canadian farmers who wanted to tell the Americans they have problems too.
Conversations were the same among the groups huddling together and sipping coffee to keep warm.
“How much do you pay for Roundup?”
“How much are you getting for spring wheat?”
“What did your calves bring this fall?”
Les Slivka of Louistown, Mont., blames trade negotiators and governments for not doing their jobs. He doesn’t believe analysts who tell him the amount of Canadian grain and cattle moving into the U.S. is not substantial. He and other American farmers said the new trade deal isn’t enough.
“I don’t think our demands have been met,” said Jerome Anderson, one of the protest organizers.
