WINNIPEG – The latest events at the Canada-U.S. border did not go unnoticed by people at the Western Grain Marketing Panel hearings last week.
Ted Allen, president of United Grain Growers, said the arrests were significant. “I think the rest of us should pay attention because what it tells us is it’s no longer a sterile, philosophical debate about theoretical models,” Allen said.
“It’s become much more immediate and much more personal, at least for some people.”
Will show crime does pay
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Anders Bruun, corporate secretary for Manitoba Pool Elevators, told the panel he thinks it’s dangerous for government to change laws for people who break them.
“I think that would send terrible signals to others who have problems with this, that or the other law,” Bruun said. “It could very well be an invitation to civil disobedience.”
Nettie Wiebe, president of the National Farmers’ Union, urged the panel not to be swayed by the “fervent self-interest of a few who will endanger the rest of us by saving themselves some fuel by driving on the inside of the curve, even if it’s on the wrong side of the road.”
