Barley freedom celebration turns sour

By 
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Published: August 9, 2007

PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE – They had planned to celebrate “barley freedom day.”

But instead, about 120 farmers, activists, politicians and their supporters had to turn it into more of a “not giving up on sometime getting barley freedom day.”

While many in the crowd were bitter, angry and depressed about the Federal Court ruling that maintained the Canadian Wheat Board’s barley monopoly, farmer Jim Pallister appeared confident, determined and far from despair.

“It comes down to this: the wheat board has to win every time. We’ll have to win once. And we’re going to win. Sooner or later, we’re going to win,” said Pallister, on whose farm the rally was held. He has been a passionate anti-monopoly activist since the movement began.

Read Also

Close-up of a few soft white wheat heads with a yellow combine blurry in the background.

European wheat production makes big recovery

EU crop prospects are vastly improved, which could mean fewer canola and durum imports from Canada.

He compared any future breach of the board’s monopoly powers to the puncturing of a balloon.

“One little prick and the thing just blows, and they can’t continue to fence us in forever,” said Pallister.

The rally heard a letter from prime minister Stephen Harper, seemingly written before the surprise court decision, lauding the “new era of marketing choice” and included an address by Saskatchewan MP David Anderson.

He described himself and agriculture minister Chuck Strahl as being “very disappointed” with the court decision, but in his speech showed no sign of letting up on the anti-monopoly campaign.

“Clearly this is not going to happen as quickly as some of us hoped,” said Anderson, who is Strahl’s parliamentary secretary.

“Because this is an issue of freedom, we’ve moved quickly, we’ve moved decisively and we’ve moved transparently for our producers.”

He commiserated with glum open market supporters.

“Many of you are heroes of mine. You have fought for a long time on this battle. You have fought through the ups and downs, and we would not call today one of those ups,” said Anderson.

Although barley freedom day had been organized and publicized long before the event, fewer farmers attended it than have attended other hastily organized events.

Some of the organizers were concerned beforehand that the winter wheat harvest, which is in full swing in eastern Manitoba, might keep farmers away.

And they knew fewer people tend to show up to celebrate a failure than a success.

While cynics have suggested the government may have always known that it would lose the court case, anti-monopoly farmers and activists seemed bewildered by the reversal.

“It was no bloody good,” said Oakville, Man., farmer Monte Boddy. “You don’t expect much from a Liberal-appointed judge.”

Duanne Taylor, a 31-year-old farmer from Portage la Prairie, was disgusted.

“It’s not good. I wanted freedom. I wanted to be able to sell my grain wherever I want to sell it, whenever I want to sell it and however I want to sell it,” he said. “I think being directed by the government is a communist way of living.”

Marv Nicholls, a local equipment dealer, said he didn’t think it was a mistake of the government to try to make monopoly changes through regulation rather than legislation in the House of Commons.

“They have a job to do and we have a job to do, so if that’s what they have to do to get it done, so be it,” said Nicholls. He fears the federal government may drop the issue now.

“Their thinking might be: they tried to do it. They said they were going to do something. The court stopped them. So they’re kind of off the hook. They can stand back and wait for the next election,” said Nicholls.

Pallister urged farmers to appreciate what the government had tried to do for them.

“We have to show our resolve. We have to show that we support the government. We have to show we’re 100 percent behind them.”

About the author

Ed White

Ed White

explore

Stories from our other publications