REGINA – When farmer-critics of the Canadian Wheat Board find themselves in front of a microphone, they often don’t mince their words.
Last week, as the Senate agriculture committee held public prairie hearings on CWB reform legislation, senators heard the board monopoly denounced in blunt language not often heard in parliamentary settings.
At one point, it became more than pro-board senator Eugene Whelan could take.
Bryce Geisam from Sedley, Sask., had just finished denouncing the wheat board as “a monster, an animal out of control.”
Read Also
Farmers urged to be grain-safe this fall
Working around grain bins comes with risk, from farmers falling to drowning in grain: Experts have five tips to help avoid grain-related accidents this harvest.
Whelan lectured him about Canadian democracy and the fact that the CWB was created by “the most democratic institution in the world…I find it difficult to accept when you use those kinds of words.”
Geisam fought back, arguing that property rights are the basic “fibre” of the country and they are being violated.
Senators join in
But when Whelan continued on the attack, he found himself under the gun himself from other senators.
“You are sitting here telling these people they are wrong,” complained Winnipeg Conservative senator Terry Stratton. “That is not right. You have to respect people when they have different opinions than yours.”
Whelan was unrepentant.
“I’ll defend my country and the wheat board is part of my country,” he groused. “It is not a monster.”
There were plenty who were blunt in their disagreement with Whelan’s love of the board.
In Brandon, area farmer Bernie Sambrook said many farmers want a choice, not a more flexible board that still can take their grain.
“Farmers like myself are not interested in better living conditions in the jailhouse,” he said. “We simply want out.”
Majority decision unjustified
Curtis Sims from MacGregor, Man., said the fact that those wanting to escape the board may be a minority does not justify unjust majority decisions to take property.
“In Germany, 90 percent of the people wanted the other 10 percent dead,” he said. “Did that make it right? Of course not.”
Back in Regina, Rod Flaman drew a medical analogy.
“I compare the Canadian Wheat Board to a knife,” he said. “It can be used as a valuable tool in the hands of a surgeon or as a weapon in the hands of a thief… . I say the CWB is being used as a weapon against the prairie farmer to confiscate his grain ….
