MOHALL, N.D. – Loud discussion fills the Mohall Legion hall late on the night of March 11. The din is not due to the slow service in the packed dining room or the natural result of 50 farmers gathering in the same place at once.
The discussion here centres on the very reason these farmers have come here in the first place.
They are Canadians, eating a last big meal before they head back to their home country the next morning, where they expect to be arrested.
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In a few hours, when they reach the Canada/U.S. border 20 kilometres north, they will be fined, charged, arrested and have their grain trucks seized.
On this night, they have a lot to discuss.
None of them know yet the details of what will happen when they return to Canada. They are protesting the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly on international sales of western-grown wheat and barley.
Earlier in the day, they each imported some grain into the U.S. without the required export permits. They hope if they stick together, they will be able to beat government rules regulating grain exports and force a change to the law.
“The little thing you do at the border tomorrow is not such a little thing,” said Dan Creighton, of Saskatoon, a protest leader and adviser to the Farmers for Justice group organizing the action.
The group is told by Creighton that “there is no law that says you must have a permit to export grain.” The farmers rally around his words.
Jim Pallister, a Portage la Prairie, Man., farmer, tells the group they must stick together when they reach the border and if they are told to give up their trucks, they should not comply.
“The secret is to keep possession of your truck. Don’t let anyone take the keys away from you,” said Creighton.
As the night wears on the farmers continue to wonder about their morning’s fate but vow repeatedly to stick together no matter what they face at dawn.
