WINNIPEG – Three men charged in connection with illegally selling grain to the United States, met reporters outside Canadian Wheat Board headquarters last week and stated they intend to stop the board from preventing farmers from selling directly to the U.S.
Farmers Dave Sawatzky, Bill Cairns and Andy McMechan, who don’t have lawyers, have each been charged under the Customs Act with exporting grain without a permit.
Sawatzky’s hearing is at the pre-trial stage. Warrants have been issued for the arrest of Cairns and McMechan, who failed to show for court dates in Brandon March 8.
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The three have filed applications and affidavits for a judicial review with the Federal Court of Canada. The documents allege the Canadian Wheat Board Act does not give the wheat board the power to grant export licenses to individual farmers. The farmers also claim the board is acting out of jurisdiction by having the farmers charged under the Customs Act for exporting grain.
Coverup
As well, the farmers said the wheat board’s actions are part of a coverup of an alleged collapse of the Saskatchewan co-operative movement.
They included certificates of status and information brochures in their affidavits, which they said show that credit unions and the Saskatchewan Dairy Producers Co-operative are “subsisting” and Saskatchewan Wheat Pool is “dissolved.”
Sawatzky said “subsisting” means a company exists only to wrap up its affairs before it dissolves.
The farmers also allege the co-operative movement has “secretively been kept alive by unlawfully obtaining $1.5 billion from the Saskatchewan Crown Investments Corporation.”
“The wheat board exists for an illegal purpose, that is by virtue of the fact that they have stepped into the shoes of the dissolved Saskatchewan Wheat Pool and basically the collapsed Saskatchewan co-operative movement,” Sawatzky said.
Sawatzky wouldn’t comment on what evidence is yet to come, where he obtained his information, or who is helping him with the case.
“I have many, many people across Western Canada to thank for the supporting evidence that we have here,” he said.
The farmers have 60 days to file an application record, a document containing evidence to be argued at a hearing. Then wheat board lawyers will have 30 days to respond.
