Again and again, the border-runners wheel their convoys across the 49th parallel dividing Canada from the United States. Each time, they gain attention from the news media and cause more harassment for border officials.
Every time they make such a run, of course, they are challenging not only the regulations about exporting gain without a permit, but also the very existence of the Canadian Wheat Board’s central selling powers.
By every indication, the vast majority of Prairie farmers are opposed to the wildcat antics of these border-runners. Many farmers question whether these are primarily farmers at all, or more accurately would-be truckers and commodity brokers who want to make a few dollars acting as middlemen.
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Whatever their personal circumstances, a few things are already clear about these border-runners. First, they are willing to break the law rather than patiently wait for the democratic process to reconsider the law.
Second, they place high value on orchestrated publicity events. That’s certainly easier than engaging in the tedious process of explaining their case to a thousand farm meetings, but it’s not nearly as democratic.
Meanwhile, the hundreds of thousand of farmers who support the Canadian Wheat Board system of orderly marketing have little they can do to publicize their loyalty.
Each day, they deliver their grain into board marketing facilities, but there are no news photographers present to record that routine event.
What should the farm news media do about this situation? One option would have been to ignore the border-runners and not report on their publicity-seeking escapades. But that would be like sweeping an unpleasant problem under the rug.
The border-runners are a challenge not only to customs officials, but to the entire Canadian Wheat Board system that has served farmers so well.
If their escapades were not reported, they would still have their intended effect upon policymakers.
They would still threaten the marketing system that a majority of farm families desire, and depend on for their economic future. And there would be fewer calls for the law to be enforced.
Thus the news columns of this newspaper have called attention, through fair and balanced reporting, to what has been happening on the border.
The incidents are getting boringly repetitive, thus worth less space, but we will still be noting them and watching for new developments.
Love them or hate them, the news reports have given you the information needed to know what’s happening and to call for the action you want.
