Mr. Fairbairn writes that farmers’ exporting of wheat and barley without Canadian Wheat Board permission attracts more media attention than farmers delivering to board marketing facilities.
He could have added that every day millions of dollars worth of canola, flax, rye, cattle, lumber, and even farm machinery cross the border without hoopla and media attention.
The farmers are not doing anything differently. It is not unjust to export one’s own property. It is a legitimate commercial activity.
What makes it news is when the farmers are attacked by the federal government. They are intimidated, their trucks are seized, they are threatened with fines, and are even threatened with the prospect of jail. And still they trade.
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The farmers do not “run the border.” That is an expression by the Western Producer and the Manitoba Co-operator. The farmers stop and report at both sides of the border.
They comply with every regulation and every request but one – permission from a monopoly that is probably illegal and certainly unjust, called the Canadian Wheat Board.
The Western Producer certainly has covered the story in a relatively balanced way, particularly compared to the coverage by the Manitoba Co-operator. And the story will continue. Already over 100 bona fide farmers have been charged and will get a trial similar to the Sawatzky or McMechan trials. This certainly is a prairie story and it undoubtedly means the end of Ottawa’s grain control through the Canadian Wheat Board.
The numbers will grow. And grow. And grow.
By the way, these farmers are getting over $8 Canadian per bushel for No. 3 wheat, the real world value of their grain, not the price they get from the Canadian Wheat Board at one of his crony’s elevators in Canada.
These men and women are like all farmers: builders, workers, and traders. The federal government is attacking them for doing just that. That is what makes this a story.
– Rod Flaman,
Edenwold, Sask.
