Farmers 'want to go to jail in the worst way' Wheat Board Protest

by Robert Remington
National Post
Reprinted with Permission

(October 24, 2002 - National Post)    CALGARY - In April of 1996, farmer Darren Winczura took a bag of grain across the Alberta border and donated it to a 4-H club in Montana.

For that symbolic act of defiance against the Canadian Wheat Board, Mr. Winczura will go to jail next week rather than pay a $1,000 fine for exporting grain without a licence.

"I've tried to explain it to my kids, but they don't understand," said the father of two from Viking, Alta., who will turn himself in on Halloween rather than spend it with his daughter, Ashley, 9, and son, Blake, 8.

Mr. Winczura, 35, is one of 14 renegade Alberta farmers who took part in the protest at the Alberta-Montana border 6 1/2 years ago. Their appeals exhausted, they have until 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 31 to pay fines ranging from $1,000 to $7,500 or face 16 1/2 days for each $1,000 in fines.

After that time, they will be considered wilfully at large and can be arrested for contravening Canadian Wheat Board rules requiring the board to market their grain for them.

Not wanting to be regarded as outlaws, the "defiant dozen" (two are thought to have opted to pay their fines) plan to turn themselves over to authorities at the courthouse in Lethbridge, Alta., at noon on Oct. 31.

"We didn't make this decision lightly," said Jim Ness, who is among five of the convicted farmers -- they call themselves Farmers for Justice -- who are in Ottawa today for a news conference. "The prospect of going to jail is disturbing. For most, it has been a family decision, but it's something that has to be done."

Among those willing to go to jail is a Canadian Wheat Board member, Jim Chatenay, who took part in the 1996 demonstration. Like Mr. Winczura, he gave wheat -- one bushel of it -- to a Montana 4-H club.

One of 10 elected wheat board directors, Mr. Chatenay favours a dual system whereby Western farmers can choose whether to have their grain marketed by the board, as is required now, or sell it independently on their own.

"I want to go to jail in the worst way. I don't want this to be resolved," said Mr. Chatenay, 59. "Canada is the only country in the world that puts its farmers in prison for selling their own grain, yet we're on the verge of legalizing marijuana. This is absolutely insane. It has to stop. These are the people who feed us, for God's sake."

The grain growers, who have likened themselves to peasant farmers required to sell their wheat to an overlord, are protesting what they see as the almost feudal practices of the wheat board. The board requires Western farmers, but not their counterparts in Ontario or Quebec, to sell their grain to the board rather than market it independently.

"It's blatant discrimination," Mr. Chatenay said. "The CWB Act applies equally to all provinces in the dominion, yet we are applying the rules to farmers in one part of the country. It's an unbelievable outrage."

To get an export licence, Western farmers must sell their grain to the board, while still retaining possession of it, and then repurchase it at a price determined by the CWB. The policy dates back to the Second World War, when the CWB was given sweeping powers over wheat distribution under the War Measures Act. Western farmers have been fighting the regulations in the courts since 1950.

Mr. Chatenay, who faces 62 days in prison, believes the board has no legal authority to compel Western grain growers to market their wheat. "If I'm going to jail for breaking legislation, that's one thing. But if I'm going to jail for breaking wheat board policy, that is quite another matter," he said. "Interesting, isn't it? I'm a member of an organization deciding to put myself in jail."

Ken Ritter, chairman of the CWB, says farmers can get a better price selling their grain as one unified entity. The CWB markets wheat and barley for 85,000 Western growers, arguing that it gets the best possible price and saves its members marketing costs. "It is our mission to maximize returns. Every business person ... knows that you can get more from the marketplace when you are the only one selling a given service or product. Western Canadian farmers know this, too," Mr. Ritter said in a letter on Saturday to the National Post.

Rod Hanger, 32, who's looking at 75 days in jail, sees it differently.

"I'm the one who bought the seed. I paid for the equipment to put it in the ground. I paid for the fertilizer to grow it. I'm the one who gets an ulcer worrying if it will come up, yet at the end of the day, the CWB says 'that's our grain.' There is something fundamentally wrong with that."

In the 1996 protest, Mr. Hanger sold 1,500 bushels of grain to a U.S. elevator company and was paid US$5 a bushel. The wheat board price at the time would have netted him C$3.30.

He believes that Western farmers should not only be able to market their own grain, but that they should have the right to turn it into saleable goods. "Why can't we be end users of our own product? Right now, we can't even set up mills."