(The following article is from the February 16-29, 2008 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3).

PV Manitoba Bureau, with files from the National Farmers Union

National Farmers Union president Stewart Wells says the Harper regime has launched a series of ideologically-driven firings of senior officials in regulatory, crown and even shared-governance commercial agencies. The firings include: Adrian Measner, former President and CEO of the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB); Jean-Pierre Kingsley, former Chief Electoral Officer; Johanne Gelinas, former Environment Commissioner; and John Reid, former Information Commissioner.

     Harper has also clashed with Marc Maynard, current Chief Electoral Officer, and Graham Fraser, Commissioner of Official Languages. The latest is Linda Keen at the Nuclear Safety Commission, who, like Measner, was fired precisely because she was doing her job.

     "Farmers and all Canadians are getting fed up with the Conservatives' politicizing of federal agencies and regulatory boards," stated Wells on Jan. 21. "The Conservatives get indignant

when references are raised about jackboot tactics, but the Prime Minister is deliberately cultivating a climate of fear. If you are a regulator, a CEO, or a President, job number one for you is pleasing the Prime Minister - any other duties seem to be optional."

     In the summer and fall of 2006, the NFU was asking all Canadians to learn from the Harper government's assault on farmers and the CWB. When Adrian Measner was fired, Wells issued a statement saying, "For the first time in my life I am genuinely concerned about the future of this country. Watching the Harper Conservatives engage in what amounts to a reign of terror against the CWB has shattered my notion of Canada as a safe country that is based on democracy."

     The latest development was a command issued by Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz that the CWB attend a Jan. 29 meeting with anti-CWB forces in Ottawa. The NFU argues that this shows again that the Harper Conservatives have no respect for farmer democracy and the "one-farmer, one-vote" rule that elected the majority of the Board of Directors of the CWB.

     "The summons of the CWB to Ottawa is strangely reminiscent of Chuck Strahl's anti-CWB taxpayer-funded meeting in Saskatoon in July 2006. I'm sure that the Western Barley Growers, with less than 130 farmer members, will also be invited to the Ottawa meeting at taxpayers' expense," said Wells, noting that there were twice as many farmers supporting the CWB in one room at a recent meeting in Saskatoon as the Barley Growers have in their whole "organization".

     As the Jan. 29 meeting convened, NFU Board member Glen Tait, who raises barley and wheat near North Battleford, told an Ottawa news conference that "It's shameful to see Canada's Minister of Agriculture allying himself with the world's biggest grain companies against this country's farm families."

     The majority of seats at Ritz's hand-picked meeting were filled by representatives of transnational grain, malting, and brewing corporations. According to media reports, invitees included representatives of the Western Grain Elevators Association (4), the Malting Industry Association of Canada (4), the Brewers Association of Canada (1), and GrainVision (1). These ten industry representatives took more than half of the 19 non-governmental seats at the meeting.

     The Western Grain Elevator Association is an organization of Western Canada's largest grain companies, including Cargill, James Richardson International, and Viterra. The Malting Industry Association represents the owners of Canada's major malting plants: Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland, Rahr Malting, Viterra, and others. The Brewers Association represents brewing companies which account for more than 98 per cent of domestic beer production: Labatt, Molson Coors, and Sleeman (Sapporo).

     GrainVision is a murky industry organization which appears to represent several agribusiness and anti-CWB organizations, including Cargill, Rahr Malting, James Richardson International, Pioneer Hi-Bred Limited, and the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange.

     "The government is now working openly with the dominant grain and malting corporations to dismantle CWB barley marketing. This represents a very real shift, and a disturbing one, compared to Conservative government tactics of just a year-and-a-half ago," said Tait.

     In July 2006, then-Minister Chuck Strahl convened a similar meeting of handpicked anti-CWB organizations, but without agribusiness corporations. At the time, Strahl said "the two groups of people that we didn't invite were those who said that they'd never consider anything but the single-desk option, and people who would be potentially in competition with the Wheat Board. So, we didn't invite Cargill, for example, or grain companies." Eighteen months later, the grain companies and other corporate representatives occupy most of the seats.

     Tait commented: "Today's meeting has helped farmers in one way: It has lifted the veil. It is now clear that some of the world's biggest grain, malt, and brewing corporations are behind and beside Gerry Ritz. Ritz has made himself a tool of those who seek to profit at farmers' expense. Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government has teamed up with Cargill, ADM, and Rahr Malting against farmers and their Wheat Board. Farmers should ask: Do these huge corporations want the CWB out of barley marketing so that these companies can pay barley farmers more? Or are they working for the end of the CWB so they can pay less?"

     Tait concluded: "Today, farmers, through their collective marketing agency the CWB, control malt-barley marketing. And farmers capture the profits. Cargill, Rahr, ADM, and Viterra want that control, and they want those profits. It's a `no brainer.' That's why they're pushing the government. That's why company representatives are in Ottawa today."


Found at: http://www.peoplesvoice.ca/articleprint12/01%20NFU_CONDEMNS_REIGN_OF_TERROR_IN_OTTAWA.html