(The following article is from the January 1-31, 2009, 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 Vancouver Bureau

In the wake of a huge victory for prairie farmers over the Harper Tory minority government, the National Farmers' Union has asked the RCMP to investigate the actions of five Conservative MPs during the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) elections held in late 2008.

     Held in early December, the 2008 CWB Director votes resulted in wins for four strong supporters of the Wheat Board's single desk marketing advantage. The single desk system brings higher average prices for most farmers, as opposed to an open market favoured by the Tories and the transnational grain monopolies, which helps only the largest producers. Of the ten elected farmers on the Board of Directors, eight now support the single-desk system, while two are opposed.

     "This is a huge victory for farmers," said Stewart Wells, President of the National Farmers Union (NFU). "Farmers have stood up to Harper's vow to `walk over' any opposition to his plan to demolish the CWB. With 80% of the farmer-elected Board members supporting the single desk marketing advantages and a strong role for the CWB, it is time for the Conservative Party to back away from its attacks on the CWB. Farmers have spoken, and if the Prime Minister believes in the will of the majority he must now stop attacking the CWB, and the Prime Minister must also protect the CWB at the World Trade Organization talks."

     The NFU lists a number of "failed steps" taken to steal the elections from farmers:

1. July 2008: Stephen Harper vows to `walk over' CWB supporters.

2. July 23, 2008: Minister of Agriculture Gerry Ritz sends a secret letter to the CWB instructing the CWB to remove about one-third of the farmer-voters from the voters' list. This action is being challenged by the Friends of the CWB in Federal Court.

3. August 2008: Ritz changes the CWB regulations and removes the spending limits on third party interveners during the election period.

4. September 2008: Ritz sends a letter and ballot application to farmers/ranchers in western Canada encouraging non-permit book holders to vote. The application will not work for farmers who hold a CWB permit book but have been removed from the voters' list.

5. September/October 2008: The ballot application posted on the election Coordinator's website will not work for farmer permit book holders who want to get back on the voters' list.

6. November 2008: Several Conservative MPs directly contravene the Code of Ethics for MPs by sending campaign-style letters directly to farmers from their offices in Ottawa.

     The final point is widely seen as an abuse of the "franking" privileges granted by Parliament, since the MPs used taxpayers' money to advertise on behalf of individual CWB director candidates. As well, the MPs refuse to register as third party interveners as required by the CWB Act. The NFU says the Conservative MPs have likely contravened the Privacy Act of 1983 and the CWB Act of 1998 by using the confidential information from the election voters list to directly contact farmers and tell them how to vote.

     In a letter to the RCMP, the NFU points out that according to the law, the CWB election voters' list is only supposed to be available to the candidates involved, and there are strict rules in place to ensure the proper use of the private information contained in the list.

     "There have been several conflicting stories coming from the Conservative MPs themselves regarding the mailing list that they used to promote anti-CWB candidates during the election," said Wells. "Given that it is an offence under the CWB Act to break the CWB Act or its regulations, it seems that the only way to get to the truth is to ask the RCMP to investigate, and that is what we have done. It seems to us that the first step of an investigation would be to establish whether or not the CWB voters' list was actually used by the Conservative MPs. Farmers are angry about the abuse of democracy by the Conservatives, and farmers have sent over fifty of the letters to the National Farmers Union. It appears that in every case the name and address on the MP's letters is identical to the name and address in the farmer's CWB permit book - including typos and corporate names. The information in the CWB permit book is also supposed to be protected by Canada's Privacy Act of 1983."

     There are other problems with the Conservative actions. For example, according to the MPs' Conflict of Interest Code, MPs are not supposed to help their friends become "...a director or officer in a corporation, association or trade union..."

     "Over the past three years, the Harper government's actions toward farmers and the CWB have been both undemocratic and un-Canadian," according to Wells, "but farmers have not been bullied by the threats from Stephen Harper. The NFU will continue to work toward a positive outcome for farmers and the marketing advantages they receive from the Canadian Wheat Board."