What did Dairy Farmers say to Macleans?

Several letters to the Macleans "Mail Bag" ensued. Obviously, there was much more behind the story, as their letters outline (see Jan. 30th issue http://www.macleans.ca/ ). Many took the time to give part of the real story and the background they were familiar with. Interestingly, Macleans seems to have a very right wing view about the WTO. The author of the story neglected to include a wealth of more balanced information. Interviews with dairy farmers in the know, included representatives from Dairy Farmers of Canada.

This is their as yet UNPUBLISHED response to the magazine:

Letter to the editor

MacLean’s not credible or fair in dairy industry attack

Informed Canadians should be very disturbed by the inaccurate and unbalanced attack on Canada’s dairy farmers in the Jan. 16 issue of MacLean’s.

The “article” was not the business news story that it pretended to be but it was really an editorial that almost exclusively featured the views of two individuals with large personal financial interests.

The first, Mr. Birch, is the export broker who is making money from the monopoly export quota that he alone holds and stands to make a windfall of millions of dollars, if he can keep that quota by overturning a case which he lost in court and is currently trying to appeal.

The second, Mr. McIlroy, is not simply a “Toronto-based trade lawyer” but the lawyer representing Mr. Birch in his legal troubles and a paid lobbyist working to undemine Canadian dairy interests in the World Trade Organization negotiations.

This critical context was not included in the “article”.

I traveled from my farm near Ottawa and spent more than an hour with the author who was preparing this article. A staff person from Dairy Farmers of Canada also attended and we provided a wide variety of facts that could have balanced the article for your readers. The information countered many of the opinions in the article and had facts that could have corrected many inaccuracies.

The author quoted five words from my comments. “It doesn’t cost Canadians anything.” Counting words can’t measure balance in a story but it is interesting to note that McIlroy’s direct quotes accounted for more than 100 words and his paraphrased comments seem to account for about 600 more words.

Like many Canadians, if I read MacLean’s, I expect it is credible and fair. After being personally involved with an article on my own industry, I will have difficulty believing any stories written in MacLean’s.