ANOTHER blow....!!

In Government VS the Canadian Wheat Board, at this stage of the game, the Board appears to be sinking under the attacks, which just seem to keep on coming. Perhaps farmers thought after the proposed changes to the Act didn't pass in the House of Commons, they would be left alone to lick their wounds and re-group.

Well, surprise, surprise, in any well planned attack, one NEVER lets one's opponent have time to re-cover. You absolutely have to keep kicking them when they are down..or weak or you will never win the war. The biggest problem the CWB has right now is that the outrage is only being heard in the House.

Is it being heard in the offices of all conservative MP's east or west? Will agriculture go to bat to save the Board or will the CWB be the first single-desk casualty? I high light this description because it is my belief, that what is happening to the CWB is a test ground for the next battle with single desk selling for all other commodities.

Perhaps eggs, dairy and others are taking the step softly approach, out of concern for their own relationship with government. Perhaps the CWB has not asked them out right..... but without a major outcry from ALL single desk-commodities, both National and Provincial, I fear the CWB is lost.

If you can not convince any Conservative MP's from the east to stand up to the Minister or the Prime Minister on this issue and take some hits .... then they are more scared of them than they are of us ( re-election!).

They absolutely believe they are safe in their home riding's, because they sure are NOT paying any attention to farmers on this issue.

The latest report from the battlefield:

Wheat Board accuses Conservatives of ignoring farmers and law

Bruce Cheadle
Canadian Press
Tuesday, December 05, 2006

OTTAWA (CP) - The president and CEO of the Canadian Wheat Board says he's being fired by the federal government for obeying the law of Parliament rather than Conservative policy.
Adrian Measner was making his first public comments since he was given two weeks' notice last week by Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl.

Measner and Ken Ritter, the CWB's chairman of the board, were supposed to address the Commons agriculture committee on Monday, but the meeting was cancelled without reason at the last moment after they had already arrived in Ottawa.

The board is battling the government over a Conservative campaign promise to end the CWB's long-standing monopoly on wheat and barley sales. The government wants to make participation voluntary, which the board argues would effectively kill the organization.

Farmers are split on the issue, but a majority of the current CWB board - elected by grain producers - wants to keep the single-desk model laid out in the Canadian Wheat Board Act.
"I find it quite ironic that . . . I have been asked to pledge support for the government's policy of marketing choice, which is not the law," Measner told a news conference on Parliament Hill. "In other words, if I continue to obey the law, I will be fired."

His comments come the same day that MPs were howling for the resignation of embattled RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli, who has continued to enjoy Conservative government support.

Ritter said the wheat board legislation is not clear on whether Strahl even has the power to fire Measner. "The CWB is not an agent of the government," said Ritter. "It is not a Crown corporation. All of the bills the CWB pays are paid by farmers, none is paid by the government."

And the CWB act, Ritter noted, says the board of directors is to "manage and control the organization."

Allen Oberg, a farmer from Forrestberg, Alta., who was just re-elected to the CWB board, said there are two ways to change the wheat board mandate. One is through a plebiscite of grain producers, which the Conservatives have promised to do in the new year - but only on the question of barley sales.

The other is for legislative changes in Parliament, which requires a majority of MPs.
The government has also issued a gag order on the CWB board, saying it cannot use wheat board resources to promote the single-desk model to its membership.

The board has decided to challenge that government order-in-council in court, arguing it is also outside the minister's power and calling it an infringement of their right to freedom of speech. "It's a fight they have really brought to the wheat board, not the other way around," said Oberg.

Currently, all grain farmers must sell to the board which then negotiates with buyers, guaranteeing farmers a set price. Opponents of the board, many of whom believe they could get a better price on their own, want the right to sell their own grain.

© The Canadian Press 2006

Interestingly, Minister Strahl claims in Question Period this evening, to be listening to farmers and accused the Liberals of "listening to a bunch of lawyers instead of farmers". Obviously, not enough screws are being turned by the provinces' farmers, whatever their commodity, to get Chuck to change his tune.

This latest blow could irrevocably cripple the CWB, beyond saving. It is certainly, also obvious, that a legal challenge by the Board may be the only way to stop the bleeding. The Canadian Wheat Board certainly NOW have nothing to lose in trying. Because it is also obvious that the Conservatives won't quit until they get what they want on this one.-cg