In the farm community, you either believe farmers should not be jailed for selling what they grow, or else you believe farmers should be jailed for selling what they grow. One or the other. It's clear cut. The more force the Canadian Wheat Board and their officials and their Ministers muster, trying to squash Western farmers, the more farmers resent them, turn away from them, switch from being supporters to being open antagonists.
Two decades ago, farmers were generally compliant with institutional authority, trusted in government, and "went along" with farm policy. No longer. Too much water has gone under the bridge.
On April 10, 1996, Canada Customs burst into Norman and Edith Desrochers' Manitoba farm home at twenty minutes after five in the morning. There were seventeen Canada Customs agents assigned to the raid, all of them dressed in flourescent green vests with printing on the back, as well as two police cars, and two Dept. of Transport half-ton trucks sitting on the side of the road, waiting. All five children were home in bed. Customs tapped on the door, and then burst in, unannounced, not waiting for anyone to respond. They slapped a summons on the family's kitchen table, at the same time as two tow trucks were busy hooking up to the Derochers' farm trucks, to haul both to the Customs' compound in Emerson. The children were terrified, and their mother Edith who was very ill at the time, was traumatized by the invasion. The RCMP called to Norman to try and get him into their police car, but instead, Norman outran them to grab the keys to one of his trucks. He knew he needed it to make a living.
Two decades ago, farmers were generally compliant with institutional authority, trusted in government, and "went along" with farm policy. No longer. Too much water has gone under the bridge.
On April 10, 1996, Canada Customs burst into Norman and Edith Desrochers' Manitoba farm home at twenty minutes after five in the morning. There were seventeen Canada Customs agents assigned to the raid, all of them dressed in flourescent green vests with printing on the back, as well as two police cars, and two Dept. of Transport half-ton trucks sitting on the side of the road, waiting. All five children were home in bed. Customs tapped on the door, and then burst in, unannounced, not waiting for anyone to respond. They slapped a summons on the family's kitchen table, at the same time as two tow trucks were busy hooking up to the Derochers' farm trucks, to haul both to the Customs' compound in Emerson. The children were terrified, and their mother Edith who was very ill at the time, was traumatized by the invasion. The RCMP called to Norman to try and get him into their police car, but instead, Norman outran them to grab the keys to one of his trucks. He knew he needed it to make a living.
Customs quickly pulled out of the Desrochers' yard with one tandem truck loaded with over $2,000 worth of seed barley. and transported it to Emerson Customs compound. Later in the year, Norman paid a $2400.00 fine to get his truck out of Customs. As well, the damage from the water in the engine while it sat parked in the compound at Emerson, cost him another $10,000 in repairs. He's still got the bills to prove it. The grain from the truck somehow disappeared, but officials wouldn't tell him whether they had sold it or dumped it. He was never compensated for the loss of his grain.
Leaving Norman few options, he took Customs to court, but the full force of Customs Canada battled him in a courtroom in Dauphin, Manitoba, sheltered far away from the CWB/Goodale controversy, and Customs won. Customs had placed his eldest son, Clayton in jail, and as a condition to get him out, Norman was forced to surrender the other truck to Emerson Customs. It remains there to this day, and the $40,000 fine still remains in effect in order to remove it, a reminder of the the legacy left by the glory days of Ralph Goodale's state-run terrorism that his CWB Ministry created and enforced using Canada Custom agents, so that it would appear as if the CWB was innocent of vindictiveness and virginal in malicious actions.
The raid at Derochers was meant to make a spectacle out of the Norman Derochers family, make an example out of him, and thus intimidate all "border runners" from protesting against the Canadian Wheat Board's monopolist reign; the Liberal Government of the day seeking to squash those farmers defying the state's regulatory-expropriation of their wheat and barley.
It is a day that Western farmers must never forget.
Viewing the raid a decade later through a less angry-eye, reflects that history has instead, made a spectacle out of the Canadian Wheat Board.
History shows that the bullying tactics of the 1996's CWB Minister, Ralph Goodale, ultimately only served to strengthen the argument circulating and working against the CWB monopoly, as proven by the increased numbers today, of farmers who avoid the monopoly by growing other crops, and also by the now-majority polls showing farmers have adopted and embraced a marketing choice vision.
The Desrochers and many other farmers who trucked grain across the border during the '90's, learned that any Government minister or member of Parliament who defends jailing farmers for growing garlic or turkeys, or lentils or lamb or even broccoli, for selling these things that they grow, doesn't deserve respect or votes in the farm community. Jailing farmers is not a Canadian value.
The raid at Derochers was meant to make a spectacle out of the Norman Derochers family, make an example out of him, and thus intimidate all "border runners" from protesting against the Canadian Wheat Board's monopolist reign; the Liberal Government of the day seeking to squash those farmers defying the state's regulatory-expropriation of their wheat and barley.
It is a day that Western farmers must never forget.
Viewing the raid a decade later through a less angry-eye, reflects that history has instead, made a spectacle out of the Canadian Wheat Board.
History shows that the bullying tactics of the 1996's CWB Minister, Ralph Goodale, ultimately only served to strengthen the argument circulating and working against the CWB monopoly, as proven by the increased numbers today, of farmers who avoid the monopoly by growing other crops, and also by the now-majority polls showing farmers have adopted and embraced a marketing choice vision.
The Desrochers and many other farmers who trucked grain across the border during the '90's, learned that any Government minister or member of Parliament who defends jailing farmers for growing garlic or turkeys, or lentils or lamb or even broccoli, for selling these things that they grow, doesn't deserve respect or votes in the farm community. Jailing farmers is not a Canadian value.
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