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Jim Chatenay's second instalment of his prison diary

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    Jim Chatenay's second instalment of his prison diary

    'We hope the message is still alive and well'
    Jim Chatenay, as told to Robert Remington
    National Post
    Thursday, November 14, 2002


    CREDIT: Scott Van Seggelen, Calgary Herald

    Farmer Jim Chatenay of Penhold, Alta., has no second thoughts about going to jail to protest the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly.

    Jim Chatenay is one of four Alberta farmers who remain in jail to protest the Canadian Wheat Board's 60-year monopoly over western grain growers. Mr. Chatenay, a wheat board director, was one of 13 farmers who went to jail after refusing to pay Canada Customs fines for taking wheat across the U.S. border. Mr. Chatenay donated a sack of grain to a 4-H Club in Montana and has been lobbying for the right of western growers to market their own wheat and barley. This is the second instalment of his prison diary.

    - - -

    You wouldn't believe the paperwork to get a phone call out of here.

    They moved us from unit three, the maximum security wing, to unit five. There are about 36 cells and an upstairs balcony where the guards can look down on us. I like where we're at. The farmers are all side by side.

    We're doing just fine. Nothing has changed. The inmates think we're great. Their freedom has been taken away and we're fighting for freedom, so I think they can understand that. Actually we're quite popular in here. There are lots of high fives all around.

    Respect comes very clearly here. It's very hard to get respect in the [Canadian Wheat Board) board room but here the support is unbelievable.

    There's a board meeting shortly after I get out and I plan to be there. I'm not exactly sure of the date because they send out the notices by e-mail. My wife doesn't run the computer and I don't have access to one in here. You know, in the last wheat board elections, 52% of farmers voted for choice (to market their own grain) and they have the right to be represented at the board table. Why should we as a board fail to represent these people?

    In here, the days are pretty long, especially on the weekend, when we're locked up until 9:30 in the morning and you get two meals a day instead of three -- a brunch at 10:30 and dinner at 4:30. It's a long day because there are lockups to verify the inmate count and such. I'd rather be outside, that's for sure. Did I tell you there are 11 doors we have to go through before we even get a breath of fresh air?

    You can do things like rake leaves and put them in bags. It's exercise and fresh air on a nice warm morning. The crew I was on sorted potatoes. You have to knock the wet clay off them and some were rotten, so they had to be sorted out. They try to keep us busy about two to four hours a day. It's kind of nice to go outside a bit. Did I tell you I was ploughing the other day? I ran a four-bottom plough, which was really neat.

    Other than that, I do a lot of thinking at night: No.1, that we shouldn't be here and, No. 2, that if this is happening to us we hope the message is still alive and well out there. We are very determined to serve our full sentences because by paying one red cent we give them the satisfaction that they won. When you are wrongfully charged and convicted and sentenced you have no choice other than to go to jail because we don't agree with what they've done.

    I want to make sure everyone knows we don't begrudge any of the farmers who left jail early (their fines paid in part by a relief fund). Our whole campaign has been about choice and they are not any less committed because they left early. If we had a monopoly, they would be severely reprimanded and I know what that's like. Thank God, we have a choice. They came to jail and did their best and are as well liked as anyone else still in here.

    bremington@nationalpost.com

    © Copyright 2002 National Post

    #2
    Freedom Day
    There is something that might be just a little ironic about the day chosen to begin the final round of hearings in the Farmers for Justice “fight for freedom” in marketing choices. It is to start on January 20th, Martin Luther King Day.

    This is a national holiday in the United States of America to celebrate one man’s lifetime dedication, striving to free a nation of Black people from the unjust treatment they were receiving from a lack of Civil liberties they should have been entitled to.

    His fight begins in approximately 1954 when the US Supreme Court banned segregation in public schools. Then in 1958, he published his first book, “Stride Towards Freedom”. In April of 1963 he was arrested for defiance of a court order. In 1964 he wrote another book, “ Why We Can’t Wait” and in the same year wins the Nobel Peace Prize. His personal fight tragically ended in April 1968, but his dream was ultimately realized, as blacks and whites are today treated equally in America, as they always should have been.

    There is a strange correlation between this and the Farmers For Justice fight for equality within Canada’s borders. The CWB was introduced prior to the war years to “protect” the farmers from the “big bad” railways, the grain companies, and the grain exchange. Perhaps in those early days, such protection was indeed maybe needed. Although even in the early days it was voluntary, it wasn’t until 1943 that deliveries to the board became compulsory. At the end of WWII, a temporary and renewable five-year agreement with Britain was drawn to supply our mother country with cheap wheat through the board. This was our commitment to help recover from the allied war effort, but in 1966 the CWB act became permanent legislation.

    Today the CWB is called “Prairie Strong”. Why you ask? Eastern Canadian farmers have been freed from the monopoly, and Western Canadian Farmers have been jailed for defiance of it. As Martin Luther King fought for equality, so do Farmers for Justice. They “Stride Towards Freedom” as he did in 1958. His 1964 book, “Why We Can’t Wait” strikes another correlation. We are losing farmers, and a whole value added industry, through the board’s iron fisted control of our unfinished product. We could be producing a finished product, and realizing the economic gains that would accompany a value added industry.

    More jobs through value added processing, in our own backyard.

    Will January 20th be FREEDOM DAY IN WESTERN CANADA????

    Lorne Ridgway
    Avonlea, Saskatchewan

    I am an admirer of the Western Canadian farmers being brought to the Canadian Wheat Board whipping post on January 20th. to answer to the overseer about stealing the masters grain.
    I can relate to both Lorne Ridgway's FREEDOM DAY article and the early plight of the American negro.
    Remember how the blacks were free in the north but not in the south. In Canada it's east vs west.
    Our Prime Minister promotes market freedom in other countries and even lectures their people that they are worthy of greater than state trading monopolies yet he ignores his Liberal dominated Standing Comittee on Agriculture who recomended a trial dual market of the C.W.B.
    Is he mistified why Western Canada does not support him.
    January 20th. is Martin Luther King day.
    King stood for freedom. That freedom was won in part because people marched and rallied.
    I wonder how many Western Canadian farmers believe they should have the same freedom as their eastern brothers and sisters? Would they march and rally at the Regina courthouse on January 20.

    Maybe it's time we told the plantation owners not to call us nigers anymore

    CWBslave

    http://www.farmersforjustice.com/

    Comment


      #3
      Folks;

      It is truly unbelievable that CCRA would agree to enforce a law that does not exist... and specifically ask to imprison farmers instead of taking the money... just read the June 10 Lethbridge Court transcripts... The Feds DID NOT WANT the money owed for the fines, they wanted the farmers in prison.

      THE legal liability is just becoming clear, the judges are starting to realise just how absurd this situation is... and that they have an obligation NOT TO PUT JUSTICE INTO DISREPUTE... a strong legal obligation at that.

      THE Judges who imprisoned Mr. Chatenay are all now personally liable for the false legal base the Federal Justice Dept has used... and now are starting to understand that by refusing lawyers, the farmers have made the judges directly responsible.

      When this is done and out in the open... there will be many red faces... , as I am sure the judges who imprisoned are thinking about what has happened to the likes of MR. Chatenay... they are guilty of a crime and Mr. Chatenay was not.

      Will Canadians be lovers of Freedom, and demand JUSTICE... or will we sit back and allow our country to spiral deeper and deeper into the black hole of injustice and corruption?

      Comment

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