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Dissolve the Canadian Wheat
Board
by Glenn Woiceshyn
Published in the monthly Financial Post Magazine's May 1997
edition. In Canada, grain farmers are forced to sell their grain to the government-controlled
Canadian Wheat Board (at a fixed price) which in turn sells it to grain buyers. The
article I responded to dealt with a man who chose to defy the law in protest (knowing
he would go to jail) and sold his grain directly to buyers. He was arrested and put
in jail.
Dear Editor,
Re: "Against the Grain"--by David Lees--Mar/97--The Financial Post Magazine
David Lees' otherwise informative piece on the government's persecution of Andy McMechan
for openly selling his own grain against the dictates of the Canadian Wheat Board
glosses over a fundamental political consideration. The idea that the government
knows what's best for farmers and thus must dictate their actions is a paternalistic
recipe for dictatorship.
Governments are supposed to protect individual rights so that the individual is free
to use his mind to improve his life--free to produce wealth and to cooperate and
trade with others--free from criminals who want to rule or loot him. When the government
behaves like a criminal, it is morally justified to protest by openly defying the
law and by being willing to pay the consequences, as Mr. McMechan did.
Given the destructive history of statism, we Canadians owe Mr. McMechan our gratitude.
His actions make it more difficult for governments to hack away at our individual
rights. As for the government, it should dissolve the Canadian Wheat Board and compensate
Mr. McMechan for his undue punishment.
Sincerely,
Glenn Woiceshyn
© 1997 Glenn Woiceshyn. All rights reserved.
This article can be found on-line at at http://www.capitalism.org/glennw. |
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