CWB Class Action wins another round

(April 8, 2022) Since the Harper government killed the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) in 2011-12 the Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board (FCWB) has contended that the assets of the CWB were wrongly given to G3 Canada Ltd.  Remember that G3 is a partnership of the giant multinational Bunge and the Government of Saudi Arabia. Two years ago, the Manitoba Court of Appeal agreed with the argument that...

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Will people continue to pay for big oil’s impunity?

(February 17, 2020) To most prairie grain farmers, the land dispute between a foreign owned fracked-gas company and a First Nation defending their unceded land in British Columbia is remote and may even seem irrelevant. Via Rail’s suspension of passenger rail service across Canada inconveniencing thousands of commuters in the east was a ridiculous over-reaction to some symbolic blockades...

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Prairie farmers should support CN rail workers

Calls to force CN rail workers back to work bring into question Alberta’s “ethical oil” stance and the reputation of prairie grain (November 20, 2019)  Both the government of Alberta and the usual suspects in the Astroturf Prairie agricultural groups are telling Ottawa to legislate an end to the CN rail workers’ strike.  Most people may not know the strike is over some exceedingly...

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Chinese canola embargo about quality assurance

(March 23, 2019)  This morning CBC is reporting that China stopped all purchases of canola from Canadian sources.  In spite of what Harper era diplomats with short memories and some other commentators may say, this is about the customer, in this case China, not getting the product they want. The canola issue is rooted in concerns about dockage and trust that go back almost three years.  As...

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Will farmers share in Dreyfus win over railway?

(February 4, 2019)  A couple of weeks ago there was a small news story about Louis Dreyfus successfully suing CN rail for failing to provide enough grain cars to its elevators. CN trotted out the usual excuses for being tardy:  it gets cold in the winter, there was a lot of grain to ship, and they have other customers.  It must be easy being a railway lawyer when it is just cut and paste from...

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