Mr. Speaker, the agriculture minister has yet again demonstrated that he has absolutely no direction for western Canadian grain farmers.
On the one hand he demonstrates solid support for the single desk monopoly of the Canadian Wheat Board by closing loopholes in the Customs Act while on the other allowing it to self-destruct by its lack of accountability and transparency.
This minister has shown he is prepared to prosecute farmers in order to prevent them from accessing niche markets that the board will not service. At the same time he allows the board to circumvent its own act by directing selected farmers to end users who pay huge bonuses outside the pooling system.
In my opinion, if a violation of the Canadian Wheat Board Act is punishable by jail for farmers, then so should the same punishment apply to wheat board officials.
But then, we have a Liberal government that protects criminals while ignoring the rights of its victims.