Mr. Speaker, tomorrow four of my constituents, Jim Ness, Rick Strankman, Rod Hanger and Mark Peterson, all hardworking and honest prairie farmers, are going to jail. These men are paying a huge cost; the loss of their freedom for defending their rights.
These farmers for justice believe that western farmers should not only be able to grow and market their own grain but that they should have the right to turn it into a saleable good.
The minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board is directly responsible for the injustice these prairie farmers face. I call upon the government to show some compassion, to show some common sense and decency and grant these farmers the same rights producers in the rest of Canada have taken for granted. Give them the freedom to sell their own wheat.
It is time to stop making criminals out of our prairie farmers who are simply attempting to earn an honest living for themselves and their families while defending our rural way of life.