Dear Editor
This spring, farmers have been receiving cheques from the former Canadian Wheat Board. These unexpected and unusual cheques are labeled as "final payment adjustment". This money comes from the final pool count of the now defunct Canadian Wheat Board. Farmers traditionally received their total final payment from the former Wheat Board a few months after the wheat pools closed every August. This particular payment arrived more than 1.5 years after the pools closed.
Shortly before these recent payments arrived, the courts had granted the "Friends of the CWB" a green light on their claim that funds from the CWB final pool year were misappropriated by the Minister of Agriculture. This means that the Friends will now have access to the CWB books to prove their claim. I wonder if it is a coincidence that farmers subsequently started receiving these late payments shortly after the court ruling. If there is a connection between the recent court ruling against Minister Ritz and the recent wheat payments then I have already been reimbursed for supporting the ongoing class action launched by the Friends of the CWB.
The disrespect that Minister Ritz and Prime Minister Harper have shown toward western farmers when they denied them a vote and confiscated their assets is shameful. The Friends of the CWB have my support to continue all legal means to right this terrible wrong.
Eric Sagan
Melville, SK
