Dear Editor
I remember the farm at the Saskatchewan Hospital near North Battleford and the fine dairy herd there. People who visited the farm, perhaps when a production sale of cattle was held, would remark on the mentally challenged people working there, particularly those who groomed the cows. I heard of one man who cheerfully brushed the cows, with the brush three inches above their backs. Believe it or not, even the calming, repetitive motion was good for man and beast.
Then the Thatcher government gained power. The farm, the herd, all sold. The people from outside, the people who lived within, were all thrown out of work. No more therapy to be gained from working with the cows. No more money being made.
Run forward to this century and the Harper government. The prison farms were sold. I recall a CBC radio reporter interviewing inmates at the Saskatchewan Penitentiary in Prince Albert. One man said he had never been responsible for anything in his life and he wasn't interested in looking after calves, but then, he said, it changed his life. The men learned time management, responsibility and they benefitted by caring for animals and crops.
The Harper government claimed that nothing learned at Canadian prison farms would benefit the inmates after they were released. What a slap in the face to agriculture. Canada's prison farms generated $2 million a year in produce — eggs, fruit, vegetables, milk, crops and beef.
A group of farmers backed up by a few well-known people were so insulted they took action and bought one farm and the prize winning dairy herd, a herd going back 80 years. This was in Ontario, and they are sure the farm will be bought back now and then they will return the cattle.
Few indeed are the farmers who will do that. Farmers used to make things happen, now they watch things happen. I'm sure some farmers snapped up hospital farmlands and patted themselves on the back.
And as for the prison farm near Prince Albert, I never heard that the Government of Saskatchewan tried to stop the sale.
And where did the money go from the sale of lands, livestock and machinery?
Christine Pike
Waseca
