December 2011 Archives

I was going to write something cute and clever this morning, after the big Christmas break, until I read the news report that Manitoba beef producer Major Jay Fox was being laid to rest today (Wednesday) after dying from injuries suffered in a farm accident last Friday. He was 32.

It is one of those head-shaker stories involving someone “young” being taken too earlier. I felt similar disbelief in late November when another good person and a long-time agriculture industry leader, Denise Maurice, died suddenly at the age of 56.

I didn’t know Jay and his wife Angie super well. I interviewed them in 2008 after they were named Manitoba’s Outstanding Young Farmers, met them at the national OYF awards ceremony and I talked to Jay a few more times over the past couple years in his role as president of the Manitoba Beef Producers.

My impression of him is of a big, healthy, robust young man. But, as events like this make us all realize, we never know what’s around the corner…life can change on a dime.

According to the news report, Jay was injured as he was helping to remove a front-end loader from a tractor. RCMP say the loader arms were raised but not blocked when the hydraulics were released and the bucket dropped, pinning Jay beneath. He was transported to Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre, where he died Friday.

Jay and Angie were both raised on mixed farming operations in Saskatchewan. They moved to the Eddystone, Manitoba area (near Dauphine) in 2006 to take over Jay’s parent’s ranching operation.

It was a relatively big spread. They had about 12,000 acres of mostly native hay and pasture land and were running a 400-head commercial Hereford/Angus/Black Baldie cross cows and as well as a few purebred Black Angus.

From what I knew he was a good rancher, always interested in improving production efficiency, and he was also involved in the industry. He had just completed a two-year term as president of the Manitoba Beef Producers.

It is a sad story to end the year on, and always tough to find some meaning when something like this happens. We’re supposed to get old and slip away in our sleep after a long and good life. That’s the theory but certainly not always the reality.

Donations can be made in Jay’s memory at any branch of TD Canada Trust for a trust fund for his four children Devon, Charlie, Porter and Major.

Rest in peace Major Jay Fox. Even beyond your family and friends your presence is felt and you made a lasting mark on the world. You will be missed.

Lee Hart is editor of Cattleman’s Corner based in Calgary. Contact him at 403-592-1964 or by email at lee@fbcpublishing.com

Grainews App works

A few months ago I was lamenting in this column that the Grainews app you can download to have Grainews news, weather and sports on your cell phone didn’t work on my Blackberry.

That complaint didn’t go over so well.

But, regardless I am happy to report that the Grainews app does now work on my cell phone. So if you had trouble getting the app working on your Blackberry, try again. The only link I can suggest is: http://agreader.ca/gn?ref=enews&AF=&utm_source=GRN&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=EN12082011 . Click on it and see what happens and no doubt you can find it on our website too at www.grainews.ca . If you’re still having trouble, call me and I will be right over to fix it.

I checked the weather Thursday morning on my Grainews app and it was -20 C at Springbank (just on the west side of the city). And the lead news story is that the Harper government was elected with a majority…no body said it would be current news, just news. (No, seriously there is current ag news on the site). 

Anyway, just download the app and then I can be with you 24/7.

CWB court ruling

It was interesting to read Wednesday the Federal Court of Canada has found the federal government, i.e. Ag Minister Gerry Ritz, in breach of the law when he proceeded to change the Canadian Wheat Board Act without proper consultation with Prairie farmers.

There is a lot of legal phrasing in this decision, but what I read is that it is to some degree a matter of interpretation of the law, and Judge Douglas Campbell, interpreted it as a breach.

The federal government says it will appeal the ruling, and in the meantime proceed with plans to change the CWB Act to allow for an open market — remove the CWB monopoly.

I am no lawyer and not even a farmer, but in my 25 years of kicking around this industry, I believe there has been tons and tons of consultation. If there is anyone out there today farming who was surprised by the federal government’s decision to create an open market for Western Canadian wheat and barley and feels their views haven’t been heard, then I really don’t know where they have been.

There are two philosophical sides and arguments to this issue and I feel they both have been heard time and time again.

Judge Campbell in part of his decision said: 

“Generally speaking, when advancing a significant change to an established management scheme (changing the current CWB), the failure to provide a meaningful opportunity for dissenting voices to be heard and accommodated forces resort to legal means to have them heard. In the present piece, simply pushing ahead without engaging such a process has resulted in the present Applications (friends of the wheat board) being launched. Had a meaningful consultative process been engaged to find a solution, which meets the concerns of the majority, the present legal action might not have been necessary. Judicial review serves an important function; in the present Applications the voices have been heard, which, in my opinion, is fundamentally importantly…”

Maybe this is the first time Judge Campbell has come across the CWB issue, but my gut feeling is you could hold meeting after meeting across Western Canada to solicit farmer input into CWB changes and at the end of the day you would have one camp that wants change and one camp that is opposed to it and probably a third camp that says “enough already, time to move on.”
Even if they had held formal hearings, which cost millions of dollars, would these hearings have arrived at some compromise that would have made everyone happy…I doubt it. There comes a time in many business and personal relationships when all parties have to concede there are irreconcilable differences. 

After hundreds of meetings, plebiscites, elections, studies, countless stories, letters to the editors, and hours of coffee room talk over many years, how can anyway argue there has been no consultation. What possible argument or view is to be made that hasn’t already been heard? I am not saying Judge Campbell was wrong, but I learned a long time ago the law — the courts — decide between what is legal and illegal. The law doesn’t decide between what is right and wrong.

This is Christmas

I am always pleased when I hear people this time of year extend the greeting “Merry Christmas” and it bugs the hell out of me, when I see corporations, institutions, governments bend over backwards to avoid the "C" word, or even forbidding people using anything but a “politically correct” term such as happy holidays, because they don’t want to offend anyone.

This might be a losing battle, but I am a Canadian-born WASP and the holiday we celebrate at this time of year, and have for more than 2000 years is Christmas. I know we are a cultural melting pot, but this is the Christmas season with religious beliefs and commercial traditions that have been engrained in our society for hundreds of years.

I don’t even know if immigrants who now make Canada home are even opposed to the “Christmas” word and all its meanings, themselves. More often than not I think it is a politician or a bureaucrat or a human resources person who has nothing better to do than sit around and come up some weak-kneed policy because it respects the sensitivities of our diverse culture, or whatever. They are justifying their existence.

I have Jewish friends who celebrate Hanukkah. Muslim friends who celebrate Ramadan. Ukrainian friends who aren’t sure when Christmas is. Chinese friends who celebrate New Years later in January. And this is all good. Observe your holidays and religious celebrations freely in Canada.  

To me if there is any cultural or religious group in Canada that doesn’t want to celebrate Christmas because it is not part of their culture or heritage, then don’t. No problem. Enjoy the day off and do whatever you’d like to do. The rest of us are celebrating Christmas and if anyone really, really doesn’t like this observance of a Christian holiday celebrated around the world I am sure there are planes leaving every hour on the hour that can get them to some other country where life is much better. We shouldn’t be ashamed, afraid, or apologetic for celebrating a Canadian tradition. This is Canada and this is Christmas. 

Lee Hart is a field editor for Grainews in Calgary, Contact him at 403-592-1964 or by email at lee@fbcpublishing.com