Vol. XIX, No. 4 April 2001
The Western Separatist Papers
has been published (usually) monthly by W.S.P. Ltd. since 1983. Address all
correspondence to WSP, Box 143, 255 Menzies Street, Victoria, B.C. Western Canada V8V 2G6.
A one-year subscription is $15.00. Members of the Western Canada Concept receive
the WSP with their membership.
Send e-mail to kzubko@home.com. Visit the WCC on the web at: www.westcan.org
Phone us at: 250-727-3438
or fax us at: 250-479-3294
Our Cover: The headline in the National Post On April 7, 2001 read: “Let's work together, PM tells oilmen; West urged to forget past slights to capitalize on U.S. energy market.” Many people still remember the NEP, when the federal government took Alberta's oil royalties to cushion the blow of soaring world gas prices for the rest of the country, and wonder how long before that happens once more.
I am a Canadian. My name is Bob, and I am Canadian. I am a minority in Vancouver, Banff and every casino in this country.
I was born in 1972, yet I am responsible for some of the Natives great-great-grandfather who screwed himself out of his land in the 1800's.
I pay import tax on cars made in Ontario. I am allowed to skydive and smoke, but I am not allowed to drive without a seat belt.
All the money I make up until mid July must go to paying taxes.
I live and work among people who believe Americans are ignorant. These same people cannot name this country's new Territory
Although I am sometimes forced to live on Kraft Dinner and don't have a pot to p*** in, I sleep well knowing that I've helped purchase a nice six figure home in Vancouver for some unskilled Chinese refuge.
Although they are unpatriotic and constantly try to separate, Quebec still provides my nations Prime Ministers.
95% of my nation's international conflicts are over fish.
I am supposed to call black people African Canadians, although I'm sure none of them have ever been to Africa, or east of Halifax for that matter.
I believe that paying a 200% tax on alcohol is fair. I believe that same tax on gasoline is also fair.
Even if I had no idea what happened to that old rifle my grandfather gave me when I was 14, I will be considered a criminal if I don't register it.
I often bad mouth the U.S., and then vacation there three times a year.
I am lead to believe that some lazy-a** unionized broom pusher who makes $30 an hour is underpaid and therefore must go on strike, but paying $10 an hour to someone who works 12 hour shifts at 40 below on an oil rig is fair. I believe that paying 30 million for 3 stripes (The Voice of Fire) by the National Art Gallery was a good purchase, even though 99% of this country didn't want it, or will ever see it.
When I look at my pay stub and realize that I take home a third of what I actually make, I say “Oh well, at least we have a better health care than the Americans”
My National Anthem has versions in both official languages, and I don't know either of them.
Canada is the highest taxed nation in North America, the biggest military buffer for the U.S., and the number one destination for fleeing boat people.
I am not an angry white male. I am an angry broke tax payer. Hurrah ! My name is Bob and I'm a Canadian. [source unknown]
Canada Kills the Messenger
To the Editor:
Jim Pankiw, the Alliance M.P. from Saskatoon-Humboldt has dared to break the “code of silence” surrounding the issue of official bilingualism in Canada. He is not talking about speaking the French language as a matter of choice, or French language education, or French culture. He is talking about the injustices of the forced use of the French language on the people of Canada by the Federal Government.
Jim Pankiw asked a fair question, “Why is it that every time there is an increase in the number of Francophone civil servants, there is a corresponding decrease in the number of Anglophones?” It is also true that the Federal Government moved to protect Francophone rights in Ontario while turning a blind eye to the oppression of the Anglophones in Quebec. Rather than answering the question, Don Boudria chose to attack Jim Pankiw on a person level. So did Sheila Copps.
There are many more questions to ask. The Official Languages Act and the Charter of Rights based on rewritten history was passed without a mandate of the people of Canada. This action on the part of our political leaders is, according to our common law, unconstitutional because the Constitution belongs to the people not the politicians.
The Federal Government assumed the right to force the use of the French language across Canada thereby ignoring provincial rights laid down in the B.N.A. Act of 1867.
The Liberal government in Ottawa changed their hiring practice based on merit to proficiency in the use of the French language. Civil servants were to be allowed to use the language of their choice and no one's career would be threatened. This promise was short-lived. R.C.M.P. officers rapidly learned French, but this was not enough. Many were encouraged to accept early retirement. The Federal Government fast-tracked the careers of Quebecers through basic training and without experience on the job to higher administrative positions. Does this show a bias toward the French language?
The Federal Government has continually financed, at Anglophone taxpayer's expense, French culture, French language education and French language radio and television in every province of the Dominion. Acts of Parliament force merchants to post French language signs under threat of heavy fines. Does this sound like a bias toward the French language?
The Federal Government has signed a permanent agreement with Quebec to pay them 90 million dollars per year to operate their own immigration service. Crown corporations have been moved to Quebec where they operate in the French language. Army officers are required to become fluent in the French language or find their careers have reached a dead end. The cost of bilingual injustice is borne by the Anglophone taxpayer. The contribution to the national debt at the end of 1992 was 50 billion dollars, and growing. All of these facts show a bias toward the French language.
Jim Pankiw opened a can of worms when he asked the question in Parliament. It is time now for the Liberal government to explain its actions.
John I. Fisher
North Battleford, SK
[Ed. Note: The way that Mr. Pankiw was treated (as a pariah) following his question, instead of succeeding in calling the government to account, demonstrates that it is dangerous in Canada to even challenge the federalist mindset.]
A Separatist Farmer Writes
To the Editor:
I received your info on Western Canada Concept, and found it exciting and about time. Canada as we know it doesn't exist other than in Elitist Ontario and Quebec. As a Western Canadian farmer, what have I gotten out of being a Canadian?
I farm with two other brothers growing cereals, oilseeds and peas and lentils. The machinery is between 20 and 25 years old, in constant need of repairing. Thanks to twenty years of Liberal governments, there is not any cash available to replace equipment – it's all taxed away.
What I find really irritating is the splashing all over the media, print, radio and TV about all the “aid” we are supposed to be receiving from this Liberal government in Ottawa. AIDA or Agriculture Income Disaster Assistance is really a great place to enlarge the Agriculture bureaucracy even more. Farmers receive very little in the way of subsidies from AIDA; it never gets out of Ottawa or Winnipeg.
In 1999 my two sections of farmland had a shortfall of $8,500. That is, my farming expenses were $8,500 over my gross income. This year my farm losses for year 2000 were $4,750. Did I receive any AIDA? No, my income was too high, according to Ottawa! The bureaucrats needed another raise, in other words; farmers can go broke.
I fully support a strong and Independent Western Canada, not the watered-down version of Quebec sovereignty-association. I look upon the Canadian flag as being a shop rag and nothing more.
Saskatchewan, Alberta, B.C. and Manitoba have 90% of Canada's agriculture, large oil fields, huge deposits of minerals and huge forests; we could easily be independent.
Robert Butt
Saskatchewan
The Western Separatist Papers welcomes your letters to the editor. Please send them to P.O. Box 143, 255 Menzies St., Victoria, B.C. V8V 2G6, or by fax to 250-479-3294, or by email to kzubko@home.com.
Jailhouse Justice by Don Baron ISBN 0-9696913-1-9 Oracle House, Calgary paperback $19.95
Available from your local bookstore, or from the author at 14 Wood Cr. Regina SK, S4S 6J7 Ph/fax: 306-586-4578, email: donregina@aol.com
Don Baron is well-known in Western Canada as the author of Canada's Great Grain Robbery.
As a clear and compelling description of the recent struggles of Western Canadian farmers against the Canadian government's control over agriculture, this book is essential reading for Western Canadian separatists, and others who would understand some of the fundamental complaints that lie at the root of western “alienation.”
As well, anyone who cares about individual liberty in Canada, should read it, since what has been done to one sector, the farmers, has been and is also being done to others. Those who have no interest in farming should equally take the events described in this book to heart.
This book itemizes the heroic struggles of those farmers who have sought to challenge the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly over the products of their labour. These people – too numerous to name here --are revealed as real, interesting individuals instead of mere names in a brief newspaper article, or cookie cutter farmer replicas. It shows how the entrepreneurial spirit has been stifled among Canadian farmers, trying to make them slaves to handouts from the federal government.
We hear the eloquent stories of these individuals who refused to accept this and who have fought back with reason, dignity, and conviction. It also tells of their families and the land they love. By bringing all these cases together, the author demonstrates just how far the Canadian system has gone to control producers and abrogate the freedom that was supposedly part of Canadian values.
Chapter one begins:
“For decades, Ottawa has been denying Andy McMechan and all prairie growers the freedom to sell the grain they harvest each fall. Instead, its monopoly board seizes their wheat and barley at prices below world levels. To fight off bankruptcy, desperate growers began hauling their grain to beckoning U.S. markets in the early `90's, pocketing the cash and returning to pay their bills. McMechan and dozens of others were arrested, shackled, strip searched and jailed..”
From there, Baron describes the unique approach each individual farmer takes to the same problem, to the birth and development of “Farmers for Justice,” the grassroots organization formed to network farmers and provide mutual support in their struggle.
The book continues through the attempts of various farmers to take their grain into the U.S. to sell it, and the resulting charges of failure to provide an export permit when so doing, and the ensuing courtroom proceedings. It vividly recounts the early morning raid on the home of Norman and Edith Desrochers by the RCMP and Canada Customs officials. We hear of the case involving 28 growers charged in 1996 for crossing the US border with their grain, and then the moving account of Norm Colhoun's struggle. There's a picture of his truck with the sign “Canada: The only country in the free world where farmers are jailed for selling their own grain.”
The policy of the Canadian government on wheat has been described by grower Jim Pallister as worse for agriculture than Trudeau's NEP was for the oil industry; what is needed in Western Canada are more books like this one, focusing on each sector that has been harmed by the structure of confederation and the policies of the federal government, to educate the rest of us in the West.
I grew up hearing the stories that are the basis for Western farmers' anger, but I now know there are the same kinds of stories to be told in B.C. by west coast fishermen and those in forestry. People in small business, the local media, and every other sector have their own stories, as well, since the fundamental structure is fatally flawed. Don Baron has done an admirable job of making the farm story accessible to us in a way that can move us to action, and help us understand the whole Western Canadian plight. Buy it, read it, pass it on to other Western Canadians.
Some quotes from an Address by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien to a Luncheon of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, April 6, 2001 Calgary, Alberta
“I prefer to talk about the future than about old grievances.”
“We all recognize that all regions of Canada have some historical grievances.”
“As far as I am concerned, old grievances are for historians and political scientists to debate.”
“A strong energy sector is not only a pillar of the Alberta economy, it is absolutely fundamental to Canadian prosperity.” [emphasis added]
“In 2000, the industry made $21 billion of capital investments. That number could reach $25 billion this year. The industry is also responsible for almost 50% of Canada's trade surplus.” [emphasis added]
“The United States needs Canadian energy. . . .President Bush referred specifically last week to Canadian natural gas from the North West Territories as an important source of supply for the United States.” [emphasis added]
“We already export more oil and product to the US than does Saudi Arabia.” [emphasis added]
“Our reserves of natural gas are also vast.“ [emphasis added]
“That is why I did not come here today to debate old grievances but to talk about new opportunities and new partnerships.”
Other (Calgarian) views of the same event
Licia Corbella, in the Calgary Sun of April 7, 2001:
“No less than three times did Chretien ask those in the room to put aside `old grievances.' Yet every time he made mention of `old grievance' the invisible, though very alive, apparition of the NEP hung in that room like a cloud.
“But that's not all. Every time he talked of `old grievances' between the federal Liberals and the West, many in the room undoubtedly couldn't help ask themselves, `but what about the recent ones?'
“Some go back just a couple of months to the federal election campaign, which was decidedly anti-Albert and even hostile.
“Like when he said the Canadian Alliance represented the `dark side' of human nature and those who supported that party have values that are un-Canadian.
“Like when he did not chastise Elinor Caplan, one of his ministers, when she said Alliance supporters were `holocaust deniers,' or when he said he prefers to work with people from Eastern Canada rather than those from Alberta.”
Rick Bell in the Calgary Sun, April 7, 2001:
“PM's speech slick with snake oil,” is the heading of his article, in which he writes:
“The only oil this guy sells is snake oil.
“Yesterday's speech to the suits of this city's oil patch was supposed to be the prime minister's outstretched hand to the West, a two-hour pit stop in the colonies to soothe the savages.
“But alas, it was not to be.
“The PM righted no wrongs done to this part of the country.
“He wouldn't even talk about them.
“The PM issued no mea culpas, no admission of guilt or responsibility for the ill-spoken and the badly done.
“He'd never smeared us or dismissed us or hurt us.
“The PM did not come armed with one concrete proposal to give the West a fairer shake in the future. He announced no specific and spelled-out policies we could take seriously.
“And the PM didn't even go as far as to perform one symbolic gesture for us, maybe allowing the people we elected to the Senate to actually become Senators.
“No, all we got was snake oil.”
“But when asked later if he'd make changes in the way Canada is governed to give the West more of a voice, the PM had a simple answer: No.”
Things to ponder around income tax filing time.
An article that appeared on April 21, 2001 in the Toronto Sun by Greg Weston reveals the cost of the recent orgy of world leaders and protesters, the Summit of the Americas. Excerpts of this follow:
$125M tab for all this fun
. . . “No one in government is saying what this four-day gabfest is costing – if anyone has even bothered to make a budget.
“The best guess of one official well seasoned in these kinds of events is somewhere over $125 million.
Worst of all, the feeling we get from here is the organizers have been given carte blanche to spend whatever it takes to put on a show. And if taxpayers don't like it when the final tally hits the public purse, well, tough.
“Duncan Fulton, spokesman for the prime minister, told us without a hint of ridicule that he couldn't tell us anything about the costs of the summit, nor even who is paying for what: “When this is over, and the costs are added up, we'll have a clear idea of what it costs.”
“Here's a sample of some of the summit bills that taxpayers can expect to land in their laps for what is certain to be the most expensive photo opportunity in Canadian history.
“Six months ago, federal officials rented nearly 100 downtown apartments and hotel suites -- for a full year. It's a bit of a mystery what most of these bureaucrats will be doing for the next six months after the summit leaders have left.
“One team of feds who will be very busy for the next while are the justice department lawyers who have been moved here full time -- get this – just to deal with all the lawsuits related to the summit. Sources tell us over 350 separate damage actions have already been filed against the feds (read: taxpayers).
“This will probably be the biggest peace-time security operation Canada has ever mounted. There are over 6,000 police officers here, including RCMP from all across the country. We met one officer from northern Alberta. He's been here for three weeks. Figure the rough costs for transportation, meals, hotels, overtime, special equipment -- times 6,000 -- and it's a staggering expense.
“Just to be sure none of those nasty protester types could get a comfortable bed within 5 km of the summit, organizers used our tax dollars to rent every available hotel room in the city's downtown area.
`Logistics'
“A source in foreign affairs tells us the costs of “logistics” (i.e. babysitting) the 33 visiting heads of state and their delegations alone is “probably around $15 million.”
“Ironically, the cost of the now infamous concrete barrier and chainlink fence -- all 3.8 km of it -- turns out to be a bargain. Probably no more than $1 million, including all the manpower and heavy equipment being used to install it.
“There are about 2,000 journalists reporting on the summit. An entire floor of the Quebec convention centre, an area larger than a football field, has been transformed into a fully stocked press centre with desks, closed circuit television and audio feeds, 1,000 telephones, and dozens of editing suites for TV and radio. Keeping us fed and amused will involve about 20,000 meals, more than 50 cars and vans and over 500 staff.
“And so the bills just keep mounting.
“The final cost of this mammoth photo opportunity for Jean Chretien and Friends?
“Hold on to your wallets.
“The ultimate cost of seeing our country infected with riot police, hooligans and tear gas?
“Priceless.”
Economic Freedom Drops
Meanwhile, the recent Economic Freedom of the World 2001 Annual Report has placed Canada at 13th on the list of the freest economies. An article by Alan Toulin in the National Post of April 19/01 says that Canada has fallen from 7th to 13th in a world ranking of 123 nations. This index uses the following standards to measure a nation's economic life and degree of freedom: the size of government, economic and market structure, monetary policy, access to sound money, legal structure, freedom to trade and freedom of exchange in capital markets. It is also considered a good index of general prosperity. In 1990, Canada was 4th but now comes behind Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, the UK, the US, Australia, Ireland, Switzerland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Argentina, and Bolivia. Where will we be next year? Or ten years from now?
Feds and Klein not equal
During his speech to the oilmen in Calgary, the Prime Minister made great mileage by comparing the federal efforts to trim the debt with Premier Ralph Klein's efforts in Alberta. A recent article in the Calgary Herald debunks this notion, which has been widely used by Western Canadian Liberals to hold up to separatists (who are often very fiscally conservative) and say, “See the Liberals aren't so bad at all!” We quote from the Calgary Herald of April 7, 2001:
“For the past eight years, Canada's federal government has favoured what it calls a `balanced approach' to the nation's finances, which largely meant preferring not to address the nation's hideous debt in any significant way.
“(Although the oft-quoted net debt figure -- $564.6 billion – is lower than previous years, the gross debt sits at $638.7 billion, only $2 billion less than its peak in 1997.)
“This has meant that Jean Chretien's Liberals, while understanding what their predecessors did not – that continued deficit financing borders on insanity leading eventually to bankruptcy –trimmed spending without retreating in any significant way from either their pet projects or their affection for the role of government as nanny.”
The article itemizes how health-care spending was cut, but effective reforms weren't made; the multiculturalism ministry continued unabated, as did patronage in the HRDC; tax cuts were announced by only recently implemented; and UI was still abused. Yes, it goes on, the annual budget was balanced and small amounts were trimmed from the debt load, but debt reduction wasn't really a major aim or accomplishment.
This is contrasted with Alberta, “where the provincial government took an aggressive stance on debt reduction, reduced the size and role of government and is now poised to eliminate its debt entirely if it can resist the latent `the next round's on me!' fiscal instincts of Premier Ralph Klein. Taxes have fallen and there is talk of a province in which income tax could be eliminated entirely. Economic forecasts suggest Alberta may escape the worst of a continental economic downturn.
“For the federal government, however, the party is very clearly coming to an end. The Toronto Stock Exchange has lost $350 billion in value.. . . The change in economic forecasts from those used to frame Paul Martin's pre-election mini-budget in October to those in play now indicate a roughly $100-billion negative shift in fortune for the federal government's finances over the remainder of its five-year mandate. . . .
“The problem is, the federal government still hasn't broken with its late 20<M>th-century fondness for big government. Its instincts continue to be flawed. Rather than protect the citizen and the economy with tax cuts, therefore, the government's first move is to protect its own structure and nanny state institutions by maintaining its revenue stream.
“The coming months and, heaven forbid, years will likely show just how flawed Canada's ostrich-like view of public debt has been. As any westerner knows, you make hay while the sun shines. That way there is still plenty to eat when it gets cold and dark. As it always does.” [end of article]
A Western View on the Summit
Paul Stanway, of the Edmonton Sun, April 20, 2001, alludes to Canada's incapacity in fair and free trade within Canada, something Western Canadians have experienced since the beginning of Confederation:
“There is some irony in the fact that a free trade agreement covering two continents and three dozen countries may have its roots in this meeting in Canada - and is sponsored by a government and prime minister who opposed free trade with the U.S. in 1988 and threatened to “re-negotiate” the deal as soon as they were returned to power.
“We are a trading nation dependent on exports for our standard of living - but we're not exactly enthusiastic free-traders. Better than 80% of our trade is with one country! We know all about international trade in theory, but in practice we trade mostly with the Americans who already own such a large slice of our economy.
“For decades successive Canadian governments have talked about expanding our trade links and lessening our dependence on trade with the U.S., but while they have talked we've become more dependent on trade with the U.S. And we won't even talk about the inter-provincial barriers which continue to bedevil trade inside Canada. We have arguably had even less success at dismantling those than we've had in expanding international trade links!
“The Quebec City summit may be remembered as a riot over a meaningless trade agreement which went nowhere and was forgotten after a few years, or it might be a watershed event in the history of the hemisphere.
“Just don't expect anything to happen quickly. In case you hadn't noticed, after two and a half centuries we're still arguing about the last battle at Quebec City.”
Important Sask. Meeting
On April 27th there will be a meeting to bring together important speakers for the Cause of Western Canadian Independence. It will be held at St. Mary's Cultural Centre at 240 Wellington Avenue, Yorkton, Saskatchewan. Speakers will be Cory Morgan, Wayne Cockrell, and David Sawkiw. Contact Frank Serfas for more information at 306-728-3546.
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