August 5, 2010 - Information on the Save Our Prison Farms campaign

Hello,

As many of you know we feel very strongly about working to save the prison farms.  We continue to write and call. 

We are passing this message along and ask for your help.  

For more information on this campaign, check out the web site  www.saveourprisonfarms.ca

We also have written about this topic and and you will find information on this web site.

Please help spread the word.

thank you
Jan & Rick

Hello, prison farm supporters,  

1. Auction Sale Re-scheduled, Cattle to be moved this weekend OLEX has re-scheduled the dairy herd sale for 11 am on Tuesday, August 10, at their facility near Waterloo, Ontario.  Rather than a video sale, as previously announced, it wil be a live sale -- that is, they plan to move the cattle out of Frontenac Institution before the sale, taking them to Waterloo for Tuesday's sale.  We think they will move the cattle Sunday and/or Monday.   So, we are setting up the COWS trailer again on Friday.  Please call Aric at 546-0869 to sign up for a shift and watch the website for available spaces in the schedule.   We plan to set up a blockade on Sunday, starting around noon.  We need everyone to be there, to make the strongest possible statement about our support  for the prison farms.  Anyone attending will be able to choose the level of participation they are comfortable with -- from actively blocking cattle trucks to standing nearby as a witness or supporter to the demonstration to bringing food and water for participants.   We may need to blockade on Monday as well, so please consider how you can re-arrange your schedule to allow you to participate.   Should the sale proceed, we plan to have prison farm supporters there to inform people that the sale is controversial, and that major farm organizations in Ontario and across Canada endorsed our postion that the prison farms should remain open.  More details later.   Please continue to call Larry Witzel, OLEX general manager (1-800-265-8818), to ask him to withdraw his company from this sale.  Remind him that this sale is controversial and that all the major farm groups in Ontario, as well as national organizations, support the retention of the prison farm program.  Be polite, and non-threatening.  Leave a message on his machine if he is not available.  

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There is further information below on the following topics:  

2. Urgent -- flood the PM's office with phone calls, emails and letters 3. Online Declaration calling on the PM to restore democracy in Canada 4. Umbrella left at City Park 5. a couple of interesting URLs         2. Urgent -- flood the PM's office with phone calls, emails and letters   It seems that Minister Toews is adamant that the herd will be sold and the farm program ended.  So, while pressure on him should continue, it is urgent that we flood the PM's office with emails, phone calls, faxes and letters.   Contact Prime Minister Harper, in one or more of these ways: phone: 1-866-599-4999 (ask for the Office of the Prime Minister)

fax: 1-613-941-6900 or email  pm@pm.gc.ca 

or letter:               Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper, P.C., M.P.,Prime Minister of Canada, Room 313-S, Centre Block,                             House of Commons,  Ottawa, Ontario  K1A 0A6

Suggested focus: economic arguments: the green technology possibilites and other innovations proposed to CSC Commissioner Don Head, and Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews earlier this month; loss of almost $1million business for farm suppliers in the KIngston-Belleville region; higher costs of outsourcing the milk and eggs now produced on the farm, plus other points you want to express to the PM.

  Contact Vic Toews, Minister of Public Safety, phone: 1-613-992-3128 fax: 1-613-995-1049 email toews.v@parl.gc.ca letter to House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6   similar arguments  

3. Online Declaration calling on the PM to restore democracy in Canada   There is an online declaration, very relevant to the prison farm campaign, that individuals and groups can sign by going to www.voices-voix.ca Below are the opening sentences of the declaration, to give you a sense of its content:   "Since 2006 the Government of Canada has systematically undermined democratic institutions and practices, and has eroded the protection of free speech, and other fundamental human rights. It has deliberately set out to silence the voices of organizations or individuals who raise concerns about government policies or disagree with government positions..."  

4. Umbrella left at City Park   Someone left an umbrella on a picnic table at City Park, following the civil disobedience workshop held there July 29.  Let me know if it belongs to you.   5. a couple of interesting URLs   an article quoting Vic Toews justifying "the tough on crime agenda" (aka "stupid on crime")  It also quotes Craig Jones from the John Howard Society, with an alternative view. http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics/2010/07/31/14889356.html   a companion to Toews' comments on rising violent crime -- a Statistics Canada report from July 2010, on falling crime rates: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/100720/dq100720a-eng.htm

Thank you for your continuing support and interest.  We had about 100 people at the workshop last Thursday night in City Park, and people are asking to be added to our email list and phone tree every day.  The information table in front of Tara Foods was very successful in spreading the word, gathering donations, and bolstering supporter confidence that the community agrees with our campaign.   Remember to contact your family members and friends in other parts of Canada, asking them to support the cause through letters, emails, phone calls to the PM or Minister Toews-- the government needs to realize this is more than a Kingston-only issue.  Ask them to contact their MP (especially if the MP is Conservative), Mr. Harper and Mr. Toews, to express disagreement with the decision to close the prison farms. Tell them about our website www.saveourprisonfarms.ca for more information on the issue.   Attached is the brief our campaign presented to CSC Commissioner Don Head on July 9.  You may find it useful in contacting politicians and media.   Keep up the pressure -- every voice counts!

Sincerely, the Save Our Prison Farms campaign