Justice for Small Flockers

Small Flockers have rights.

The power and authority of all governments are limited.

Governments have duties they must fulfill for their citizens.

Provided the government adequately respects its citizens, protects them and their property, and fulfill their duties for its people, then and only then do the citizens owe the government their loyalty.

As best as I am able to tease it out, the following table shows the hierarchy of laws for Canada.

The Chicken Mafia is not all powerful, in spite of what they may think.  Note that the Chicken Mafia are #13 in the hierarchy; last place.

The Federal and Provincial Governments are neither omnipotent nor all powerful.  There are significant limitations on their governmental powers.

There's hope for regaining the rights of Small Flockers, and every citizens' right to buy and/or grow safe, nutritious, affordable, adequate, and locally available food.

Small Flockers and their communities of family, friends and neighbours will eventually find justice, either with these current governments, or the new governments that will soon replace the fossilized, old, and worn out governments of today.

Hierarchy	Law Classification	Examples &/or Explanation
1 Most Supreme	God’s Law	Thou shall not kill
2	Natural Law	Gravity,
3	Inalienable Human Rights	Equality, freedom of thought and conscious, freedom from torture, dignity, right to food and to feed oneself, safety and sanctity of person, etc.
4	Fundamental rights, Fundamental Justice, Due process, Fairness, Rule of Law	Freedom from arbitrary arrest, right to face ones accusers and defend oneself, right for non-arbitrary decisions by government based on objective facts, freedom from secret trials, etc.
5	International Law, International Treaties	Geneva Convention, Free Trade Treaties, etc.
6	Common Law, Equity Law	Right to quiet enjoyment of your property, right to gainful employment, right to use highways and streets, etc. Right to fair treatment
7	Constitutional Law	1867 British North American Act Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
8	Peace, Order, & Good Government	Constitutional limits on the powers of Federal & Provincial governments & their statutes.  Governments must respect, protect, and fulfill their duties to help and protect its citizens, in return for their citizen’s loyalty to that government.
9	Federal Statutes	Canada’s Telecommunications Act Supply Management laws for chicken, eggs, turkeys, and dairy
10	Provincial Statutes	Highway Traffic Act Supply Management laws for chicken, eggs, turkeys, and dairy
11	Municipal Law	Ontario’s Municipal Act
12	Municipal By-laws & Resolutions	Municipal Zoning By-law, parking By-law, Noise By-law, Dog licensing
13 Weakest	Organizational By‑laws	By-law stating who is authorized to sign cheques, hold office, hire & fire, etc. Chicken Mafia (eg. Chicken Farmers of Ontario, Chicken Farmers of Canada, quota-bearing chicken producers, and all their henchmen) and their rules, By-laws, and decisions they impose on the Small Flockers and the public.

$10.8 Billion of Fascist Chicken in Canada

Small Flockers have taken the position that the greater good of the public trumps the wishes of everybody else.  Where did we get such a crazy idea?

Under Section 95 of the Canadian Constitution Acts (1867 – 1982), Provincial Parliaments are empowered over agriculture, provided that their provincial acts and regulations are not repugnant to any Acts of Canada’s Parliament.  Both the Federal Government and the Provincial Governments are empowered to pass legislation on agriculture.

The Federal Government passed a number of laws and regulations to set up a Canada-wide Supply Management system back in the 1960's.  In 2001, the Feds finished negotiations to resolve the egg and chicken wars between Provinces, and an agreement was signed by all the parties, the 2001 Federal-Provincial Agreement for Chicken.

I'm sure that CFO must have heard about this agreement, because they were one of the signatories on the documents, as was the Government of Ontario.

Excerpt from 2001 Federal-Provincial Agreement on Chicken

In that agreement, it states that everybody will get along and play nicely together.  The recent skirmishes over chicken between Ontario and Quebec, and between Quebec and New Brunswick don't seem to meet that expectation, but that is another story for another day.

Under Section 1.01 of that agreement (see at right), all the parties are supposed to work is a Supply Management system that must have a number of very important characteristics. If we have something imposed upon us that doesn't meet these minimum requirements, then they aren't following the rules.  If they don't follow the rules, than we don't have to follow these made-up rules either, for what they ended up doing is ultra vires.  They have no legal basis for doing what they are currently doing.

Especially note Section 1.01 d) where we are required to have a system that works in the balanced interest of producers, industry stakeholders and consumers.  To me that means the decisions have to be equally good (or equally bad) for all three of these groups.

Is that what is occurring?  Raube Beureman just posted a comment on this website that Walmart USA chicken was $4.38/kg, while Walmart Canada offered the same chicken for $13.54/kg at the same time, in neighbouring cities.  That's 3.09 times more expensive in Canada for the same chicken.  Does that sound like "balanced interest"?

Where does all that money go?

CFO reports that in 2011 they produced 452 million kg. of live chicken at a price of $1.596/kg.  Typically the eviscerated weight is 73.72% of the live weight, so we got 333.236 million kg of eviscerated meat.  Add to that about 159 million kg of eviscerated chicken imported into Canada in a year, of which Ontario gets about 33%, so we have a grand total of 385.75 million kg per year of eviscerated chicken.  Now charge Canadians a premium price of $9.16/kg extra for that chicken (ie. $13.54 - 4.38= $9.16/kg).  That price premium for chicken that we are forced to pay sucks out $3.53 Billion per year from the Ontario pocketbook.

According to Ontario's Ministry of Finance in 2012 the total spending for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food will be $1.546 Billion (operating, assets, and capital expenditure).  So our premium chicken prices could pay for running the entire OMAF for a year, and put $1.98 Billion towards reducing the provincial deficit.

What about Canada-wide?  Chicken Farmers of Canada report in their 2012 Chicken Databook that 1.023 Billion kg of eviscerated chicken were produced in Canada during 2011 (latest stats available).  Adding the same imports of 159 Million kg stated above, we have a total of 1.182 Billion kg. of chicken.  At the price premium pricing over US chicken of $9.16/kg, that is a chicken tax of $10.827 Billion per year which consumers are forced to pay.  With 13.3 million households in Canada, that is a chicken tax of $814.00 per year per Canadian household.

I wonder who got those extra Billions.  What would consumers have spent their money on if they didn't have to pay those premium chicken prices?  If the government got the money instead, would they have reduced our taxes, paid down the deficit, or provided us $10.8 Billion of additional services?  If we are forced to pay an extra $10.8 Billion per year for premium prices on chicken, we can't spent it on something else.

We hear about Banana Republics where the dictator is smuggling plane loads of diamonds and gold out of the country, as the infrastructure crumbles and the people are starved.  Should we be placing observers at Toronto International Airport watching as our Canadian tyrants take $10.8 billion per year of hard-earned money away from Canadians and spirit it off to parts unknown?

Fascism is defined as when government and business are co-conspirators for their special interests by controlling and repressing the people.  Do we have a $10.8 Billion/yr. case of fascism here in Canada?

Petition the People

Chicken Farmers of Ontario ("CFO") have been around for 48 years.  We are told that it takes 20,000 work hours to reach world-class skill and perfection.  At that rate, CFO should not be just the best Supply Management Board on Planet Earth, they should have mastered half way to Pluto by now.

However, Should and Actual are two different things.

CFO has made some changes over the years, and probably will make some other minor changes here and there if it is in their best interest to do so.

However, expecting CFO to make changes that are not in their best interest is not facing reality.

To get truly fundamental change, I believe CFO will require being forced to change.

Who has the power to force CFO to change?

Under Section 95 the Canadian Constitution the Federal Government has Canada-wide authority in agriculture, and Ontario can pass additional laws in agriculture provided it doesn't conflict with the Federal laws.  That's how we got Canada-wide Supply Management in the first place back in 1965.

The Minister of Agriculture and Food has the authority to issue a Directive to the Farm Products Marketing Commission (FPMC) who watches over all the local Supply Management Boards (milk, eggs, and chicken).

The OMAF Tribunal can be asked to clarify or intercede when someone complains about the legality of some decision, rule, by-law, or regulation.

The local Board themselves could decide, or recommend, some changes to their system.

Finally, last and least powerful of all, the quota-bearing chick producers themselves could see the writing on the wall, feel the growing unease in the public, the increase in the press and blog traffic discussing chicken quota.  The following graph shows the Google Trends for the search term "chicken quota".  No other country in the world had any interest in this unique and highly specialized topic.  All of the searches were concerned with and geographically located in Ontario.  Perhaps that is why Premier Wynne took on the OMAF portfolio, for by making some small, key changes as OMAF's Minister and the Premier, she can save Ontario and her neck as Premier; two for the price of one.

If only we could get a deal like that on chicken in the grocery store.


The initial spike in Google searches for "chicken quota" was in July 2009.   In May 2010, the issue returned and has been of steady interest ever since.  Note that I started my campaign in Jan. 2011, so I wasn't the first, but I was in there early.

While "chicken quota" is getting hotter, "milk marketing board" was white hot in 2004, and has slowly cooled to a red hot topic in comparison to chicken.  Together, they will intensify the heat by their synergy.  Which of these, alone or together, will be the fuse that lights the powder keg?

So here it is, my next contribution to the on-going discussion on CFO and the Ontario chicken quota.  A petition all set for signatures by the people of Ontario.  Print off a copy, stick it up on your office bulletin board, pop one into the local grocery store and the place where you buy your gas.

Yesterday, I took a copy of my petition into my local coffee shop to see what everybody would say.  There were about 15 people there. I asked them to sign my petition.  They all took a look at my petition.  There were some preliminary discussions, but nobody signed.  If the people of Ontario are so numb and jaded by the constant beatings they have received, they may be unable to strike while the iron is hot.

Therefore, we may have to wait a little longer than I hoped.

I'm prepared that this may be a very long struggle before we get satisfaction.  Everybody might as well take their shoes off and get comfortable.

For those who saw the light long before me, don't give up.  I'm coming.  I'm bringing help with me. You can't do it alone, and neither can I.   I need everybody's help.  If we are true to our cause, and we have the stamina to keep constant pressure on the key points, eventually we will succeed, for our cause is just.

As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "It is better to suffer the injustice than to cause an injustice suffered by others".  So we suffer and we wait.

Playing Chicken with Ontario's Premier Wynne

Are the Small Flock Farmers playing chicken with Ontario's new Premier, Kathleen Wynne?

Premier Wynne has decided to take on the Ministry of Agriculture & Food ("OMAF") portfolio in addition to her duties as Premier.  That decision may be the acid test for defining the difference between the former regime of McGuinty, and the new Premier Wynne.

The Small Flockers didn't waste any time in ruffling the feathers of Premier Wynne by pressing their longstanding issues with the new Minister of OMAF.

One Small Flocker, Glenn Black from Providence Bay Manitoulin Island said,

"Premier Wynne stated that the rural and farming communities need to be listened to, and that their voices count.  We take her at her word.  Now is Premier Wynne's opportunity to demonstrate her solidarity with that community, as well as all the consumers of poultry in Ontario.  Now is the time to act."

There are over 13,000 Small Flock Chicken Farmers in Ontario.  Under Ontario's Supply Management system, they are only permitted to raise up to 300 meat birds per year.  The Small Flockers are asking that this limit be raised to 2,000 birds, and to be given back the right to raise, slaughter, and sell their poultry from their farm gate.  Farm gate meat sales were banned in 2005 unless those birds were slaughtered and inspected by a government licensed abattoir.  Many areas of Ontario have no government licensed abattoir that processes poultry, thereby placing them in a Catch-22, shutting down the farmer's opportunity to raise a flock and earn a living.

Various food banks and "Eat Local" food advocacy groups want more locally grown foods such as poultry to be available.  Small Flock Farmers, spread far and wide throughout Ontario, meet that definition, and are ready to serve that need for locally grown food.  Practical Farmers of Ontario, a family farm advocacy group, is also supporting these efforts.

On behalf of himself and all Small Flock Poultry farmers, Glenn Black has sent a letter to Premier Wynne detailing how farm-gate poultry sales can occur, while minimizing any food safety risks.  This farmer's group believes that farm gate poultry sales will offer chicken to Ontario citizens that is equal or better quality and food safety than what is currently available in grocery stores.