There are times an agricultural issue becomes bigger than simply how it may impact farmers.
That is the situation surrounding the Stephen Harper government's handling of the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB).
Whether a proponent of the single-desk seller of Prairie wheat, durum and export barley, or whether you fought for a change to the system, you should be outraged and frankly scared by the Conservative government process.
A government has the right to change legislation, and the Conservative had set their sights on giving Prairie farmers marketing options, and that required changing the CWB.
In their first term as a minority government the Conservatives avoided undertaking the changes knowing full well it would face a heated opposition in Parliament.
With its current majority the CWB moved up the hit list.
But, there are rules and laws involved with how government must make legislative changes, and as it stands right now the Conservatives appear to have broken those laws, and that is something which should worry farmers on both sides of the CWB, and everyone else outside of the farm sector.
It is a disturbing situation when a government, within a democracy, and holding a majority they would ultimately use to make changes they wanted, chooses to run rough-shod over the system, and seeming to run counter to our laws in the process.
At least that appears the view of one Federal Court Judge.
Recently the Federal Court of Canada judge ruled in favour of CWB directors and, Friends of the CWB (an advocacy group for the CWB).
Judge Douglas Campbell ruled Dec. 6 that agriculture minister Gerry Ritz broke the rule of law by introducing legislation to end the CWB because the government had not first consulted with the board's directors, nor had the government held a producer plebiscite. Both the consultation and plebiscite process were steps laid out as requirements with the CWB Act.
The court decision didn't stop the Conservatives, who vow to appeal of course, and rather than waiting on the appeal process pushed through passage of Bill C-18, which has received royal assent, which would normally make it binding.
The Canadian Wheat Board's former farmer-elected board members are back in court asking for an injunction stopping implementation of Bill C-18 (Marketing Freedom for Grain Farmers Act).
The legality of the process will end up before the Supreme Court and could quite easily put the federal government on the opposite of a ruling by the highest court in the land, and throwing marketing of Prairie grain into complete turmoil.
And thanks to the Conservative government's arrogance that such a sweeping change can be made quickly, the timeline to straighten the mess out is now only seven months, before the new 2012-13 crop year begins.
Farmers are even facing challenges in planning their plantings next spring, not sure who will be able to market wheat, durum and export barley if grown.
It is a mess that a wise government would have avoided, and a situation that makes one worry if Harper and his party have the respect a democracy deserves from its elected representatives.
