Saskatchewan Environmental Champions

Elmer and Gladys (McKay) Laird

Elmer Laird has been an outspoken champion of organic and family farming since the 1960s. He received national attention for his media-savvy campaigns to draw Canadian's attention to chemical-free farming, including a well-publicized contest to design a grasshopper harvester that would turn a farm pest into a cash crop!

Born in Swift Current in 1924, Laird served in the air force in WWII. After the war, he began farming near Davidson. He was active in the National Farmers Union and traveled to Africa on an agricultural study in 1964.

It was the low grain prices of 1969 that launched Laird in organic farming. His goal was to reduce input costs by eliminating farm chemicals. Also in 1969, he married Gladys McKay. With Gladys support, Elmer became a leader and frequent spokesman for the emerging organic farm movement in Saskatchewan.

Chemical farming is like painting by numbers. Organic farming is striving to be a real artist and accept challenges. - Elmer Laird In 1973, they established The Back To The Farm Research Foundation (BFRF) under the Societies Act and with the sponsorship of the National Farmers Union. Laird became President. The BFRF became well known for its letters and briefs to political leaders and the media, on farm chemicals and alternatives, as well as other environmental issues.

To counter the use of toxic pesticides used to control grasshoppers, Elmer and the BFRF proposed that grasshoppers be harvested and sold as food in countries where they are considered a delicacy. The media was attracted to the grasshopper harvester design competition and Laird became a repeat media guest, including on Peter Gzowski's radio and television programs.

Gladys Laird never worked in the field but supported the BFRF effort doing research, particularly on organic farming. Until she passed away in 1999, she cooked numerous lunches and dinners and baked cookies for the large number of visitors who came to talk about organic farming at the Laid farm.

In 1983, the Lairds were instrumental in founding the Canadian Organic Producer's Marketing Coop in Girvin, near Davidson. It was the first certified organic farmers cooperative that milled flour and marketed grains and oilseeds in North America and abroad.

In 2001, Elmer retired as a farmer and donated the use of his land (640 acres) to the BFRF. It was established as an organic research and demonstration farm, the first of its kind in Canada. The BFRF Board of Directors also made him Farm Manager.

In 2005, the BFRF had ten research plots underway for the purpose of demonstrating the benefits of farming without pesticides and other aspects of organic farming. The Foundation also offers, without charge, consultations and advice on all aspects of organic agriculture.

In 2006, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Saskatchewan Eco-Network and an Organic Visionary Award at the Organic Connections Conference. That year the Saskatchewan government also presented him with a Commemorative Medal for the Centennial of Saskatchewan. The medal recognizes individuals who have made a significant contribution to the province.

Elmer Laird was inducted into the Saskatchewan Agricultural Hall of Fame in 2008.

Laird also continues to produce letters and reports designed to stimulate action on a variety of farming and environmental issues.

Elmer Laird and the Back to the Farm Research Foundation operate the first certified organic research farm in Canada near Davidson, SK.

Saskatchewan Environmental Champions
A Compilation of Written Works by Elmer Laird (PDF)

Rebuilding the Left: Reflections from the Saskatchewan Waffle

Forty years ago a manifesto entitled “For an Independent Socialist Canada” was published by a group of left NDP activists. This movement, strong in Saskatchewan, came to be called the Waffle.

Rebuilding the Left aims to have participants reflect upon the experience of the Saskatchewan Waffle and discuss what the left needs to do to rebuild a movement here to challenge the growing attack from the right.

To register for the conference, contact Joe Roberts at sjroberts@sasktel.net or phone 352-9289.

The Conference is free. Lunch provided but donations will be requested to defray costs.

Bookmark this page as more information on the agenda is developed.

Facebook page.



Draft Agenda for Rebuilding the Left

Saturday, January, 30

Conference Begins 10:00 a.m.
Chair - Hugh Wagner, former Waffle member

Morning:

Brief Presentations on the Waffle Experience
Speakers  - Lorne Brown, former Waffle member and historian
                  - Don Mitchell, Waffle candidate
                    in the 1970 provincial NDP leadership election
Brief Presenattions on left activism today
Speakers   - Cara Banks, feminist and trade unionist
                  -  David Mitchell, Briarpatch editor and activist

Questions and Discussion will follow the presentations

Afternoon:

Facilitator - Adriane Paavo
What can the left do?

Adjourn 3:00 p.m.

Recommended Pre-conference readings:

Statement on Rebuilding the Left: Reflections from the Waffle

Forty years ago a manifesto entitled “For an Independent Socialist Canada” was published by a group of students, young faculty and social activists in Ontario. It was soon endorsed by many who sought the same goals across Canada, including Saskatchewan. Strangely, perhaps, 1969 was not a time of economic crisis in the capitalist world that might explain such a manifesto. But it did come at the end of a decade in which the crisis of democracy had become glaringly apparent.

Recently there have been invitations issued for gatherings in Winnipeg and Toronto to celebrate the memory of the Waffle Manifesto. The Waffle experience in Saskatchewan arose differently and had different effects from other places. Many who participated in that movement and were influenced by the experience remain politically and socially active today.

Now Canada and the world are in the grip of a severe economic and social crisis of capitalist development. To those who experienced the mobilization forty years ago it must seem strange that there has been no similar uprising of protest and demand for change comparable to what the manifesto in its innocence proclaimed. For as alarming as the present crisis is, it is far worse that no voice of challenge has arisen from a left demanding a new social system.

So some obvious questions seem to present themselves: for those who experienced the Waffle here is there anything useful to be said about the present state of affairs? Would it serve any purpose in stimulating initiative to gather and discuss the present crisis?

Of course, many issues unexamined during the Waffle era have now become evident and contribute even larger threats than the cyclical economic crisis. The most awesome is environmental breakdown. But the development of industrial agriculture which began to be evident forty years ago is now a scourge globally as well as in our own neighborhood. The long record of injustice to the aboriginal population, generally overlooked by the left in the past, is today inescapable. These and other changes significantly affect the landscape now faced by us who felt confident of change in those past decades.

Yet it is also true that those who are no longer with us have been replaced by others who, as if fellow travelers, aspire to a society – a world – no longer in thrall to capital accumulation, war and class rule. Of necessity this message is addressed initially to those who experienced the Waffle call, but those who emerged subsequently with similar views are invited to respond to this initiative.

1969 Waffle Manifesto: For an Independent and Socialist Canada
Link here.

1973 Saskatchewan Waffle brochure
Link here.

Socialist Project: What Should We Do To Help Build a New Left?
Link here.

SaskOil Campaign
Link here.

Next Year Country: Bureaucracy vs Democracy - The Meaning of Woodrow Lloyd's Resignation

Transforming Power: New paths to social and political change

Judy Rebick is the guest speaker at the year's Woodrow Lloyd Lecture on January 21st at the University of Regina.

As we are facing unprecedented global economic and environmental crises seemingly unsolvable by the world’s leaders, movements around the world are developing new approaches to political and social change that offer new hope for humanity.

Globalization and mass communication technology are revolutionizing our understanding of power and producing profound new ideas about social and political life. Using examples from around the world and Canada, Judy Rebick will talk about new approaches that can create a better world out of these combined crises.

Judy Rebick is Social Justice Expert and Activist , CAW Sam Gindin Chair in Social Justice and Democracy, Ryerson University.

Saskatchewan Cows with Guns!

Disappearing Landscapes

Like most Saskatchewanians, I grew up loving the prairies and taking for granted our "prairie giants" that dotted the landscape. Since the 1880s an icon of the Canadian prairies has been the traditional wood primary grain elevator; that "visual metaphor for the backbone of the prairie economy - grain farming". These "Prairie Giants" have been in slow decline since the peak of elevator growth in 1938 altering the very character of the prairie landscape.

Thankfully projects have been undertaken to at least visually record this heritage. Visit The Changing Face of the Saskatchewan Prairie website for more wonderful images.

Wolseley, Saskatchewan

Join the Prairie Giants Facebook page.

The Saskatchewan Waffle: Bold politics

The left in Saskatchewan and Canada needs to re-discover its sense of boldness and challenge the status quo. This leaflet from 1973 reflects a time when it was thought posssible that radical social change could be brought about. Many proposals caught the public imagination.

The campaign to create a publicly owned oil industry, from well to pump, was one Waffle initiative. "Sask Oil, It Can Be Done" demonstrated the strength of the left as the Saskatchewan NDP set up a water-downed version in the 1970's.

The left needs to organize and be bold once again.

Tommy Douglas on Jobs and the Environment

A short audio clip from the 1983 NDP Convention.

Proroguing and the Left

By Kyle Buott
New Socialist

Proroguement: an Affront to Democracy?

Across the country, activists from social movements, unions, and various opposition parties are moving quickly towards a day of action on January 23rd against the proroguement of the Federal Parliament.

At the time of writing, events are being planned in 23 cities around the country and in Quebec.

The rallies are framed as an action to protect Canadian democracy, which is said to be at stake because the Prime Minister evoked his powers to prorogue parliament, shut down debate, and remove various pieces of legislation form the order paper.

While it is very true that using a parliamentary tactic to shut down debate on important issues like torture, the environment, economic recovery and the upcoming budget is totally anti-democratic, so-called “Canadian democracy” is in much deeper trouble than a simple proroguement.

Democracy in Canada has been suffering for a long time – since about ummm… say 1867?

Canada’s government continues to be based on the ridiculous First-Past-The-Post system. We continue to recognize a hereditary monarch as our Head of State. Money plays a huge role in our political process, and small parties are not given the opportunities to present their ideas to a broader audience.

When politics is reduced to personalities (ie: whether or not Harper is a “Strong Leader” or if Ignatieff is “Just in it for himself”) the debate becomes meaningless. It is no wonder that record numbers of Canadians are tuning out, and not bothering to vote or get involved in the political process.

Regardless of whether or not Parliament is prorogued, these issues must be contended with.

What is the Role of Socialists in the Current Struggle?

First and foremost, Socialists of all stripes should get actively involved and work to build the demonstrations on January 23rd. This is one of those rare opportunities that a broader audience is tuning into politics and there is a chance to engage more people.

Second, Socialists should push organizing coalitions to continue working after January 23rd. Raising questions about the state of democracy in Canada and Quebec. These demonstrations can potentially be used to strengthen organizations like Fair Vote Canada, or build local coalitions working towards a more democratic country.

Finally, we need to be presenting alternative policies that would allow for more democracy, choice and freedom for all, including:

• Proportional Representation – including a two staged referendum, one which asks the question “Do you favour moving towards a system of Proportional Representation?” and a second which decides on the form that PR would take.
• Abolition of the monarchy and the creation of an elected President.
• Abolition of the Senate.
• Economic Democracy – workers’ control and collaborative decision making processes in the workplace.
• Further restrictions on political spending and increases in the public subsidies received by political parties. Restrictions must also be put in place on political advertising outside of the election cycle.
• Lowering the voting age to 16.
• Removing newly created restrictions that require multiple pieces of identification to vote.
• Recognizing social rights like health care, education and freedom from poverty in the Canadian Constitution.

Socialists have an opportunity to try and engage with social movement activists on these important reforms. While these reforms alone do not a socialist society create, they would open new, public spaces for dialogue and discussion of issues. The Left has allowed the Right to dominate the public sphere for too long. Creating space for socialism must be a major priority.

Kyle Buott is President of Halifax-Dartmouth and District Labour Council

Canada’s 1960s: The Ironies of Identity in a Rebellious Era

Lorne Brown reviews Bryan Palmer's political history of the 1960's in Canada in the latest issue of Briarpatch magazine.

The Ironies of Identity in a Rebellious Era
By Lorne Brown
Regina

Canada’s 1960s (By Brian D. Palmer University of Toronto Press, 2009) is a magnificent achievement that distills the essence of the political and social upheavals that defined the 1960s in Canada. Palmer sets out to demonstrate that the 1960s transformed Canada in fundamental ways, and does so very convincingly. Canada, as it had previously been understood, “fractured and came apart in the 1960s.” When Canadian identity was put back together again after that rebellious decade, “it bore little resemblance to the Canada that many of the pre-1950 years thought they knew so well.”

Perhaps what had changed most significantly in the political identity of the country was the perception of Canada as a British self-governing Dominion with some subordinate regional and ethnic variations. Waves of non-British post-war immigration, the beginnings of the Quebec independence movement and the rise of a Red Power movement among Aboriginals would powerfully challenge this perception. British decline and the rise of American imperialism further contributed to changing the nature of nationalism in both Canada and Quebec.

Youth and labour in revolt

The revolt of the Québécois and Native peoples overlapped with a generalized revolt among youth, workers, women and the intelligentsia. In many respects youth were at the forefront of all these struggles, as revolutionary politics coincided with a broader transformation of the cultural and political mores of the country.

When many people think of the youth revolt of the 1960s they imagine university students. Palmer, however, demonstrates that youth revolt drew strength from all sectors and was very pronounced among the working class, women and Aboriginal peoples. Demographic changes fuelled this youth surge as the post-War baby boomers poured into the workforce and the educational institutions and, in some areas, swelled the ranks of the unemployed.

Between 1964 and 1966 the country was beset by a tremendous wave of strikes – many of them illegal, and often involving sabotage and violence. About 600,000 workers went on strike between 1964 and 1966. Young workers were at the forefront of most of these struggles, especially the wildcats, which were in defiance of not only capital and the state but the union leadership as well. 

At the same time, the union movement underwent a transformation in which economic struggles intersected with nationalist anti-imperialist struggles in both Canada and Quebec. This was the beginning of a process where the “internationals” (American unions with branches in Canada) would eventually lose their dominance in the House of Labour and the broader concerns of social unionism would supersede the narrow interests of business unionism in many labour organizations. Much of the Quebec movement would become overtly socialist and radical-syndicalist for a time.

Palmer ends his chapter on the great labour revolt with speculation on what might have been if the many sectors in revolt had combined their forces. “Around the corner of the wildcat wave of 1965-6 was a growing left challenge. Had it co-joined youth of the university and the unions, the result could well have reconfigured the nature of twentieth-century Canada. Class difference is a difficult hurdle to leap, however, and as campus youth, women, and Aboriginal advocates of ‘Red Power’ joined the unruly workers of the 1960s in an explosive embrace of dissidence and opposition, they did so, ultimately, divided from one another, in separate and unequal mobilizations.”

Ecology and Democracy

- CCPA Saskatchewan Office

Simon Enoch, Director of the Saskatchewan office of the CCPA, will present a public lecture on the future of environmental politics at the University of Regina on January 15th.

Simon's presentation, "Green Leviathan Reborn? Authoritarianism and the Contradictions of Ecological Crisis," will investigate the emergence of authoritarian responses to the current environmental crisis and the absolute necessity of a participatory democratic politics to any viable solution to the present crisis.

All are welcome
3:30 p.m.
Friday, January 15
Classroom Building – Room 431
University of Regina

More info:
Contact the Department of Political Science
585-4206

Remembering Patsy Gallagher

By Lorne Brown
Regina

Patsy Gallagher 1939-2006

The labour and socialist movements in our country suffered a grave loss when Patricia (Patsy) Gallagher died on June 19, 2006, of complications after surgery for lung cancer. She was only 66.

Patsy played a major role in many of the political and social struggles of her lifetime. She was born in Saskatchewan to a working-class family in a cultural milieu rare in Canada today. It was mainly a socialist culture and some of Patsy's relatives were Communists. It was in this atmosphere that Patsy developed a solid class and political outlook, which guided her throughout her life.

Patsy was active in many of the progressive political causes of the 1960s, including the nuclear disarmament movement and the peace movement. In the mid-1960s she worked with the students' union and the library at what was then the Regina Campus of the University of Saskatchewan. While there she was also involved in forming a CUPE local. It was her work with the students that led Patsy to work with the Canadian Union of Students (CUS) in Ottawa at the end of the decade. It was the peak of the radical student movement in Canada, then, and Patsy's political background and experience made her much more sophisticated than most student leaders of the day.

Like many of us, Patsy was also active in the New Democratic Youth and the NDP. This activity included work with The Commonwealth, the official paper of the Saskatchewan CCF-NDP. This was the beginning of Patsy's experience as a political journalist, which would remain a part of her work for the rest of her life.

The 1970s would be a very creative period in Canadian left and labour history, and Patsy was in the thick of it. She played a key role in the Waffle from the time it was launched with the Manifesto for an Independent Socialist Canada in 1969.

In the mid-1970s Patsy was one of the founders of Saskatchewan Working Women (SWW), an organization composed mainly, but not exclusively, of trade-union women. They fought for publicly funded childcare, equal pay for work of equal value, better labour laws, and a greater role for women within unions.

In 1976 Patsy began what would become 25 very busy years as a full-time trade union official. She was Executive Assistant to the President of the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour from 1976-1982. This was followed by nineteen years with the Saskatchewan Government Employees Union (SGEU) as education officer, staff representative, director of membership services and finally as executive director of operations, a position from which she retired in 2001. These were years, especially the 1970s and 1980s, which saw tremendous changes in the labour movement. Unions expanded and public-sector unions came into their own with women playing an increasing role. Ideological tensions within unions were many and the struggles fierce. There were many debates about how Labour should relate to the NDP, which governed Saskatchewan from 1971-82 and again from 1991 to the present.

With Patsy's passing her contributions to labour politics have been much praised. Barb Byers, one of Patsy's old comrades and now a CLC executive vice-president, spoke for many when she said in an interview with the Regina Leader-Post, "She was a fierce, funny feminist, trade unionist and socialist. She really believed that if we were much more active and took up the cause for people, then we could make a difference in the world. The world just isn't going to be the same"

Photo: Lorne Brown on left, Pat Gallagher on right.

NUPGE mourns PG
Briarpatch mourns PG

Next Year Country: Second issue

This issue of NYC is from December\January 1972\73. It includes articles on the re-colonization of northern Saskatchewan, potash and foreign ownership, and Saskatchewan history.

Contributors include Jack Warnock, Fred Gudmundson, John Conway and Sally Mahood.

Saskatchewan Coyotes: Don't shoot!

Nature Saskatchewan, a non-profit conservation organization and advocate for harmony between nature and human culture, believes that the recently-announced bounty on coyotes in Saskatchewan is not the right way to help livestock producers deal with depredation. 

Countless studies have proven bounties to be ineffective in stopping problem coyotes from taking livestock. “What our producers need,” Lorne Scott, President of Nature Saskatchewan said, "is an adequately-funded, aggressive control program in areas where depredation is a problem. The focus should be on eliminating problem animals—not a province-wide bounty."

Many farmers and ranchers view the coyote as an ally, helping to control rodent populations, including gophers (ground squirrels). The coyote is a native species and a key predator in prairie ecosystems. It makes little sense to promote poison campaigns to reduce ground squirrel numbers and at the same time, launch a province-wide bounty program to eliminate a main predator of ground squirrels.

Research has proven repeatedly that coyote bounties simply weed out the weak and less wary individuals, leaving the survivors to increase the size of their litters and thereby make up for any short-term or local dip in their numbers. As well, if coyotes are hunted out of a local area, their counterparts from adjacent regions rapidly move in to fill the void.

Scott concluded by saying that “tax dollars would be far better spent by providing resources directly to assist producers where coyote depredation on domestic livestock is a problem."

Nature Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan Labour Protests Wage Controls - 1977

CBC Broadcast Date: Oct. 17, 1977

Saskatchewan's labour movement has never been one to back down from a fight, and wage and price controls are well worth a protest. In 1975 the Trudeau government passed legislation restricting wage increases in Canada  alledgedly in a bid to control inflation. The Saskatchewan NDP government followed suit with their own version of wage controls. The effects of the law were so unpopular that one million workers mobilized for a one-day strike on Oct. 14, 1976. A year later, Saskatchewan workers are still protesting, reported Gerry Sperling for CBC Regina's 24 Hours.

Wage and Price Controls by Leo Panitch
CBC archives

'Auld Lang Syne' by Robert Burns

Auld Lang Syne

by Robert Burns

(1759-1796)

---------------------------------------------------

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

And surely ye'll be your pint-stowp,
And surely I'll be mine!
And we'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

We twa hae run about the braes,
And pu'd the gowans fine;
But we've wandered mony a weary fit
Sin' auld lang syne.

For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

We twa hae paidled i' the burn,
Frae morning sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roared
Sin' auld lang syne.

For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

And there's a hand, my trusty fiere,
And gie's a hand o' thine!
And we'll tak a right guid-willie waught
For auld lang syne.

For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

The Radical Robert Burns