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Saskatchewan Conservative MP David Anderson's Wheat Board Video: 'You're Talking Eskimo'

The Huffington Post Canada   First Posted: 10/24/11 06:09 PM ET Updated: 12/24/11 05:12 AM ET

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UPDATE: A respected national Inuit leader has denounced what she says is an aboriginal "racist slur" in a video featured on Conservative MP David Anderson's website and the post has now been removed from the politician's website and YouTube page.

National Inuit Leader Mary Simon said she hopes Anderson didn't know the comment "Slow down young man, you're talking Eskimo," was featured in the animated video about the Canadian Wheat Board.

"The comment is offensive to Inuit, has no place in public discussion, and certainly no place on the website of an elected Member of Parliament," she said, in a press release.

Saskatchewan MP David Anderson is grabbing attention for posting a video on his website and YouTube page featuring the phrase "You're talking Eskimo."

The video, made on the popular website Xtranormal where users can turn text into animated video, shows a man who wants to become a wheat farmer speaking with a wheat board official. It recently showed up on the blog of Ottawa Citizen reporter Glen McGregor.

The official tells the prospective farmer "You’re talking Eskimo," after hearing his plan to sell his wheat directly to his brother's bakery instead of the wheat board.

Later on in the video, which focuses on how the wheat board is a bad "communist" deal for Saskatchewan farmers, the official again says "There you go, talking Eskimo again."

Bill C-18, which will end the wheat board's monopoly, faces a second vote on Monday night. Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz says ending the monopoly will free farmers from their shackles.

Speaking during question period on Monday, NDP wheat board critic Pat Martin suggested Anderson is among seven Conservative MPs who have a personal or family stake in prairie grain farming, according to the CBC. Martin argued these MPs will place themselves in a conflict of interest by voting to end the monopoly.

Martin has written to Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson asking for a ruling on whether the MPs should abstain from the final (third) vote on the bill in the House of Commons.

Anderson, the parliamentary secretary responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board, spoke before question period about the 13 farmers who were imprisoned after crossing the U.S. border with their grain in defiance of the wheat board.

A reunion for participants in the "Farmers for Justice" crossings and court battle is set for Tuesday.

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UPDATE: A respected national Inuit leader has denounced what she says is an aboriginal "racist slur" in a video featured on Conservative MP David Anderson's website and the post has now been removed f...
UPDATE: A respected national Inuit leader has denounced what she says is an aboriginal "racist slur" in a video featured on Conservative MP David Anderson's website and the post has now been removed f...
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BCSLAVE
Got a key?
353 Fans
02:17 PM on 10/25/2011
This video is awesomely bad, sad, racist and tragically hilarious. Its very "Harpersque" - it doesn't let facts get in the way. This movie is difficult not to hate - though if you pretend its pure satire it does work as a comedy - racist dialogue aside.

I give it one thumb down for its racist insults and one thumb up for its satirical comedy that it clearly is. Northpark!
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DrJayCole
25 Fans
08:30 AM on 10/25/2011
An excellent video, made BY a robot, FOR robots. Good job!
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CanadaStan
Cogito ergo spud, I think, therefore I yam
155 Fans
12:46 AM on 10/25/2011
Oh I get it now!
The Ontario wheat farmers don't need the CWB because they are just little farmers and don't grow much wheat, but the western farmers DO need it because the little farmers don't grow much wheat!

Thank you for clearing that up!!!!!
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
BUTCHER99
211 Fans
11:04 PM on 10/24/2011
The term Eskimo is the least derogatory thing in this entire video.
We can say goodbye to the last of the independent farmers in Canada. Welcome big corp. farms. The Conservative party of Canada has just put out the red carpet for you.
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CanadaStan
Cogito ergo spud, I think, therefore I yam
155 Fans
12:47 AM on 10/25/2011
Ever heard of canola?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
tnanimation
340 Fans
02:52 AM on 10/25/2011
Ever heard the word 'obfuscate'?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
BUTCHER99
211 Fans
10:57 PM on 10/24/2011
I love the comment "we in the Canadian Wheatboard know what is good for you" It goes well with the Conservative, we in the Conservative party of canada know that getting rid of the wheat board is good for you. It does not matter that the majority of farmers want to keep it, the Conservative party knows it best to get rid of it.
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CanadaStan
Cogito ergo spud, I think, therefore I yam
155 Fans
12:44 AM on 10/25/2011
The majority of farmers want the monopoly ended.
The CWB spring survey was very clear on that, which is why the CWB dared not put that option on their phoney ballot.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
tnanimation
340 Fans
02:54 AM on 10/25/2011
There ya go again. When facts won't do just make statistics up.
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cdncommentator
445 Fans
10:46 PM on 10/24/2011
The Inuit consider the word Eskimo to be derogatory. It shouldn't have been used. It's insensitive.
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CanadaStan
Cogito ergo spud, I think, therefore I yam
155 Fans
12:42 AM on 10/25/2011
Bullshit.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
tnanimation
340 Fans
02:53 AM on 10/25/2011
Wow! You're just pullin' stuff right out of your...well, it's obvious.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
cdncommentator
445 Fans
10:09 AM on 10/25/2011
It appears someone agrees with me. If you don't, ask an Inuit. They have internet.
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Maryanne Slater
20 Fans
10:13 PM on 10/24/2011
It's a straw man argument to present the opposing point of view in as obnoxious a way as possible.

Besides, it was CWB pickyness that made Canada's wheat draw premium prices throughout the world. It's always been clean, always been high grade. Other grain companies sold grain so dusty, it was a fire hazard.
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CanadaStan
Cogito ergo spud, I think, therefore I yam
155 Fans
12:42 AM on 10/25/2011
Premium?
So why can US grain traders buy from the wheatboard and resell for a profit?
Why did the Algerian minister come out in favour of the CWB because they gave the algerians preferential pricing?
Preferential means lower, right?
If you are the buyer?

Oh hell, look for yourself:

http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/011541.html
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Delilah Sampson
5 Fans
 
09:15 PM on 10/24/2011
Did anyone watch the whole video? Because it was pretty funny - the whole "Eskimo" nonsense aside."It's not your grain, it's our grain" in almost the same sentence as "Canada is a capitalist economy" - not exact quotes, but pretty close.
Western Canada (the prairie provinces, because for some strange reason, B.C. isn't a part of western Canada as NFLD isn't a part of the Maritime provinces), deserves a break.
It isn't OUR grain, it belongs to the farmers, and like it or not, they should be able to sell it at the going market rate. We do live in a capitalist economy, after all.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Good to know
39 Fans
09:14 PM on 10/24/2011
hmm - de-regulate Canada's Wheat Board - it's a good idea because corporations need more freedoms and the right to negotiate directly with farmers. Much like the US Banking system - that seems to be working well for them.
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lulex
Made in Canada
147 Fans
 
08:24 PM on 10/24/2011
Tory reps have a chronic issue with slandering people using racist/bigoted comments as this were somehow socially acceptable. Honest to God this party is so disrespectful of pretty much everyone these days. This video completely negates the fact that the MAJORITY of Canada's farmers SUPPORT the preservation of the Wheat Board, then they have the gall to produce this ignorant drivel that completely ignores that fact. Do they honestly expect that every single farmer has a bakery brother and desires freedom from the board? Who are they trying to kid?
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BlackRabbit
174 Fans
07:46 PM on 10/24/2011
According to Martin, (1) wheat farmers profit from the CWB monopoly, and (2) wheat-growing MPs should not be allowed to vote because they will profit from ending the monopoly.

I can only admire someone who can hold those two thoughts at once.
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CanadaStan
Cogito ergo spud, I think, therefore I yam
155 Fans
12:40 AM on 10/25/2011
Pat never was very smart....
He called Harper Stalinist for giving farmers MORE freedom...
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Orio28
16 Fans
01:41 PM on 10/25/2011
Pat's a pretty smart cookie. Your trolling comment is not. Obviously on the payroll.....
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SeeTheFnords
Look out - there's one behind you!
225 Fans
07:45 PM on 10/24/2011
Wow. I could make it half way through the video, then I just stopped it. I understand what the "author" is trying to get across, but he does it in a most unpleasant and discourteous manner.

I'm thinking that, if our elected officials decide to dismantle the wheat board, new policies would have to be firmly in place before that happens - to protect farmers from predatory foreign (and Canadian) companies, and other things that I, as a non-farmer, would not think of immediately.

The board system is not perfect, but it seems to be a good way of protecting our farmers, their livelihood, and our naturally-grown resources.
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BlackRabbit
174 Fans
08:05 PM on 10/24/2011
What protects Ontario wheat farmers (not covered by the CWB) from predatory practices? Or fruit growers? Or canola, oat, mustard, potato, legume, cattle, chicken, or hog farmers?

If western wheat farmers think they need protection (although I've never seen a bunch who need it less) they will still be able to sell to the CWB, or they can start up a new co-operative.
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CanadaStan
Cogito ergo spud, I think, therefore I yam
155 Fans
12:48 AM on 10/25/2011
Ever heard of canola?
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SeeTheFnords
Look out - there's one behind you!
225 Fans
03:53 AM on 10/25/2011
Yup. I've studied it as part of my undergraduate B.Sc. in plant genetics. I also grew up near the first rapeseed/canola farm in northern Alberta.
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pinkibus
1812 Fans
07:19 PM on 10/24/2011
The word Eskimo is only one of the incerdibly ignorant things said on this video. The wheat board is favoured by the majority of independent wheat farmers. It kept them from going under in hard times. No wheat board meansopening the wheat fields of Canada to being taken over by American agribusiness. It is like Monsanto suing a farmer because their wheat pollen had intermixed with the wheat a farmer had sewn. He had saved seed from his crop for sewing i the nest spring. Needless to say he didn't have enough money to fight Monsanto. Just as there is no such thing as ethical oil but simply oil companies who will do anything and destroy anything for profit so there is no benefit to wheat farmers to losing the wheat board and they know that and are opposed to losing it. Neo cons are incapable of telling the truth.
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BlackRabbit
174 Fans
07:52 PM on 10/24/2011
And how, precisely, does the CWB prevent farmers from going under in hard times? They are not crop insurers.
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pinkibus
1812 Fans
08:28 PM on 10/24/2011
BlackRabbit you shoud learn a little. Try Google. It might help but somehow I doubt you would accept the word of Jesus himself. Suffice to say it wasn't created for nothing and it didn't last until a neo con prime minister decided to help agribusmess for nothing. Remember the five little fishes and two loaves of bread? Well Stephen Harper doesn't and it seems you don't either. So much for quasi Christians.
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CanadaStan
Cogito ergo spud, I think, therefore I yam
155 Fans
12:38 AM on 10/25/2011
Funny, I work in the Arctic with Eskimoes and have never once heard any of them complain about it.
It is a PC issue for Toronto latte sippers, the folks up north couldn't care less.

Now to the CWB:
The CWB is not a subsidy program.
The 2011 CWB spring survey showed the majority of famers want the monopoly gone.
Monsanto sued a guy who blatantly stole the Roundup resistant canola, anyone who knew anything about it or who knew Percy knew he was lying through his teeth.
He had lots of money to sue Monsanto, the goofballs donated tons of money to him to fight them.
American agribusiness is not going to take over Saskatchewan farms because there are farmland ownership limits.

So wrong on all counts!
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
CommonWealth-SinglePayer
Walk on the Right, VOTE on the LEFT
174 Fans
07:04 PM on 10/24/2011
Inuit or Yupik is the current word, Eskimo is like calling someone who is Haida, Cree, Dene a Native American, factually incorrect and has nothing to do with Italy.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
YrthWyndAndFyre
Graviora manent
59 Fans
10:38 PM on 10/24/2011
No, calling an Inuk an 'eskimo' is more akin to calling a Cree a 'scalp jockey'. Remote, vaguely allegorical relationship to heavily distorted historical fact, but considered a slur by the Inuit themselves.

And as bad as the computer generated dialog was, I heard absolutely nothing in the whole tirade that even vaguely resembled Inuktitut (which would have been the correct word).
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CanadaStan
Cogito ergo spud, I think, therefore I yam
155 Fans
12:38 AM on 10/25/2011
Actually they couldn't care less about it.
I work with them.
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Jim Cohoon
158 Fans
06:36 PM on 10/24/2011
“ending the monopoly will free farmers from their shackles.” Not really. As behaviourist B.F. Skinner once wrote: “We can achieve a sort of control under which the controlled ... nevertheless feel free.” So the real issue is: what sort of ‘shackles' do you want? Government or corporate?
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Social Construct
Go left, young man.
1410 Fans
08:27 PM on 10/24/2011
My thought, precisely.
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CanadaStan
Cogito ergo spud, I think, therefore I yam
155 Fans
10:48 AM on 10/25/2011
And yet the farmers manage to run around free marketing all their other crops!
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