Guilty Until Proven Liberal

From Licia Corbella at the Calgary Sun:

Double standard keeps West on
leash

Handcuffs and leg irons. That's what Noel Hyslip got
slapped in before he spent eight days in jail.
His "crimes"? First, he
donated a 25-kg bag of grain to a 4-H youth club across the Coutts, Alta.,
border. He was fined $4,000 for that "crime."

Then Hyslip, along with a convoy of other Alberta
farmers, took a truckload of grain and sold it for a profit and at a higher
price than he would have got from the Canadian Wheat Board.

He was found guilty of a customs offence and spent
eight days in the Lethbridge jail in November 2002, along with 12 other Alberta
farmers before a couple of local farmers took up a collection of $9,000 to get
the father of three children back home.

Hyslip, 45, says he finds it absolutely "disgusting"
he received a much harsher penalty for selling his own grain than Liberal
advertising man Paul Coffin received for stealing $1.5 million of taxpayers'
money through the federal Liberal government's sponsorship scandal.

Last Monday, Coffin was sentenced to no time in jail
and received no fine for committing 15 counts of fraud that included him
charging the feds more than $1.5 million for work that wasn't done, by employees
who didn't exist.

"If you can steal that kind of money and not get
penalized for it, then you'd be a fool not to steal it," says Hyslip, reached
atop of his combine while harvesting his canola crop at his family's Vulcan farm
late last night.

"That's why we have laws and penalties for breaking
them."
Hyslip says Coffin, who donated some of his stolen money back to the
Liberal party, is actually a big winner out of the deal.

"He didn't go to jail and he didn't even have to pay
the interest on that $1.5 million and he wasn't even charged a fine. It's a nice
deal if you can get it," says Hyslip, with a chuckle.

"It's all about who you know. Guilty until proven
Liberal."

[snip]

It's time to negotiate a new deal for the west.