Farmers block busiest Ontario highway in protest

Source: CTV.ca

January 21, 2005 - A convoy of hundreds of farmers went ahead with plans to block Ontario's busiest highway in protest on Friday, despite bitterly cold temperatures.

The protest on Highway 401 near Ingersoll, Ont. forced thousands of commuters onto secondary roads, causing delays and gridlock in southwestern Ontario, CFTO reported.

Protest organizers said slowing traffic with tractors and other farm equipment, was the only way to draw attention to the lack of government funding for farmers in the province.

"We're under way. Tractors have left the staging area and converging on the Putnam Road interchange," Randy Hillier of the Rural Revolution Protest group, which organized the protest, told Canadian Press.

The farmers say they are protesting the lack of funding, record low prices for grain and oil seeds, and new legislation which threatens to take land away from rural communities without any compensation.

The convoy began Friday at 8 am. at the Putnam Road interchange and headed east toward the Culloden Road interchange.

After stopping at the Culloden Road off-ramp, the group was scheduled to exit the highway, travel along Culloden Road and then drive back onto 401 westbound.

"During this time period both east and westbound 401 will be closed for a short time," The Ontario Provincial Police said in a statement warning motorists to plan alternate routes.

"We're not looking for sympathy -- what we're looking for is the government to respond," said Hillier on Thursday.

"It's a drastic step because rural Ontario is facing drastic conditions right at the moment. ... Rural Ontario is being driven out of business."

"We can't wait any longer. If we wait any longer, we won't exist."

The Ontario Federation of Agriculture president Ron Bonnett said the federation was not in favour of the protest because it "may only serve to alienate the people we need support from, rather than get their support."

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