Dairy farmers from Quebec and Ontario convened on Parliament Hill this morning with their tractors and cows causing mayhem in Ottawa traffic.
Over 2,000 people from Quebec, and 1,000 from Ontario gathered in another protest rally demanding tighter oversight of cross-border trade and compensation for international agreements they say leave them at a disadvantage.
In the first case the farmers are objecting to diafiltered milk, a powdered protein product that comes into Canada from the United States tariff free as it is not classified as real milk.
In the second case, both the TPP, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and CETA the European trade agreement, threaten their livelihoods. In an interview with CBC News today, dairy farmer Jasmin Benoit said the government must “mitigate and compensate” farmers. He said, “The government is well aware of these issues,” adding that he is losing about $5,000 per month.
There was a similar protest on September 29, 2015.
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