One day after a federal judge in Montana granted a request for a temporary injunction blocking the reopening of the US border to Canadian cattle under the age of 30 months, and said he would consider making the injunction permanent, the US Senate voted 52-46 to order the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to abandon its plans to drop restrictions on Canadian cattle.
The cattlemen who got the injunctive relief objected to the opening of the border because of fears that the Canadian cattle would expose their own cows to mad cow disease, which has been diagnosed in four Canadian cows over the past two years.
However, the Senate move is by no means the last word. The bill still has to go the House of Representatives, and if it were to be passed there, President Bush has said he would veto it.
Meanwhile, the CBC reports that a beef supplier in New Brunswick is calling on the Canadian government to fight back against the US government attitude by restrict the export of US products to Canada.
"If they're going to close their border to our cattle, we should close the border to some of the products that they ship across here," said Robert Acton of the Atlantic Beef Producers Co-op. "Make a stand as a Canadian government. I don't think we've done that forcefully enough."
The cattlemen who got the injunctive relief objected to the opening of the border because of fears that the Canadian cattle would expose their own cows to mad cow disease, which has been diagnosed in four Canadian cows over the past two years.
However, the Senate move is by no means the last word. The bill still has to go the House of Representatives, and if it were to be passed there, President Bush has said he would veto it.
Meanwhile, the CBC reports that a beef supplier in New Brunswick is calling on the Canadian government to fight back against the US government attitude by restrict the export of US products to Canada.
"If they're going to close their border to our cattle, we should close the border to some of the products that they ship across here," said Robert Acton of the Atlantic Beef Producers Co-op. "Make a stand as a Canadian government. I don't think we've done that forcefully enough."
- KC's View:
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Ironically, one of the sub-plots on Wednesday night’s edition of “The West Wing” on NBC had some American hunters under siege by some Canadians after they ventured into a no-hunting zone on the Canadian side of the border. There even was a reference to the US military proposing an invasion of Canada by the US if the government there wouldn’t do things our way.
It was funny. And just a coincidence, we’re sure.
But the thing is, we have to go back to Canada twice over the next two weeks. And we’re just hoping they let us in.
