Food expert gets trolled for ‘insulting’ Quebec’s dairy lobby, supply management

A noted Canadian food expert has become the target of vitriol — and sour milk — for criticizing Quebec’s dairy lobby in the face of tariff threats from US president Donald Trump.

Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, a professor at Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food and Analytics Lab and a noted critic of Canada’s supply management policies, complained of receiving “dozens of insulting emails and direct messages” following an appearance on one of the province’s top-rated television news programs last weekend.

Charlebois appeared in front of an estimated two million viewers of the French-language Toute Le Monde en Parle to discuss trade, tariffs and interprovincial trade barriers.

Apparently they didn’t like what they saw — or heard. That’s because Charlebois has been a long-time vocal critic of Quebec’s dairy lobby, which he accuses of being the main obstacle to removing interprovincial barriers in this country.

The province is especially on edge over looming US tariffs, particularly because it enjoys 200% tariff protection against US milk and cheese imports under the present USMCA trade deal being challenged by Trump’s trade policies.

“No academic in Quebec dares to criticize supply management — ever — because the dairy lobby will come after them.”

Supply management also happens to enjoy vigorous support from both the Coalition Avenir government and the Parti Québecois in Ottawa.

In a 2020 report produced by Dalhousie and Guelph universities, Charlebois argued that protection for the diary industry — and Quebec’s in particular — “hurt many farmers over time, and not just dairy.”

On Monday, he appeared on CTV’s Alberta Primetime to argue that the tariffs are actually a good thing for Canadian farmers because they will ultimately lead to the breakdown of the supply management system that benefits central Canadian farmers — and governments — to the detriment of consumers in other regions of the country.

In an interview with the program, he called supply management the “big elephant in the room” to bringing down interprovincial trade barriers.

“I’ve been banging on that drum for 25 years, and to be honest, every time I sit down with a politician, and explain to them how we can make Canada a free-flowing market from coast to coast to coast, you have to tackle the big elephant in the room,” he said.

“There are several regions in Canada that have actually paid a dear price with supply management, in particular dairy. Dairy is 80% of supply management with the quota system. I think that central Canada has become much more powerful as a result of that shift to the centre.”

He said the tariffs would also diversify trade with USMCA partner Mexico, which is a major buyer of US foodstuffs — particularly things Canada has like wheat and pork — and with whom we already have free trade.

“I see this as a tremendous opportunity,” he said.

“I think we have to accept, as Canadians, that there’s a new normal. There’s a paradigm shift happening. We have a president that doesn’t believe in multilateralism at all. He wants to set a new global trade normal, essentially, and I think Mr. Trump basically believes that trades are a zero-sum game.”