Is Alberta's egg industry run by an RCMP-backed mafia?
People's Party of Canada (PPC) Leader Maxime Bernier thinks so. He is fuming over the arrest of a small-scale Alberta egg farmer on Wednesday — calling Canada a "communist country" after five RCMP vehicles descended on Henk Van Essen's Lethbridge-area farm.
Van Essen was arrested for allegedly selling eggs outside the regulated quota system enforced by the Egg Farmers of Alberta (EFA).
His daughter, Lyndsay Van Essen, claimed the arrest, witnessed by a neighbour, involved five RCMP vehicles, asserting that the EFA targeted her father for selling inspected eggs without participating in their costly quota system.
"It is a shame that a 61-year-old man has been arrested like a criminal by five RCMP officers," said Bernier in an interview with the Western Standard.
"He is not a criminal. He is just an entrepreneur and is treated like he is a criminal."
An RCMP spokesperson said the Van Essen matter "was something civil we were asked to deal with."
The EFA represents over 165 egg-farming families and regulates production under Alberta's Marketing of Agricultural Products Act, requiring farmers with more than 300 hens to hold a quota.
It isn't known how many hens were in Henk's possession — his family didn't respond to an additional request for comment. His whereabouts are unknown to the Western Standard.
Bernier criticized Canada's supply management system "cartel," likening it to a "mafia." He argued that it artificially inflates egg prices in Canada, making them twice as expensive as in the U.S.
He claimed the so-called cartel restricts entrepreneurial freedom and is detrimental to young farmers.
"Canadians want to sell eggs, but the quota is very expensive," he told the Western Standard.
"It says that we are a communist country."
In Alberta, the RCMP serves as the provincial police force under a Provincial Police Service Agreement, giving them authority to enforce both criminal and regulatory laws, including those related to supply management systems like the Egg Farmers of Alberta (EFA) quota system.
The EFA operates under Canada’s supply management framework, regulated by the Farm Products Agencies Act (federal) and Alberta’s Marketing of Agricultural Products Act.
The EFA has not responded to the Western Standard's request for comment. The office of Alberta's Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation RJ Sigurdson did not respond to a request for comment.
