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Hunger striker protests family farm foreclosures

Broadcast Date: March 16, 1983

On a winter's day in 1983, the bank came to John Otto's Ontario farm to call in its loan. The bank planned to auction off Otto's equipment, effectively putting him out of farming. But the bank never got its money. Neighbours had pushed the bank's auctioneer off the land and held a "penny auction" instead, purchasing Otto's equipment for $19.81. The CBC's The Journal profiles Allen Wilford, the "radical farmer" who planned the penny auction.

Wilford, a cattle farmer, is president of the Canadian Farmers Survival Association. His organization urges farmers to stand up to the banks that are threatening their livelihoods. The association believes in direct action such as tractor parades and road blockades to draw attention to the ruinous effect of the banks' high interest rates on farmers. It may be working: there's a bill before Parliament to give farmers recourse in court before the banks can foreclose.

Hunger striker protests family farm foreclosures

• After the penny auction, Wilford was arrested on a charge of theft of farm machinery. He launched a hunger strike from a jail cell in Stratford, Ont. (He was never convicted of the crime.)
• John Otto's farm equipment was worth an estimated $100,000. The Toronto-Dominion bank had moved to seize it when Otto could not offer security on loans worth $400,000.
• The farmers who bought Otto's equipment said they would lease it back to him for $1 per year.

• The early 1980s was a period of extremely high interest rates in Canada — as high as 20 per cent in 1981. Farmers, who relied on credit to expand their farms and buy machinery, livestock and supplies, were often deep in debt as a result.
• In 1981, the Canadian Bankers' Association estimated that 0.5 per cent of Canadian farmers were in financial trouble; three years later, the Farm Credit Corporation put the number at 17 per cent.

• The Canadian Farmers Survival Association was founded in 1981 after an incident at the farm of Marvin Black in Bruce County, Ont. Tipped off that the bank was going to foreclose on Black's farm, a number of his neighbours — including Wilford — stood guard on the property to block access. After a week, the bank and Black worked out a deal.
• The success of the "farm gate defence" encouraged the neighbours to form the survival association in late 1981.

• In addition to engaging in farm gate defences, the Canadian Farmers Survival Association organized public protests to draw attention to farmers' plight.
• In one such protest, 150 farmers' pickup trucks blockaded the Ontario Food Terminal in Toronto. By 7 a.m. over 350 trucks carrying produce to the terminal were backed up to Toronto's Gardiner Expressway. In the interest of safety — it was rush hour by then — the association ended the blockade after five hours.

• Bill C-653, discussed in this clip, was a private member's bill introduced by federal Liberal MP Ralph Ferguson, a backbencher from the rural Ontario riding of Lambton-Middlesex.
• The bill was not a new law, but an update of the Farmers Creditors Arrangement Act, a 1934 law that gave farmers time to make alternate arrangements in the face of foreclosure.
• The bill passed second reading, but an election call in 1984 killed it.

• In the 1984 election, Allen Wilford ran for Parliament under the NDP banner against Ferguson in Lambton-Middlesex. They both lost to the Tory candidate.
• In 1987 Wilford went to law school, graduating in 1991. See a 1991 additional clip about Allen Wilford, his ongoing fight for farmers and his thoughts on the farm crisis.
• After becoming a lawyer, Wilford no longer made a living from farming. A 1991 article in the Financial Post said Wilford still farmed for recreation in the Owen Sound area of Ontario.

• Wilford ran for Parliament again in 2000 in the riding of Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound, this time as a Progressive Conservative. The Liberal candidate won.

Hunger striker protests family farm foreclosures

Medium: Television

Program: The Journal

Broadcast Date: March 16, 1983

Guest(s): Allen Wilford

Interviewer: Mary Lou Finlay
Reporter: Peter Kent

Duration: 7:39

Last updated:
July 20, 2009