Do Canadians really believe that they live in a free country? Do we in the US believe we do?

Here is an example of heavy-handed Government taking away its citizens' freedom, under the guise of helping them.

Canada is a major producer of maple syrup.  Canada's Government has created a Cartel designed to help keep maple syrup prices higher than its free market price.  That helps maple syrup producers and hurts consumers.  To ensure the Cartel's "success", all maple syrup producers are forced to comply with the Cartel's edicts and pay its fees.  Maple syrup producers that wish to sell their maple syrup at free market prices face heavy fines and jail.

This kind of economic servitude exists in plenty of other areas of Canada's economy.

Some free country.

The same goes for the United States.

A snippet:


Redheaded grandmother Angele Grenier doesn't look much like a criminal, but she is one of Canada's most wanted women.

And as such, she faces the likelihood of lengthy jail time, and fines of about 500,000 Canadian dollars ($368,000; £245,000).

Her crime? She's a self-confessed smuggler and illegal dealer, someone who sells contraband across province lines.

But what exactly is she selling that has so incensed the Canadian authorities, and seen the police search her property? Drugs? Guns?

Nope, maple syrup - the lovely, sweet stuff that you pour on your breakfast pancakes, or add to your biscuit recipes.

The problem for Mrs Grenier, and Quebec's other so-called "maple syrup rebels", is that they cannot freely sell their syrup.

Instead, since 1990 they have been legally required to hand over the bulk of what they produce to the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers (which in French-speaking Quebec is abbreviated to FPAQ).

Backed by the Canadian civil courts, the federation has the monopoly for selling Quebecois maple syrup on the wholesale market, and for exporting it outside the province. It sets the price for how much it pays producers, and it charges them a 12% fee per pound of syrup.