Smile and say cheese…American cheese!  

Hey, great to see you today. Pour some freshly brewed Arabica into your mug and snag a virtual cheese Danish. Speaking of cheese, you may have read about it in the papers but in case you missed it…

According to reliable Canadian authorities, two police constables helped smuggle more than $200,000 worth of cheaper U.S. cheeses and other foods across the border from Buffalo to sell to pizzerias and restaurants.

The Niagara Regional Police Service reportedly said that the pair were arrested and charged, along with a third man. Charges against the three, all from Fort Erie, Ontario, include smuggling and other customs violations.

Constables Scott Heron, 39, and Casey Langelaan, 48, were suspended in June amid the investigation. Langelaan was subsequently fired.

The cheese-smuggling operation emerged from the April arrest of another NRPS constable in Buffalo on charges of trying to smuggle more than $1 million in anabolic steroids and other drugs into Canada, the CBC reported earlier this week.

The police service says "the network" bought cases of cheese and foods on the U.S. side of the border, then drove them into Canada without declaring the goods or paying duty. The products were then sold at discounts to pizza parlors and other restaurants in southern Ontario, netting the smugglers a profit of about $165,000.

Dairy regulations and import controls on U.S. products can mean Canadian cheese costs up to three times south of the border.

Another cheesy story, eh. Sure maybe cheese from the USA is cheaper and in pizza it really doesn’t make a hoot of difference with all the other flavours competing for taste bud recognition but it should be a matter of national pride, eh. Southwestern Ontario has some formidable cheeses in places like Ingersoll

and six more cheesemakers in the Niagara Region alone. But then again when you’re in the highly competitive fast food business, I guess every buck counts! 

Oh, and the Ontario Milk Marketing Board - don't get me started on that one! We lived across from a dairy farmer trying to eke out a living. By law he had to see all of the milk he produced to the OMMB and he had a quota. If one month his cows happened to produce more than his quota, he was not allowed to sell or even give away the excess. He had to throw it out. People are starving in the world. Why couldn't we ship it to them, eh? I'm sure the OMMB would come up with a reason...valid or not.

See ya, eh!

Bob