Citizens held hostage

Dear sir:
Acting in an arrogant B.Y.C. (because you can) mode, corporate gorillas Boise Cascade and Abitibi-Consolidated have jointly declared war on freedom.
Citizens from both sides of the international border soon will be paying through the nose, in more ways than one, for the privilege of being assaulted with noxious paper mill fumes as they cross the ugly little 500-foot-long industrial bridge where corporate toll collectors have exacted millions from cross-border travellers since 1912.
The April 28, 2000 edition of the Daily Bulletin reported that bridge toll increases in the two-and-a-half times range will soon take effect. The May 2 edition of the international Falls Daily Journal confirms that toll increases are on the way.
Meanwhile, both corporations refuse to disclose historical cost and revenue date to justify any toll, let alone a toll increase. Neither corporation offers the public a voice in bridge toll discussions.
The lifeblood of both corporations was thought to have something to do with converting green trees into white paper, not collecting bridge tolls from hapless captives. The nasty by-products of the conversion process, including noxious fumes, have long been accepted by people on both sides of the border as the price of prosperity.
Bridge tolls have not.
An increase of outrageous proportions to an already outrageous bridge toll will further stifle social and commercial interaction between cross-border neighbours who have been struggling for years to build an international community and a more diverse economy. Every increase in bridge tolls means fewer neighbours who can afford fewer cross-border visits.
Exorbitant bridge tolls make hostages of many citizens.
Over the past 88 years, tolls paid by the citizens of both countries have more than paid for the ugly little bridge where passenger vehicles vie with corporate trains, pulp-trucks, and pulp-pipelines for passage. For the corporations to burden cross-border vehicle traffic with the costs of all that, just because they can, is an example of shameless exploitation and greed.
Both corporations have long enjoyed a privileged claim to natural resources on both sides of the border. Common sense suggests the interests of both corporations are best served by being decent and sensitive to the interests of the international community they have dominated with a heavy hand for son long. Instead, the corporations have conspired to raise an economic barrier at the only point of passage convenient to the roughly 25,000 citizens of the remote international community.
The days of fiefdom are over. Both corporations may think they enjoy the legal right to raise bridge tolls at whim but many changes in law and innovative development in legal theory have brought changes to the judicial landscape over recent decades. Now, maybe citizens have rights in these matters, too!
As a minimum, the playing field needs to be revealed. Authorities on both sides of the border need to start flexing muscles. Researching and publishing answers to some of the more obvious questions is a good place for them to begin:
1. Does the arbitrary increasing of tolls on a major international transportation link violate NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) or any other treaties between the Canadian and U.S. governments at federal, provincial/state levels?
2. Does the economic exploitation of the border crossing monopoly violate anti-trust law in any way?
3. Can the government of either country, at any level, impose sanctions (for example, restricting access to publicly-owned raw materials) on either or both corporations as punishment for arrogant conduct?
4. Do other federal or provincial agencies have anything to say about the bridge?
5. Does the International Joint Commission have any jurisdiction in bridge matters?
6. In failing to provide canal locks, portage facilities, and fish ladders at the corporate-owned dam, are the corporations in full compliance with the laws and regulations of both countries concerning fish, wildlife, and navigable rivers?
7. Have the two greedy corporations been paying PST/GST taxes to Canada and sales taxes to Minnesota on the millions in bridge crossing revenues collected over the years?
The conduct of Abitibi-Consolidated and Boise Cascade with regards to bridge-toll matters demonstrates that both corporations deserve to be stripped of their insidious control over so many people at the earliest possible time.
Signed,
S.C. Woods
Ranier, Mn.