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Yet the same Sask. Party government was — and still largely is — eager to suggest there was “no wrongdoing” in the GTH by Boyd or anyone else?

The Sask. Party now argues Boyd’s actions on his farm that produced the convictions and $35,000 in fines were: (a) that of a farmer wrongly acting in his own business interests, and; (b) a farmer and politician who was warned repeatedly by Water Security Agency officials that he was acting inappropriately.

Neither are in dispute, but one has to ask: Would a normal farmer be quite so brazen in what he thought he could get away with? Frankly, would most politicians be as brazen as Boyd?

“Further, Mr. Boyd was certainly not someone unsophisticated in the ways of government,” Jackson wrote. “He had been the MLA for the area for many years, during several of which he held cabinet posts. As a former minister of the Crown, it is highly unlikely he could claim any difficulty understanding the concept generally nor specifically the clear requirements for licence permit approval contained in the material received from WSA.”

In fact, the sequence of events outlined in Jackson’s ruling demonstrated a consistent pattern of ignoring authority.