A peaceful demonstration was held on the Wiens land for three days around the clock. The stand-off between several land owners and crews from MB Hydro came to an end when an arrangement was made between the two parties.

Alvin and Timothy Wiens say they hadn't planned a demonstration.

Alvin's son Timothy says, “it evolved into a demonstration when we asked the crew from MB Hydro to clean their equipment and they refused to. Our first reason for concern was the drill bit. It had a lot of clay caked on it, and when we asked them to clean it before bringing onto our land, they refused. Bio-security was a big concern.”

Three generations on the land they are trying to protect.Wiens adds, “right now we are basically starting at square one with MB Hydro. We are exchanging information and trying to build trust.” Wiens says they are waiting to see the cleaning records for the equipment before going over other fields to make sure everything was done correctly.

As far as support during the demonstration that lasted from early Saturday until Monday afternoon, Wiens says they felt a lot of support. “It came in the way of food, warm clothes, adults, people that were affected directly or indirectly, so we definitely felt support.”

Timothy Wiens has four children under the age of 5, with his youngest child being just over one month old. He says, “most importantly I was away from my family. We gave up sleep and it was hard on my wife. When I was home I was on the phone, but we wanted to make sure this was addressed. We had genuine concerns and that's what this was about.”

Wiens adds, “We just want to make sure we've done what we can to protect what we have, just to be sustainable, and we want the family farm to continue. That's our main goal.”

The Wiens family has been farming the same land since 1956.