Several Fast Forward Weekly readers and Calgary Farmers’ Market vendors expressed dismay after the market cancelled delivery of last week’s newspapers and temporarily pulled the stands.

“One of the first tenets of facism is to muzzle the media,” says one vendor who fears repercussions from the market’s board of directors if his name is published. “They get rid of people who stand up, who are vocal.”

To fill the newspaper void Fast Forward Weekly staff hand-delivered newspapers at the market last week — efforts that were soon thwarted, as market board director Jack Habina, owner of Habina’s Harvest, demanded that distribution cease immediately.

Market directors decided to pull newspapers from stands two weeks ago and cancel last week’s delivery, says Habina, because they disagreed with a recent story about some vendors frustrated about the lack of communication — especially the fact that the board has signed a conditional lease for a new location but had not yet told most vendors exactly where they are moving next year.

“Why would we want to distribute information that is not in the best light?” Habina asks, adding that board members believed the story to be “not accurate and misleading.” When asked what part of the story was wrong, he says the board regularly sends memos to vendors, yet most vendors had not been told of the market’s new location.

The board, says Habina, did not tell vendors where they are moving to because the building owner of the new location, which is somewhere north of Heritage Drive, off of Blackfoot Trail, asked them not to. “We are trying to do a deal and there are tenants in the building.”

The board recently hired a local public relations firm to deal with the media. Habina says if Fast Forward Weekly is “fair” in its future stories about the market, the board will consider the paper to be re-established at the market.

Last week Habina was presented with an award plaque, as the market was voted this year’s Calgary’s best farmers’ market by Fast Forward Weekly’s Best of Calgary reader’s poll.