BY DAVID GONCZOL, THE OTTAWA CITIZEN
Mark Tijssen, a major in the Canadian Forces, stands in front of a meat smoker in November, 2009, containing the remains of a pig. Two years later, Crown prosecutors are dropping charges of operating an illegal slaughterhouse and distributing uninspected meat against him. Photograph by: David Gonczol, The Ottawa Citizen
“OTTAWA — A Carlsbad Springs man will be seeking financial compensation from the Ontario government for what he says is a two-year “malicious prosecution” after he and a member of his church jointly bought and slaughtered a pig in 2009.
On Tuesday, Crown prosecutors will be dropping charges of operating an illegal slaughterhouse and distributing uninspected meat against Mark Tijssen, a major in the Canadian Forces.
Last Tuesday, when the Crown appeared before Ontario Court Justice Lise Maisonneuve to withdraw the charges, the judge adjourned the proceedings for a week to allow Tijssen enough notice to be present, as a matter of “fairness to him and a matter of decency.”
Crown prosecutors and the Ministry of Natural Resources have refused to divulge why a now seemingly botched two-year-old case has been shut down only a month before trial.
Crown prosecutor Alan Ryan would not return phone calls from the Citizen last week and offered no explanation when he sent Tijssen a terse letter Dec. 5 saying that he wanted to “apologize for the inconvenience” of the two-year investigation.
“They are not off the hook,” said Tijssen, still seething on Sunday.
“They have done me damage and I want compensation for it. That is definitely coming. This isn’t over.”
The Crown and the ministry were put on notice last week by Maisonneuve, who said she will be in court Tuesday and expecting an explanation as to why the charges were being withdrawn…”
The Bovine 
It is just the on going sga of Government Corruption, Incompetent civil servants and the bully attitude that our government has with regard to the citizens of Ontario and Canada. Give an idiot some authority and you quickly have a dictator in any matters that concern that person. The bottom line is and always has been corruption.
It is a Catch-22 situation. A given bureaucrat is given a job to do enforcing a regulation and a quota to work with . He or she feels she must justify his or her time by “looking for trouble” and harassing a certain number of people per day . I have a solution : Give the bureaucrats 2 jobs to do . For example we must end this requirement of civil servants only working according to a specified job description. They should be willing to do humanitarian work for the society of ANY kind if there are not enough people to chase after who are breaking the laws. This would be healthier for all parties concerned : the civil servant, the society and the public citizen otherwise under attack. A case in point was when Toronto had a major summer blackout 7 or 8 years ago and the Mayor of Toronto gave all the city staff the week off. It was odd because so many old people living on the 30th floor of apartment buildings needed food and other assistance and could not travel up and down on elevators . Traffic lights were not working and police were too short staffed etc. Yet the Toronto civil servants had an extra paid vacation and party because their union job descriptions forbade them from helping out with other services vitally needed by the city.
Right on, Mark Tijssen!
The bureaucrats need to be held accountable when they push too far.
I hope the organizations who are usually on the defensive (CCF, etc.) will aid Mark and at least filing amicus briefs in support. Take the battle to the home court!