B.C. contempt of court charges against Michael Schmidt and Gordon Watson on the eve of the Ontario judgement

Michael Schmidt offers raw milk to a statue of the first judge of B.C. at the Vancouver court. No doubt that's all they drank back in his time. That's Alice holding the other jar of milk.

We don’t yet have the full story from Michael, but as far as we’ve so far heard, Michael Schmidt and Gordon Watson have been named in a contempt of court charge in B.C., in what seems like an extension of the contempt of court conviction against Alice Jongerden several months ago, before Michael Schmidt took over as agister of what then was “Home on the Range” and later became “Our Cows”.

The fine being asked for in this charge in B.C. bears an uncanny resemblance to the amount of the fine levied against Michael in his Ontario contempt of court conviction a couple of years ago. It’s the same total amount of $55,000. In Ontario that was broken down as a $5,000 fine and $50,000 court costs.

However in the Ontario case, that fine has never yet been collected. And the justice system has not seen fit to jail Michael in lieu of payment of this fine. It would seem those formulating the charge in B.C. are simply following the precedent which appeared to have been set in Ontario as to the amount of a contempt of court fine dealing with raw milk.

Raw milk decision expected Tuesday Sept. 27th — Ontario Court of Justice

Lawyer Karen Selick and farmer Michael Schmidt talk to the media immediately after the appeal hearing,April 13, 2011.

NEWMARKET, ON:  The Ontario Court of Justice has advised that the decision pertaining to dairy farmer Michael Schmidt and the distribution of raw milk will be sent electronically to the lawyers involved on Tuesday, September 27 at 4:00 p.m.

Mr. Justice Peter Tetley apologized for the delay.

Michael Schmidt will receive the decision electronically from his lawyer, Karen Selick, shortly after she receives it. Mr. Schmidt will hold a news conference immediately upon receiving the decision. Reporters are invited to the blue bus where cowshare owners from the Toronto area typically pick up their milk on Tuesday afternoons. The bus will be located in the parking lot of the Christian Community Church, 901 Rutherford Road, Vaughan (west of Bathurst Street, north of Highway 7). Mr. Schmidt will be present until 7:00 p.m.

More than one million glasses of raw milk; appeal verdict announcement and news conference Tues. Sept. 27, 4 pm

I can haz raw milk verdict, finally!

Tomorrow, Tuesday Sept. 27th, at 4 pm, Michael Schmidt’s lawyer, Karen Selick, has been promised that she will receive by fax, Justice Tetley’s decision on the Province of Ontario’s appeal of Michael’s January 2010 acquittal.

To help spread the word, whichever way the verdict goes, Michael Schmidt will be holding a news conference, also at 4 pm Tuesday, at the blue bus, in the parking lot of the Christian Community church at 901 Rutherford Road, in Vaughan, where farm share members have been coming for years now to collect their milk on Tuesday afternoons. Cowshare members are invited to be there for the occasion and to share their stories with any media folk who might be taking time off from the election to cover this story.

Raw milk pantheon painting in progress

“Hunger is our business” — Der Spiegel

From Horand Knaup, Michaela Schiessl and Anne Seith in Spiegel Online:

Alan Knuckman is a commodities expert at the Chicago Board of Trade. "I don't believe in politics," he says. "I believe in the market, and the market is always right." Photo: Steve Liss / Der Spiegel

“The room in which the world’s food is distributed looks everything but appetizing. Bits of paper and disposable cups litter the trading floor at the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). Sweaty men in bright yellow, blue or red jackets walk around, seemingly oblivious of the debris beneath their feet, waving their hands, shouting and scrapping over futures contracts for soybeans, pork bellies or wheat.