Sheep-napping prelim adjourned til April 27th pending full disclosure of relevant documents by prosecution

From David E. Gumpert’s “The Complete Patient” blog:

Crown disclosure in this case, as of Feb 3, 2013 measured 14″. Photo Michael Schmidt.

“Add an additional piece of evidence to the list I provided in my previous blog post indicating desperation, and possible corruption, in the CFIA prosecution of Canadian farmers Michael Schmidt and Montana Jones.

In a 22-page letter presented today to the prosecutor’s office in the case, the defendants’ lawyer, Shawn Buckley, argues that the CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) deliberately withheld from the defense key evidence about which of the sheep showed signs of scrapie and the course of the testing for the serious farm animal disease….”

Michael Schmidt, Montana Jones, CFIA Sheep-napping “Show Trial” is already attracting international interest

American raw milk journalist and food rights champion David E. Gumpert is following the case with interest, as evidenced by a recent post on his “The Complete Patient” blog. See excerpt below:

“In Canada, Stage Set for Food Rights Show Trial”

Michael Schmidt. Photo via Complete Patient blog.

“That sheep-napping case involving Canadian farmers Michael Schmidt and Montana Jones is turning into a major criminal and political drama.

If you’ll remember, this case stems from a 2010 dispute between the Canadian government and farm owenr Montana Jones over whether her rare Shropshire sheep should be slaughtered because they were supposedly exposed to the serious disease, scrapie. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), the equivalent to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, insisted the sheep needed to be slaughtered to determine for certain whether they harbored scrapie. Jones insisted there was no evidence they did, and sought to negotiate a compromise whereby her farm would be quarantined for up to five years to be certain. 

CFIA, Michael Schmidt, Montana Jones in court for first two days of “Prelim”

Observed at the Cobourg & Lindsay Courthouses

Farmer Montana Jones, lawyer Shawn Buckley, and farmer Michael Schmidt, at an earlier court appearance from a few years back. This case has been dragging on for quite some time now.

On the first day of the preliminary inquiry for Montana Jones and Michael Schmidt, a miffed-looking CFIA investigator was observed hanging around the Cobourg courthouse at the end of the day.  He had set himself up in the courtroom first thing in the morning, with his computer and printer, all ready to take notes for the day—and presumably ready to pass notes to Crown counsel.  But he suddenly found himself subject to the same rule as ordinary mortals: namely, a court order excluding witnesses from listening to the testimony of other witnesses.

Sheep-napping Preliminary Inquiry Starting February 17th for Michael Schmidt, Montana Jones and CFIA

Readers of this blog are probably aware that Michael Schmidt will be in court yet again in February, 2015—this time, defending against criminal charges pertaining to the disappearance of sheep from the farm of Ontario sheep breeder Montana Jones.  Montana also faces criminal charges. 

What’s Happening in February, 2015?

View from the stage at a fundraising concert for Montana Jones at her farm in the summer of 2012.

The preliminary inquiry is scheduled to take place from February 17 to March 1, inclusive.  A further week has now been added:  April 27 to May 1. That’s fifteen full courtroom days of preliminary inquiry.

The purpose of a “prelim” is normally to allow the court to decide whether the Crown has sufficient evidence to warrant going to trial. In Michael and Montana’s case, the defendants want the case to go to trial, because they want to proceed with a constitutional challenge to the draconian Health of Animals Act. (This is the law that forced the slaughter, without Montana’s consent and without adequate compensation, of dozens of perfectly healthy rare sheep.)

Anti-Vaccine Doctor and “Bad Mothers”

From Terrence McCoy in the Washington Post:

“It’s 6:30 p.m. in eastern Arizona, and an energetic doctor who has gained notice due to his disdain for vaccinations has just gotten home. It’s been a busy day. He’s already spoken to USA Today. He just did a segment on CNN. And he’s closely monitored his Facebook page, which has collected 4,000 “likes” in the span of 48 hours. But Jack Wolfson always has time to discuss vaccinations — his hatred of them and his abhorrence of the parents who defend them.

“Don’t be mad at me for speaking the truth about vaccines,” Wolfson said in a telephone interview with The Washington Post. “Be mad at yourself, because you’re, frankly, a bad mother. You didn’t ask once about those vaccines. You didn’t ask about the chemicals in them. You didn’t ask about all the harmful things in those vaccines…. People need to learn the facts.”

Does Measles Vaccine lead to Measles?

From Kimberly Hartke at the Weston A. Price Foundation:

WASHINGTON, D.C. –February 2, 2015– GlobeNewswire –Health officials are blaming unvaccinated children for the recent measles outbreak that started at Disneyland. However, with no blood tests proving the outbreak is from wild measles, the most likely source of the outbreak is a recently vaccinated individual, according to published science.

Scientific evidence demonstrates that individuals vaccinated with live virus vaccines such as MMR (measles, mumps and rubella), rotavirus, chicken pox, shingles and influenza can shed the virus for many weeks or months afterwards and infect the vaccinated and unvaccinated alike.^{1,2 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10}

Furthermore, vaccine recipients can carry diseases in the back of their throat and infect others while displaying no symptoms of a disease.¹¹,12,13

Mom Speaks at Monsanto

From a news release from Moms Across America:

“Zen Honeycutt  represented John Harrington of Harrington Investments at yesterday’s meeting to ask for shareholder support for Item No. 5, Shareowner Proxy Access—an essential mechanism for accountability supported by institutional investors and the SEC.

As the founder of Moms Across America  she spoke on behalf of millions of mothers, a  significant group of  long-term stakeholders of Monsanto. Her presentation contained the following:

1 out of 2 children in America today have a chronic illness such as asthma, allergies, autism, autoimmune disease, Crohn’s, diabetes and obesity. (1) All of these conditions and more can be directly linked to GMOs and Glyphosate–to Monsanto’s products.