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.) Continue reading
The Bovine 