Stay of Injunction against raw milk was NOT granted | Financial Post story

It was announced today to OFOF farmshare members and Glencolton Farms supporters, via email, by the group’s lawyers, that: 

“…the stay of the injunctive orders of Sutherland J. was not granted. We did, however, get the requested stay, or adjournment of the appeal. In short, Nordheimer J. agreed that there was a serious issue to be determined with the Charter Application, and we take that as encouraging. However, he disagreed that the harm amounted to being irreparable, as he characterized it being the appellants decision not to re-purpose the cows for producing milk in a legal way. Further, he stated that the harm could be quantified as damages. On the balance of convenience, he favoured obeying the law until such a law is declared unconstitutional, or in our case, until exemptions are granted….”

In other raw milk news, Michael Schmidt’s former lawyer, Karen Selick, has written a story on the now-criminal status of raw milk in Ontario titled “You can now go to prison in Canada for providing raw milk. Seriously!”. Here’s a brief excerpt from that story: 

“As Canada ambles along towards the day when its prisons will empty of people who did nothing more heinous than possess marijuana, the province of Ontario appears eager to fill its empty jail cells with individuals whose so-called crime was distributing raw milk.

On Jan. 5, 2018, Justice P. W. Sutherland of Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice imposed an injunction in a case called Downing v. ARC. Downing is the provincial Milk Act Director, while ARC is an incorporated farm co-op that allegedly was distributing raw milk, but has now closed down its milk operation. In essence, the decision transformed an action that was previously a provincial regulatory offence punishable only by fines — distributing raw milk — into a federal crime punishable by up to two years in prison.”

Read more on the Financial Post.

Meanwhile farmshare members and friends of legal raw milk in Ontario are raising funds for the appeal and constitutional challenge through a crowdfunding campaign at:  https://www.gofundme.com/legal-raw-milk-canada

Prosecuting Farmer Michael Schmidt over raw milk has been “an udder waste” says National Post story

Perhaps in connection with the latest court appearance today and yesterday of five men charged in connection with the October 2, 2015 raid on Glencolton Farms, The National Post and the Financial Post have recently run stories highlighting the absurd amount of money which the government has been spending on prosecuting farmer Michael Schmidt and his friends over what amount to victimless crimes of supplying raw milk to people who want it.

Says Michael Schmidt: “Wow we found George. After 15 months on the lam he showed up in court to answer to charges against a Bothwell Hugh The judge instead of being happy to see him ordered him arrested. 5 riot cops took care of him and later we got happily re- United. He got released on his terms according to him.” That’s George in the middle between Michael Schmidt on the left and co-accused Robert Pinnell, on the right.

Wrong that raw milk raids continue

From Karen Selick in the Toronto Sun:

“On Friday, Oct. 2, 20 or so investigators from various Ontario government departments, accompanied by six armed police officers, raided Glencolton Farms, the co-operative farm in Grey Bruce County where raw milk advocate Michael Schmidt manages the dairy operation as well as raising chickens, pigs, grain and other farm products.

They arrived with a truck and a search warrant authorizing them to seize and remove numerous items for a raw milk investigation.

The news spread quickly on Facebook and Twitter. Soon, 50 co-op members were at the farm, shoulder-to-shoulder, barring the exit to the invaders. Eventually, a deal was negotiated: the cops and bureaucrats would leave with nothing more than a few computers that had already been removed (which they promised to return), and the co-op owners would stand aside.

This is the third such raid that Michael Schmidt has undergone. The others occurred in 1994 and 2006. Each time, Schmidt has been convicted of one or more regulatory offences relating to raw milk. Each time, he has been fined thousands of dollars. Each time, he has refused to pay, because he says paying would constitute an acknowledgment that he has done something wrong, and he hasn’t.

Raw Milk Symposium, Nov. 10, 2014

Washington, DC — October 21, 2014 — [ Globe Newswire ] — The Raw Milk Symposium  will feature raw milk experts and activists, including Mark McAfee, owner of the largest raw milk dairy in California and chairman of the Raw Milk Institute, Pete Kennedy, president of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, and Sally Fallon Morell, founder of A Campaign for Real Milk.

The session will be held Monday November 10, 2014 from 9:15 to 4:00 PM, Eastern Time.

To access the session on November 10 or anytime after, go to: http://www.fleetwoodonsite.com/wise/2014annual/live_raw_milk

Montana Jones and Michael Schmidt may be forced to change lawyers in Shropshire sheep-napping case

Update from Montana Jones:

A four foot stack of disclosure documents in the CFIA against Montana Jones and Michael Schmidt and two others case. Photo: Montana Jones.

This four foot high stack of disclosure is “almost” all of it, says CFIA investigator David Eagleson. Vincent Lam’s novel “Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures” seems an appropriate accompaniment, since CFIA’s bloodbath killing of the country’s finest heritage Shropshire genetics only proved that my flock was healthy, and did not carry any scrapie disease. It has not however, cured the CFIA of their mission.

Yesterday in the Cobourg Ontario Provincial Court, The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) advised Justice Robert Graydon they intend to file a Motion that would prevent defendants Michael Schmidt and myself (Montana Jones) from having our preferred legal counsel of choice, lawyers Karen Selick and Shawn Buckley.

From Quebec: “The Impossible Farm”

While we do our best, here at the Bovine, to cover the Canadian raw milk scene, along with other food politics and food rights stories, we don’t often get much news from Quebec. Now we’ve heard how fewer French people starved during the second world war because France was a nation of gardeners. And we know that Quebec has passed laws legalizing soft raw milk cheeses. That was a few years ago. The French heritage in Quebec no doubt helps people there maintain a stronger connection to the land and to food quality, than may be the case elsewhere. So it’s great to get this story, via Karen Selick, of a man who’s doing something in Quebec to stem the tide of industrialization, that threatens authentic and healthy farming everywhere:

From Dominc Lemontagne, via Karen Selick:

The Impossible Farm is a profitable homestead, about one percent the size of your average Québec farm, which has slowly been outlawed through years of legislative constrictions. It is, for example, 2 cows, 200 hens and 500 broiler chickens, grass-fed together on the range from early spring to late fall. It’s this small scale, plural agro-business, which manages it’s own slaughter, processing and marketing. In a nutshell, it is the beginning of a mom-and-pop’s driven regional revitalization effort that favors direct (and often local, farmers market driven) sales, thus promoting resilience rather than dependence.

“Fresh Milk, Food Politics” conference: “a milestone for the movement”, pt. 1

Four Raw Milk Heroes at the Vancouver Real Milk Food Politics forum on April 6, 2013. Great conference . Sold out . The energy is high. ( Right to Left) Alice Jongerden former agister of Home on the Range Farms, Jason Gratl ,(Lawyer for Our Cows , Chilliwack), Michael Schmidt , and Mark McAfee (largest legal raw dairy operation in California). Click image for more photos on Facebook.

By Raoul Bedi , BASc

I – Introduction:

The Vancouver Fresh Milk Food Politics conference (www.freshmilkfoodpolitics.com) on April 6, 2013 was, according to Ontario Raw Milk farmer, agister and pioneer, Michael Schmidt a “milestone” for the movement in Canada. What made it a success? It was not just the fact of the seats being, more or less, sold out. Or the thought-provoking and professional lectures from the various leaders in the field of Raw Dairy and building Sustainable Food Systems. It was something more. It was the synergy or joyful coming together of many of the diverse strands of the BC and Canadian Food Security collage, for a time, all under one roof. It is not often that so many leaders and activists in the field, in Canada, join together to find common cause under one roof as we did on April 6, 2013 at the Ukranian Cathedral in Vancouver.

Montana Jones and Michael Schmidt in Cobourg Court, March 27, 2013

Supporters and media are not being encouraged to show up at the courthouse in Cobourg for the proceedings this Wednesday March 27th. As Karen Selick states in the media release below, the actual trial of this case will be many months in the future. Legal counsel for the defense, however, will be seeking changes to travel restriction which are currently a part of bail conditions. 

Montana Jones, Michael Schmidt, sheep Image via Montana Jones

Belleville—The Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) confirmed today that their clients Montana Jones and Michael Schmidt will appear in Provincial Court in Cobourg, Ontario on March 27, 2013 in connection with charges relating to the disappearance of 31 rare Shropshire sheep in April, 2012.

The sheep were scheduled for slaughter by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) on suspicion of having a disease called “scrapie” but they disappeared from Montana Jones’ barn before the CFIA arrived to seize them.  A note saying that the sheep had been taken into “protective custody” was found in the barn, signed by a previously unknown group called the Famers Peace Corps.  The 31 sheep were ultimately found and tested negative for an illness called “scrapie.”

CFIA changes the status of a reportable disease; now what about Scrapie?

From Karen Selick, on The Justice Report:

The CFIA decides that formerly reportable disease, Anaplasmosis, will henceforth no longer be a reportable disease. So now what about Scrapie? Click image to learn more about the disease.

“Montana Jones today brought to my attention an interesting article (“CFIA to give up on wiping out anaplasmosis”) published at Grainews.ca, a website that provides daily news on agriculture topics to Canadians.  Here’s the link.   

I’ve never heard of anaplasmosis before, but the article makes it clear that, like scrapie, it has been classified as a “reportable” disease under Canadian law until this latest announcement.  Anaplasmosis is apparently caused by a parasitic micro-organism and has been detected in wild animals (deer) as well as in cattle, sheep and goats.

Anaplasmosis shares the following additional characteristics with scrapie:

Michael Schmidt’s raw milk tribulations as an example of the evisceration of liberty in Canadian courts

From the Fraser Institute.org

by Karen Selick, Derek From, and Chris Schafer

A scene from the operetta “Milk Trial by Jury”, a retelling of the Michael Schmidt story with music by Gilbert and Sullivan. July 2010

“….A constitutional guarantee of liberty, to be consistent with J.S. Mill’s description, should ensure that everyone has the right to freely pursue their own happiness as long as their actions do not harm others. Such a constitutional guarantee would protect individuals from unjustified state inference with their chosen way of life. But there are many ways in which the courts in Canada have permitted the government to impede individual liberty.

For example, the government may confiscate your property without compensation (R. v. Tener). It can force you to have your photo taken even if it conflicts with your deeply held religious beliefs (Alberta v. Hutterian Brethren of Wilson Colony). It can force parents to educate their children in a particular fashion (R. v. Jones). It can force individuals to pay union fees even if they are not union members (Lavigne v. Ontario Public Service Employees Union). It can punish you for putting certain substances in your body (R. v. Malmo-Levine; R. v. Caine). And it can prohibit you from entering into mutually agreeable contracts with other individuals (Reference re ss. 193 & 195.1(1)(c) of Criminal Code (Canada)).