Michael Schmidt off to court this month

Michael Schmidt, in his kitchen, getting ready for an interview with documentary filmmakers, two years ago, in January 2010 on the eve of his acquittal on raw milk charges. The Province has since appealed that acquittal and, as a result, Michael has been convicted and fined on charges related to raw milk distribution. Last year a judge granted permission for Michael to appeal that conviction.

We’ve gone a long time without much overt legal sparring in the Canadian raw milk and food rights scene. But that’s soon to change as raw milk farmer Michael Schmidt heads to court later this month to face charges of conspiracy in connection with the disappearance of a herd of controversial heritage sheep that were under quarantine by the CFIA.

Saga of the little Chilliwack dairy

From Michael Schmidt:

Some of the members of the Little Chilliwack Dairy that could.. Photo via Michael Schmidt

Preface

In a surprise move Fraser Health lawyer Susan Beach took sick leave and Gordon Watson’s and my 55,000 dollar contempt of court hearing was “indefinitely postponed”, agreed on by all parties.

Susan Beach is the second lawyer having been bestowed with the responsibility to erase the little Chilliwack dairy, who needed to remove herself. Guy McDonald had to do the same a few years ago due to a mysterious illness.

This begs the question, is this Little Chilliwack dairy, “that could, would and should” in fact making Government lawyers sick?

“Fraser Health wins round one in raw milk battle”, says Chilliwack Progress

From Robert Freeman, in the Chilliwack Progress:

“The Fraser Health Authority won the first round in its case against distribution of raw milk by a Chilliwack cowshare group in BC Supreme Court on Tuesday.

But Gordon Watson, cowshare spokesman, vowed to be his “prickly, cantankerous worst” when the courtroom battle resumes on April 2.

“The lawyer for Fraser Health got an order stating that its officers can go onto the farm property at any time, without a search warrant. But so what?” he said in an email to The Progress. “Under the Public Health Act they could have done that anyway, if and when they had good reason.”

Michael Schmidt in B.C. today on contempt of court charge relating to Our Cows cowshare, in Chilliwack

From Michael Schmidt in Vancouver:

Michael Schmidt at a raw milk rally in Vancouver last month. Photo Tirra del Guidice

Today Tuesday Dec. 6th Michael Schmidt is in B.C. for a raw milk contempt hearing in New Westminster regarding the Chilliwack cow share operation, “Our Cows” (formerly Home on the Range).

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.

Michael Schmidt raw milk appeal verdict is expected later this week; farmshare members eager for news

Michael Schmidt with his wife Elise VanderHout (in red) at yesterday's meeting.

Michael Schmidt and Elisa VanderHout held a meeting of Glencolton Farms farmshare members last night in Thornhill. Speaking with regard to the recently issued farmshare certificates, both thanked the members for their support in making possible the kind of farming that Glencolton stands for, a kind of farming that respects the land and the animals, and makes every effort to produce the highest quality of milk and milk products. Elisa described how a farm near Glencolton had recently been bought by someone who wasted no time removing the hedgerows and readying the place for the kind of no-holds-barred exploitation of the land that is sadly still in vogue among mainstream farming types in Ontario.

Fraser Health Authority searches Our Cows raw milk farm — Abbotsford News

Echoes of the “Twenty-seven 8 x 10 colour glossy pictures with circles and arrows” mentioned in Arlo Guthrie’s classic song “Alice’s Restaurant” where “you can get anything you want, at Alice’s Restaurant”. Hey, I wonder if they served raw milk. Wouldn’t that be a hoot! And on that note, here’s a video of the song to get us all in the right mood for yet another raw milk news story about the daring exploits of the Fraser Health Authority. 

From Robert Freeman, in the Abbotsford News:

“A search warrant was executed by health officials last week at the Chilliwack dairy farm at the centre of the raw milk controversy in B.C.

Nothing was seized during the Aug. 25 search, but Fraser Health Authority spokesman Roy Thorpe-Dorward said photographs of the farm on Prairie Central Road are being reviewed to determine if a permanent court injunction issued last year against distribution of raw milk is being obeyed by the current farm owner.

Michael Schmidt’s B.C. raw milk farm “Our Cows” searched by health officials

From Robert Freeman in the Chilliwack Progress:

"Our Cows" members share a day on the farm. Photo from Hella D blog. Click to go there.

“A search warrant was executed by health officials last week at the Chilliwack dairy farm at the centre of the raw milk controversy in B.C.

Nothing was seized during the Aug. 25 search, but Fraser Health Authority spokesman Roy Thorpe-Dorward said photographs of the farm on Prairie Central Road are being reviewed to determine if a permanent court injunction issued last year against distribution of raw milk is being obeyed by the current farm owner. 

Raw milk developments in B.C. — not necessarily court, but court if necessary

From Gordon Watson in British Columbia:

Here’s your comic relief for the day, fans of REAL MILK

Lately I’d been reminded that a section of the Milk Industry Act referred to farms being able to retail raw milk to the public in British Columbia. That section was a vestige of the Act as it was before 1996. Up to 1996, the act had 3 sections explicity saying that a farm could be certified by the Province to retail raw milk to the public. But when I wrote to the Milk Marketing Board, asking how to go about doing that, they replied saying they had no idea what I was talking about

I used that point in my letters to officials, arguing that that proved there was still a statutory duty to accomodate those who want raw milk, as set out in the Report of the Royal Commission on milk marketing, upon which this Act is predicated.

Up ’til August 13th 2011, it used to say:

B.C.’s Fraser Health Authority conducts search of the Chilliwack cowshare farm

The following is from an email sent to Fraser Health in response:

August 29^th 2011

Tim Shum,    Regional Director,  Fraser Health Authority

Emailed to  Tim.Shum@fraserhealth.ca

On Friday August 26^th 2011 upon learning that he had executed a search of the farm in Chilliwack,  I called Inspector George Rice, explaining that,  since the Warrant apparently was predicated upon concerns about my private property – ie, milk produced by cows in which I have an interest – and that my right to make full answer and defence to a charge begins the minute I get notice of such potentiality, then I am entitled to a copy of it as well as the Information to Obtain immediately.   He refused to co-operate, telling me to direct my inquiry to you.  In a voice mail later the same day,  you asked me ‘to clarify my relationship with Home on the Range dairy’.    The short answer is :  Four years ago Alice Jongerden and I started the cowshare known as “Home on the Range” because the government was failing to accommodate those of us who want fresh whole pure raw milk from grass-fed cows. Spelled out at section 40 (3) (q)  of the Milk Industry Act is the statutory duty upon the Minister of Agriculture to make “ … just and equitable provision for the sale of milk from approved raw milk dairy farms ..”  But since September 14  2010,  she has run it as a buying club,  dealing strictly in various foodstuffs  other than raw milk dairy products.  I have nothing to do with that business