Disappearing sheep case still stuck in procedural wrangling

Sunday, February 2, 2014

by JOE CALLAHAN

The case about those Northumberland County sheep, spirited away before they could be slaughtered under a federal government order nearly two years ago, remains sidelined while Ontario courts determine whether the lawyer representing two of four people charged can actually represent his clients.

After last July’s criminal court proceedings in connection with the 2012 disappearance of 31 sheep from a quarantined Northumberland County farm, the matter was put on hold when federal Crown attorney Damien Frost filed a motion alleging that lawyers Karen Selick and Shawn Buckley had a conflict of interest in representing co-accused Linda Frances (Montana) Jones, owner of the sheep, and Michael Schmidt, of Grey County.

If successful, the motion would see the removal of Buckley as defense lawyer for Jones and Schmidt. Selick, litigation director of the Canadian Constitution Foundation, confirmed Saturday that she is on medical leave and has withdrawn from the case.

In September, a hearing before Judge Lorne Chester into the conflict of interest motion ground to a halt when Buckley objected to questions Crown attorney Frost had been asking Schmidt in cross-examination. The content of the cross-examination is subject to a publication ban.

Buckley asked for, and was granted, a judicial review into the propriety of the cross-examination.

On Friday, after hearing arguments the day before in a Superior Court of Justice in Oshawa, Judge J. Bryan Shaughnessy supported Buckley’s objection.

Judge Shaughnessy wrote in his endorsement to Buckley and Frost that “the motions judge has the jurisdiction to permit cross-examination of the defendants on the matters raised in their sworn, Statutory Declarations, nevertheless such cross-examination is to be restricted to the relevant issues of the conflict of interest motion and is not to include examination of the core issues relating to the defendants’ 5.7 Charter rights.”

Dates for the next round of hearings will be established at the Ontario Court of Justice in Cobourg on Feb. 12.

“I’m pleased with the ruling because it permits us to move ahead with the conflicts application without prejudicing Ms. Jones or Mr. Schmidt,” Buckley said after the court session Friday afternoon.

Frost declined to comment on the prosecution’s case, but said he was concerned with how slowly the matter was moving along. “But I hope that dates can be set sooner (rather) than later.”

Jones, who had attended both days of the review in Oshawa (Schmidt had attended the session on Thursday morning), said she was pleased with the judge’s decision “because it was inappropriate for the Crown to be going down an irrelevant path.”

However, she said she was not happy with how much time, money and effort the case was taking and blamed the Crown and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) for dragging out the proceedings.

The other two people charged in connection with the case are journalist Suzanne Atkinson of Northumberland County and Robert Pinnell, identified in the original court documents as a retiree and a resident of West Grey township near the western Ontario town of Durham. Atkinson and Pinnell are represented by different legal counsel and were not part of last week’s hearing.

Jones, Schmidt, Atkinson and Pinnell all face charges of conspiracy to commit obstruction of a CFIA inspector, to transport or cause to transport an animal under quarantine and conspiracy to defraud the public of a service over $5,000 under the Criminal Code along with obstructing a CFIA inspector and transport or causing to transport an animal under quarantine under the Health of Animals Act and Regulations.

Jones is also charged with obstructing a CFIA inspector under the Health of Animals Act.

Pinnell faces a further charge of attempting to obstruct justice and another for obstructing a police officer, both under the Criminal Code.

Prior to the sheep disappearing, Jones, a Shropshire sheep breeder, was embroiled in a dispute with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency over its decision to destroy her flock following a positive test result for scrapie.

Scrapie is a fatal disease that affects sheep and goats. Scrapie has been a reportable disease since 1945. The CFIA says its eradication program, which used to remove entire flocks when one infected animal was found, was refocused in 2004 using new genetic tools and is now aimed at susceptible bloodlines and traceability. BF