Raw milk trial put on hold
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
by BETTER FARMING STAFF
Michael Schmidt, whose trial was to begin on Friday, calls the reasons behind the delay “refreshing.”
Schmidt has been charged with illegally operating a milk processing plant as well as selling, offering for sale, transporting and distributing raw milk as well as breeching previous orders prohibiting him from marketing raw milk.
The charges were brought against him in Walkerton, North York and Owen Sound by several health units under the Health Promotion Protection Act and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources under the provincial Milk Act.
Schmidt says at a pre-trial hearing last week, the justice of the peace attending – slated to become the judge in the trial – asked everyone involved to work together to achieve consensus on the facts of the case.
The justice of the peace also ordered the return of equipment confiscated from Schmidt’s Durham-area farm during a 2006 raid.
Schmidt expects the trial will focus on the question of how people can have the freedom to decide themselves to consume what they want and what is the government’s role.
“We all agree it’s a charter (of rights and freedoms) argument,” he says. “In a way it is a breakthrough.”
Schmidt says he will meet with the prosecution on May 29. A trial date will likely be set on June 4 when all parties involved will meet again in front of the judge.
The farmer says he has legal advice but plans to represent himself in court. With the help of supporters he had previously retained high profile lawyer Clayton Ruby. He says Ruby did a good job but raising funds to obtain the legal help was taking Schmidt’s focus away from dealing with trial issues so he opted to go it alone.
Schmidt plans to continue producing unpasturized milk on his farm until a judgment is made with the only concession being that shareholders of the 30 dairy cows he maintains there must now collect the milk directly. Schmidt had been distributing dairy products from a bus parked on a private school’s property in Richmond Hill.
He has previously explained that 150 shareholders own the farm’s herd and consume the raw milk it produces. The arrangement, frequently used by raw milk producers in the United States, is intended to take advantage of a legal loophole that allows farmers to consume raw milk from cows they own.
Dr. Hazel Lynn, the medical officer of health for Grey-Bruce, did not attend the pretrial hearing last week. But she says the health unit’s lawyers have suggested to her that the decision to agree on a set of facts was to ensure focus remained on “whether or not the law was broken” rather than “go into the belief system of raw milk or not raw milk.”
“There are various laws and regulations that have interest in this,” she says.
A spokesperson with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs declined comment on the case because it is before the courts. BF