by BETTER FARMING STAFF
A justice of the peace “erred in law” when he acquitted Michael Schmidt on charges of selling raw milk, says a notice of appeal filed by the Crown in the Ontario Court of Justice in Newmarket Thursday.
The Crown wants the Ontario Court of Justice to overturn the Jan. 21 acquittal of Michael Schmidt by justice of the peace Paul Kowarsky and convict the Grey County farmer of violating sections the Milk Act and The Health Protection and Promotion Act between Aug. 17 and Nov 22, 2006.
The Crown is also seeking an unspecified penalty against Schmidt. As an alternative, the Crown wants an order for a new trial.
Kowarsky ruled that Schmidt didn’t sell raw milk or distribute it to the public. He decided Schmidt actually provided milk to members of a co-op that bought shares in cows that Schmidt managed on his farm near the town of Durham.
Brent Ross, spokesman for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, confirmed that an appeal had been filed on Feb. 11.
"Given that it is before the courts, I can't comment further at this time," he says. The Crown’s five page notice of appeal says the justice of the peace: “misapprehended and misapplied evidence;” “erred in law with respect to legal burdens,” and “committed errors of statutory interpretation.”
The notice of appeal says Kowarsky “erred in law in his interpretation and application of the definition of marketing.” Schmidt hired a public relations firm and acted as his own lawyer, but got advice from Karen Selick, litigation director with the Canadian Constitution Foundation.
Selick, based in Belleville, said she and Schmidt would not comment on the province’s appeal today. “Michael and I have decided not to discuss this with anyone until after the press conference on Tuesday,” Selick says. “There’s no point in having a press conference if we are going to talk to everybody in advance.” BF
Comments
This is where it gets interesting - this appeal will be based entirely on the principles of law, and case law precedent. As a purely practical matter, Schmidt, as a layman, isn't qualified to argue legal opinions, but given the uniqueness of the case, there are likely to be any number of lawyers prepared to argue his case, pro-bono, with many others in the background providing research, and opinions, for Schmidt's lead counsel to use.
The really interesting aspect of the whole matter is that when you go to court, any outcome is possible, and the Province could (and should) lose.
Notice that in the appeal, Ground #15 says that the Attorney General of Ontario will appear in person to make the oral arguments. Not every day you see the AG his-self standing before the Bench.
The govt. does have one thing right ... Mr Schmidt is no hick from the sticks. He stands on the moral high ground and the more the people find out about the real issues in this case, the worse the Establishment is going to look when he prevails. As he surely will.
As proven by the array of outright poisons with which the food supply is adulterated, and nary a peep from the Health Nazis - aspartame being a handy example - the govt. does not care a whit about "health". It's about licencing = control for its own sake.
I find it completely underhanded how the Ontario government handled this appeal. They waited until the day of the Opening Ceremonies of the 2010 Olympics to announce this appeal as the news would be buried and less attention would be paid on it instead of filing it earlier.
This is a desperate move on the Government's part as they are well aware the supposed 'bad' press has made more people interested in the subject who were not aware of their choices in their food sources.
I think that the Government should focus their food regulations on deli meats which have 10x the possibility of making us sick from the diseases that are supposed to be in Raw Milk. This is a niche product and the Government should be working with consumers as this is our will - fighting against us makes the idea of a Democratic Government in Ontario (and Canada for that fact) a complete laughing stock.
I demand Food Freedom.
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