Reporter resigns over sheep theft

Thursday, January 29, 2015

by MIKE BEAUDIN

A sentencing hearing for Suzanne Atkinson, who pleaded guilty to charges related to the removal of 31 rare quarantined sheep, has been put off until Feb.11.

Atkinson, a former correspondent for Ontario Farmer, was one of four people charged in the disappearance of the sheep that were under quarantine by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).

Atkinson appeared today before Judge Robert Beninger of the Ontario Court of Justice in Peterborough. However, Beninger told the court he had a scheduling conflict and moved the hearing to Feb. 11.

Federal prosecutor Damien Frost asked Beninger for a court date prior to Feb. 17 when Atkinson is scheduled in court to testify in the preliminary hearing of Linda Frances (Montana) Jones, who owned the sheep, Michael Schmidt, a raw milk activist and Robert Pinnell.

They all face charges related to obstructing the CFIA, conspiracy to transport an animal under quarantine, and conspiracy to defraud the public service of over $5,000.

Atkinson pleaded guilty on Dec. 19, 2014, to the transport of a quarantined animal without a licence.

Atkinson had been a regular freelance contributor to Ontario Farmer for 15 years. After she was charged, Atkinson continued to report on stories unrelated to the sheep investigation. Upon pleading guilty, she resigned said Paul Mahon, publisher/editor in chief of Ontario Farmer, in an email.

The four were charged by the CFIA after the Shropshire sheep were removed in April 2012 from the farm owned by Jones near Trent Hills, Ont., which was under federal quarantine.

CFIA inspectors said they quarantined the flock after a sheep Jones had previously sold to an  Alberta farmer tested positive for scrapie in 2010.

Scrapie is a fatal disease that the federal government has been trying to eradicate since 2005. In Canada, scrapie is a reportable disease and all cases must be reported to the CFIA.

According to an agreed statement of facts presented in court in December, Atkinson said she was part of a group that planned to take the quarantined sheep from Jones’s farm on March 31, 2013. She also admitted to temporarily housing the sheep that night at her dairy farm. BF