Raw Milk Enforcement Moves to Alberta, Canada
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May 7, 2019
Raw milk enforcement actions continue in Canada; this time it’s Alberta. The Crown has brought three charges against Innisfail farmer David Rand for alleged violations of Alberta’s dairy law: the unlicensed production or processing of dairy products, selling raw milk, and “obstructing, hindering or impeding an inspector in carrying out their duties” under the Alberta Dairy Industry Act. A trial will likely take place this fall; each of the charges carries a maximum $25,000 fine. [For those who would like to support Rand, a GoFundMe campaign has been set up at ca.gofundme.com/dairy-freedom.]
In addition to the charges, the Alberta Health Services (AHS) has issued a “Notice of Closure” to Rand ordering him to “cease and desist the distribution, transport, processing or sale of unpasteurized milk or unpasteurized milk products.” One of the grounds for the order was that “distributing, transporting, processing or selling unpasteurized milk products” was in violation of an Alberta health regulation stating, “no person shall create, commit or maintain a nuisance.” Alberta Agriculture and Forestry (AAF) issued a second order to Rand, a “Notice of Seizure or Detention” requiring that all milking equipment and any dairy products, including all future production, remain on Rand’s farm.
The charges and the orders against Rand stem from a November 7, 2018, raid on Rand’s farm and a supposed raw milk distribution site in Red Deer, Alberta, by officials from both AAF and AHS as well as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The officials conducted the raid at both locations without any warrant.
The law in Alberta, as in all provinces of Canada, prohibits any sale of raw milk; there is a federal ban in the country as well. The ban has served as a protection racket for dairy industry but some of the farmers making up the industry might want to consider obtaining another outlet for their milk. The Canadian quota system has been held as a model for the struggling U.S. dairy industry but there has been a tremendous decline in the number of Canadian dairies, falling from nearly 140,000 in 1960 to fewer than 12,000 today according to The Globe and Mail.1
In Ontario, there is an ongoing court case where 21 Ontario farmers and consumers have filed in a Toronto Superior Court a constitutional challenge to the province’s ban on raw milk sales and distribution.2 In 2010 an Ontario court ruled in a case the Crown had brought against Michael Schmidt for illegally selling raw dairy that there was a legal distinction between the public and private distribution of food and that informed consumers can waive the protection of public health laws. That ruling was reversed on appeal; raw milk proponents could use a similar decision in the country that is the most oppressive in the world when it comes to enforcement against raw milk sales and distribution.
Supporters of raw milk access in Canada may go to the educational Facebook page for Farm-Fresh-Milk (be sure to include the hyphens). The intention is to show that raw milk needs to be on the policy platform of every party. There is also a website with a petition for Canadians to have the right to obtain fresh milk produced by local farms recognized by the legislation; to endorse “We Choose Fresh” petition, go to www.farmfreshmilk.ca/wechoosefresh.
Links:
GoFundMe – https://ca.gofundme.com/dairy-freedom
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/Farm-Fresh-Milk-217362812483137
Petition – http://www.farmfreshmilk.ca/wechoosefresh
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[1] Barrie McKenna, “Canada’s dairy industry is a rich, closed club”, The Globe and Mail, 25 June 2015 (updated 15 May 2018), https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/canadas-dairy-industry-is-a-rich-closed-club/article25124114/
[2] Pete Kennedy, “Farmers & Consumers Challenge Raw Milk Ban”, RealMilk.com, 19 February 2018, https://www.realmilk.com/farmers-consumers-file-constitutional-challenge-ontario-raw-milk-ban/
7 Comments
I would drink raw milk over pasteurized any day. Pasteurized milk makes me sick and ill. While raw milk I can drink a ton of and still feel great afterwards.
Killing the “bad” in the milk to make it “safe” also removes a majority of its benefits.
Why mess with simple organic food and turn it into lab projects.? I do understand many are for genetically modified foods but thier is also much evidence showing the nutrients and benefits of fruits and vegetables greatly increase when grown with great care. Quality over quantity.
Allow people to make their own decisions and quit trying to control everything simply because it cannot be government regulated does not mean it needs to penalized.
If look through the statistics of other countries where control is removed for exmample drug laws the people became healthier on their own and issues lessened over time.
Take a large spread issues and place them into small frames. Is it control based or is out of understanding and acknowledgment?
What is the real goal here?
I would love to be able to buy raw milk ,better for you then that milk they sale in the store which we can not drink because we get sick from it.we go to France and we have no problems with dairies product and raw milk there.where is our freedom to eat what we want ,we are not stupid .
The government needs to stay out of it! If I want raw milk for myself and my family it’s none of their business… If they’re worried about people getting sick they should focus on the pesticides and hormones they permit just to start with!
Obviously this is one of the many reasons the RCMP has no resources to investigate the traitors known as the Liberal government Way too busy imposing injustice on personal choice and freedoms.
Here’s a perfect reason to separate from the East. It’s time we take our lives back I was raised on both store bought milk and raw milk I’m 55 and still going and my kids were brought up the same . With all these new laws they control the family farm which is wrong at this rate you won’t even bearable to sell vegetables soon. Time to stand up and say NO MORE.
Here’s the problem the corporate American states of the UNITED KINGDOM (mother corporation) is run by a bunch of traitor attorney’s who are known as esquires, and the term esquire is a title of nobility, apprentices to the Knights Templar’s of Parliament, known today as Benchers. They originated out of the Middle Temple Inn of court, Inner city London. They hold legal title over the American states through the American Bar Association. They bound our LEGAL NAMES through various contracts to their jurisdiction as DEBTORS (slaves) and since we LEGALLY give our consent to be their subjects, then we lose all of our right to drink raw milk because an attorney says so… Think about it, out of the hundreds of thousands of their so called laws that they have on the books, how many were designed to give us freedom? NONE! Sorry to be the one to inform you, but we actually lost the revolutionary war, because we chose to adopt the Brits LEGAL/banking system against our own natural born sovereignty and freedoms, in return we get a few subjectively interpreted rights, a few liberties and some easily repudiated privileges.
the comment by Shaye Dupuis asks “What is the real goal here?”. The answer is found in the Progressive Economic Program, put out by the Fabian Society, back in the late 1920s. They proposed a command economy, in which a centrally-directed Marketing Board would dictate quantity and prices of various commodities essential to the economy … milk being one of them. All the countries which tried the quota scheme, have given it up. Only the Dominion of Canada refuses to de-Stalin-ize. All comedy aside : the Fabian society used control of the dairy industry as one of the ways to bring the ( formerly ) white Christian nations under communism, by substituting the Image of milk = the thin, whitish ersatz fluid falsely labelled “homo milk”, instead of REAL MILK. And the nation’s health declined accordingly. Not just a mere co-incidence, that.