Charges stayed in sheep abduction case
Unreasonable legal delays stemmed from farmers’ clash with the CFIA, judge rules
Charges in a long-running case over the abduction of prized sheep from an Ontario farm were stayed this week, after a judge found there had been unreasonable delays in bringing the matter to trial.
The development ends a slow-grinding legal ordeal for an Ontario sheep breeder and a dairy farmer, unless the Crown decides to appeal.
Linda “Montana” Jones and Michael Schmidt were charged following an investigation into the removal of 31 sheep from an Ontario farm on April 2, 2012, hours before the animals were to be euthanized.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency had ordered the slaughter after a sheep sold by Jones to an Alberta farm allegedly tested positive in 2010 for scrapie, a deadly and easily transmitted disease that affects the nervous systems of sheep and goats.
A lawyer for Jones and Schmidt sought a stay of proceedings earlier this month, arguing the delay in bringing the case to trial was unreasonable.
The application was made in line with a Supreme Court of Canada ruling earlier this year that concluded delays must not exceed 30 months in superior courts and 18 months for cases at the provincial level.
Jones and Schmidt were to go to trial in April 2017.
Justice Laura Bird agreed the delay was unreasonable and stayed the charges against Jones and Schmidt, noting that the CFIA, in her view, did not devote sufficient resources to the management of the file.
“The total delay between the date the information was sworn and the expected completion of the trial is four years and 5 1⁄ months,” Bird
2 wrote in her ruling. “The applicants have established on a balance of probabilities that their right to be tried within a reasonable time . . . has been infringed.”
Jones faced five charges under Health of Animals Act (HAA) and one charge of conspiracy under the Criminal Code. Schmidt, who has previously clashed with authorities over the right to sell raw milk, faced two charges under the HAA and one conspiracy charge under the Criminal Code.
Jones’s lawyer, Genevieve Eliany, said her client had tried to negotiate with the CFIA to either keep her farm under quarantine permanently or to save some of the animals’ genetic material.