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Michael Schmidt

For news reports about this case, go to the Michael Schmidt media page.

Note: Updates about this case can be found on Michael Schmidt's own blog The Bovine Press

Michael Schmidt interview Jan 26 2009 raw milk court case:

January 16, 2007

Bayshore Broadcasting News Centre Owen Sound, Ontario,Canada News for Tuesday, January 16th, 2007

No best before date for raw milk case

Written by Jody Johnson

The case against raw milk farmer Michael Schmidt will be back in court next month.

The court hearing for Micheal Schmidt in Walkerton was adjourned until February 20th.

The Durham area raw milk farmer has been charged with operating a milk processing plant without a licence.

Schmidt did not appear in court today -- but his representatives argued they need more time to gather the evidence against the farmer.

The Crown has listed a number of items -- from notebooks, search warrants and exhibit lists.

Schmidt's lawyers say they would like to move quickly in the case because his raw milk business has been hurt by the seizure of his equipment.

Officers from the Ministry of Natural Resources raided Schmidt's farm in November and seized his equipment.

Schmidt went on a month long hunger strike in protest of the raid.

July 31, 2007

Message from Michael Schmidt:

Dear Friends

It has been a long time of active silence on my part. We at the farm are swamped with work and faced with rather concerning weather conditions. The effect of no rain is now the worst I have seen in 25 years. For almost four weeks now, we are using hay for feed, which we will need for the winter. Therefore, our cows are giving far less milk than normal around this time of year. For the cow share owners, it is another reality to adjust to whatever the cows are able to produce and connect to the cycle of nature at its best and worst. Thanks for the understanding.

Since our raid on November 21st last year, we have been swamped by requests for cow shares. We cannot accommodate more share holders without infringing on the right of all the other share holders. The new wave of people interested in cow shares is very determined and ready to battle to gain the right for choosing the food they think is best for them. All of this is very encouraging.

The Court order from York Region is still in place. However, we have been able to continue undisturbed and without any harassment. It is pure joy to see how our members come undeterred, unshaken and determined to defend their rights.

After many sleepless nights, I have also decided to not ask for escorts anymore on our weekly trips to Toronto. We are confronted with such huge environmental challenges that I cannot justify two to three cars driving back and forth every week to protect the bus. Usually, somebody is with me in the bus anyhow and if the powers to be decide that they want to interfere, let them do it; at least they will find out what the long-term consequences will be. I am not afraid to stand my ground.

THANK YOU ALL. It has been overwhelming to see such a show of support. Thanks also to those Government officials who practise restrain in order to ensure that a fair legal process can take place.

Hopefully, we can soon deal with all these issues in court.

Michael Schmidt

May 16, 2008

Message from Michael Schmidt:

Dear Friends and Cow Share Members:

Our Cow rally in Toronto this coming Tuesday, May 20th is cancelled due to the sudden turn of events that has resulted in the trial being postponed until later in the year. Please, please, contact as many people as possible so that nobody travels to Newmarket and then finds out there is no trial.

Please also look at the front page article of Saturday, May 17th Toronto Star and start writing letters to confront the expert witnesses regarding the safety of Raw Milk. It is important to respond. Do it with passion and with facts. We still live in a world where university scientists seem to have the last word as authorities in the field of food safety and health. This needs to be dealt with. We need to take on the establishment; we need to confront them wherever we go, whenever we hear those spreading intentionally wrong facts. We will not back down. This battle for individual rights, for individual freedoms and against the abuse of power of so-called experts, politicians and bureaucrats will become increasingly defining in the years ahead of us. It is paramount to recognize the power that will allow change to happen. We are not powerless. It is the principle of the issue that is so paramount.

Let me close again by expressing my utmost respect and thanks to those who are now working on a fair and due process, worthy of a society wherein the principle of individual freedom and responsibility is treasured and respected.

Michael Schmidt

Email message from Beverley (sent May 17):

From MNR-Confrontation to Constructive Dialogue

Next week’s Trial cancelled for now

Today was the last pre-trial hearing in Newmarket with the prosecution prior to next week’s trial. In an unexpected turn of events, confrontation turned into dialogue. The assigned Justice of the Peace approached the whole issue in such a manner that everybody understood what was at stake in respect to individual freedom, on the one hand, and the responsibility of government on the other. We met with the entire six-member prosecution team privately and started mapping a plan to work on a solution, which is to be presented in June and argued in front of the same Justice of the Peace sometime in the next six months. There was a common will to reach out and move forward. One significant gesture was the offer to return the equipment.

Is there reason to celebrate? Yes, in that I gained great respect for the other side and their openness to work together on a solution, which will benefit all of us in the long run. No, in that they cannot change the law, but we can work together to present the case in a manner that will make it possible to get to the core of the argument, which eventually will bring about change. We achieved an understanding, we acknowledged our different positions and we parted with respect.

This we could have achieved without a major raid on our farm. Since 1996, when I met with the Minister of Agriculture, I have expressed publicly my willingness to discuss the issue of Raw Milk. For 12 years, we never hid the fact that Cow Share Owners were receiving their milk. For 12 years, we waited for dialogue.

My thanks go out to the Judge and the Prosecution.

Regards

Michael Schmidt

May 17, 2008

Message from Michael Schmidt:

Dear Friends and Cow Share Members:

Our Cow rally in Toronto this coming Tuesday, May 20th is cancelled due to the sudden turn of events that has resulted in the trial being postponed until later in the year. Please, please, contact as many people as possible so that nobody travels to Newmarket and then finds out there is no trial.

Please also look at the front page article of Saturday, May 17th Toronto Star and start writing letters to confront the expert witnesses regarding the safety of Raw Milk. It is important to respond. Do it with passion and with facts. We still live in a world where university scientists seem to have the last word as authorities in the field of food safety and health. This needs to be dealt with. We need to take on the establishment; we need to confront them wherever we go, whenever we hear those spreading intentionally wrong facts. We will not back down. This battle for individual rights, for individual freedoms and against the abuse of power of so-called experts, politicians and bureaucrats will become increasingly defining in the years ahead of us. It is paramount to recognize the power that will allow change to happen. We are not powerless. It is the principle of the issue that is so paramount.

Let me close again by expressing my utmost respect and thanks to those who are now working on a fair and due process, worthy of a society wherein the principle of individual freedom and responsibility is treasured and respected.

Michael Schmidt

May 21, 2008

Email message from Judith (sent May 21):

For Immediate Release – May 21, 2007

Michael Schmidt’s Much Anticipated Trial of the Year Has Been Postponed

A truce has been called until fall in the “Raw Milk War.”

At a pre-trial hearing on Friday, May 16, all parties in the ongoing legal action against Grey-Bruce “raw milk” farmer Michael Schmidt agreed to adjourn proceedings. Though charges remain against Schmidt for the production, storage and distribution of non-pasteurized milk, Schmidt expressed optimism about the possibility of “working together on a solution,” and revealed that an olive branch had been extended by the prosecution team of the Ministry Of Natural Resources in the form of an offer to return all dairy equipment confiscated from Schmidt’s Glencolton farms.

“I have gained great respect for the other side and their openness,” Schmidt said. “No they cannot change the law, but we can work together to present the case in a manner that will get to the core of the argument and eventually will bring about change.”

Schmidt faces 20 charges laid by the Ministry and the Grey-Bruce Health Unit which carry sufficient fines to bankrupt his 20-year-old family institution.

“Raw milk” is sought out by gourmet chefs for its flavor and by organic and “slow food” enthusiasts for its organic, “untouched” properties. In 2006, famed chef Jamie Kennedy took up Schmidt’s crusade, organizing a rally of urbanites against the province’s draconian pasteurization laws.

In a recent poll on AM640, 92% of call-in listeners were in favour of the right to choose raw milk. It represented an unprecedented majority of listener votes on any issue at the station in recent memory.

Meanwhile, Schmidt has made international headlines as the subject of a documentary, Michael Schmidt: Bioterrorist Or Organic Hero? which made its world premiere at the Slow Food Film Festival in Bologna, Italy, recently.

June 4, 2008

Email message from Judith (sent June 8):

Michael Schmidt Back In Court

Brings Forward Motion For Summary Judgement

And Inadmissibility Of Evidence Of The Crown

Based On A Faulty Search Warrant.

Wed June 4

Courtroom T2 in the Ontario Court of Justice 465 Davis St. 9:00am

A new chapter in the Raw Milk War will take place in Newmarket, Courtroom T2, Wednesday, June 4, 2008 when Michael Schmidt will argue the inadmissibility of evidence against him.

After lengthy negotiations with the Crown, Schmidt is bringing forward a motion for summary judgment and inadmissibility of Crown evidence based on a faulty search warrant. The written argument will be available to the media after the hearing on Wednesday.

If the argument is ruled on and accepted, it will have a major impact on the future interpretations of the law regarding natural, unpasteurized milk.

Michael will be available for interviews after the hearing.

In November, 2006, armed officers from the Ministry of Natural Resources raided Schmidt's farm, seizing equipment and computers. He was charged with failure to obey a written order to refrain from storing and producing raw milk products.

Schmidt faces 20 charges laid by the Ministry and the Grey-Bruce Health Unit which carry sufficient fines to bankrupt his 20-year-old family institution.

“Raw milk” is sought out by gourmet chefs for its flavor and by organic and “slow food” enthusiasts for its organic, “untouched” properties. In 2006, famed chef Jamie Kennedy took up Schmidt’s crusade, organizing a rally of urbanites against the province’s draconian pasteurization laws.

For more info, to set up an interview with Michael, get GAT: Ingrid Hamilton ingrid@gat.ca h/o: 416-482-6142 c: 416-731-3034 Charlene Coy charlene@gat.ca o: 416-546-2179 c: 416-908-7333 Pictures are available at www.gat.ca/media LOGIN first. Username – media. Password – media. Click: Everything Else

Friday August 1, 2008

Email message from Michael Schmidt:

August 1, 2008

Dear Cow Share Owners and Friends:

No jail unless due process is followed . . .

The return to the farm after yesterday’s court hearing was rewarding and refreshing. Our coming together in the courthouse, displaying as we did such a will of determination, was beautiful. It was not a matter of a victory or being right and the other side wrong; it was simply a matter of due process. I deeply respected the judge’s determination to ensure that a ruling he has to render is based upon the parameters of fundamental justice. Together, we left the court room in a way that allows us to move forward with dignity. I do not perceive the courts as a battle field on which to beat the other side; personally, I see it as a meeting place of minds and intentions where you have to have the will to communicate your side honestly so that, in the name of the law, a judge can render a decision. No question that a court house full of people is a good reminder to those who are in the position to seek justice in the name of the public.

I would like to thank Justice Michael Brown for his considerations before issuing the ruling. We will be in court September10, 11 and 12 in Newmarket on the specific issue of contempt of court.

I thank you all for coming and, fearlessly, showing your healthy children. We have been on this road now for over 20 months and I deeply respect the ever-growing understanding that we need to go all the way.

We are thankful for having young people like Lyndon, Sylvia and Juliana who, out of the goodness of their hearts, use their summer holidays to help us here on the farm. Thanks also to every one, who keeps the Blue Bus rolling, so that . . .

the MILK OF HUMAN KINDNESS can keep flowing and flowing and flowing . . .

Regards, Michael

For further information, you can google “Michael Schmidt Contempt of Court”.

August 7, 2008

Email message from Michael Schmidt:

A Rather Astonishing Proposal

When I arrived at the court house on July 31, 2008, I was struck by the presence of so many supporters. Not much time passed before Dan Kuzmyk, Senior Counsel for the York Regional Health Unit, approached me with a proposal to resolve the situation. I needed to go to the washroom first and asked him to wait.

When I returned, I heard him asking, in very simple terms, why I would not move the Blue Bus south of Steeles Avenue, out of York Region. I looked at him in disbelief and then told him that I would think about it. Then I heard him saying that they would consider dropping the contempt charges if I would agree.

As we sat in the court room, I asked him how that would work IF we were to make a deal. I understood him to respond that he needed approval from Joe La Marca, the health official who brought the contempt of court motion forward. I waited until he came back and then I heard him assure me that Mr. LaMarca would consent to that deal. I also understood Senior Counsel Kuzmyk to tell me that we needed to come to an agreement before the judge entered the court room; otherwise, we would have to proceed as planned. I responded that I would think about it. As I listened to him, he assured me that there would be no costs involved for us as long as we came to an agreement. He explained to me that he wanted to be rid of the whole thing, and that, as long as we are not in this region, he did not care. He then proposed that if I was still interested, he would need to ask the Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Karim Kurji, if he would agree to this proposal. I then became very interested in whether, even at the highest level, York Regional Health would allow this deal to go ahead. Joe LaMarca, who was present at that time, left the court room, presumably to phone Dr. Karim Kurji, and returned a few minutes later, apparently with Dr. Kurji’s blessing, since Senior Counsel Kuzmyk gave me the green light. I sat there rather stunned and, a few minutes later, responded just before the Judge entered the court room: “I am not interested.” I then heard Senior Counsel Kuzmyk saying, rather agitatedly, “You will get smoked, one of these days, you will get smoked and there is nothing you can do. I responded: “That’s fine.”

The Judge then entered and the rest you know.

What is interesting about that situation is the fact that these deals are probably very common between lawyers and never really become public knowledge because of their professional ethics. In my case, I am not bound by the same ethics; I am bound by the morals of the whole battle. “The truth needs to come out.” Here, we have a perfect example of how bureaucracy works. Under the banner of public health, they issue orders and under oath proclaim the dangers of raw milk so that a judge also issues a court order. After 12 months, and intense under cover activity, they bring a motion forward to find me guilty of contempt with a potential jail sentence. All in the name of public health. Then, when they realized how much public uproar these actions generated, they tried to wriggle out of the situation with complete disregard for public health.

What I heard Mr. Kuzmyk saying is that “as long I was not within their region, they did not care”.

I was glad to have had a witness with me. I am also glad that, even under oath, nothing can change this story because it happened as described.

Dear Regional Health Unit, thank you for assuring me that my assumption was correct, that you in fact do not care if milk is safe or not, that you do not care if there are people who need the milk.

Nevertheless, I think we actually can work out a deal wherein we agree to find a real solution to the issue instead of playing cat and mouse for the wrong reasons. Start listening to the people.

Regards Michael

September 3, 2008

Message from Michael Schmidt

Dear Friends and Cow Share Owners

September 10. 11. 12. is the Contempt of Court Trial in Newmarket at the court house Eagle Street 50. Hopefully it will start on each day around 9 30 am.

At the motion hearing on July 31. 2008, Counsel for the health unit Dan Kuzmyk told the judge he would call 2 or 3 witnesses to testify in support of York Regions motion. As a surprise move he decided to summons 6 cow share owners, maybe because he realized that he had great difficulties proofing his case” beyond a reasonable doubt”.

This promises to be a very interesting and revealing event. Winning is not at the center of this case. The facts which relate to the issue need to be looked at in the context of the law and dealt with properly in a court of law. Astounding is simply the fact that York Region despite its knowledge of the other court proceedings wants to use another tactic to throw rocks in our way.

We requested as witnesses the chief medical officer of health in York Region Dr. Karin Kurji as well as chief medical officer of health in Bruce Grey Owen Sound Dr. Hazel Lynn amongst Dominic Fortuna who according to documents apparently started the whole under cover operation in June 2006.

When I delivered the summons I was glad to meet Mr. Fortuna and Dr. Kurji on a more personal level with a friendly handshake. Dr. Hazel Lynn successfully avoided me and needed to be served by a professional court server, who told me plenty of stories, how often he had to play the game of cat and mouse in order to serve court papers.

Make sure that we all will enter the court with dignity.

I will assure you that I also will leave the court with dignity whatever the ruling might be.

It is always a blessing to face the other side in front of a judge. We all are humans and we all should stand for what we feel and think is morally right.

Now it will be up to the judge to rule.

Warm regards

Michael Schmidt

Please note that the court case is on 50 Eagle Street. Not Davis Drive as previously mentioned.

September 7, 2008

Email from Judith:

To all Cow Lovers and Cow Share Members

To protect your right to choose and to protect your right to continue getting raw milk and cheese be sure to come out and show the world that you really mean what you say.

In preparation for the upcoming trial we have created a blog so that we can have minute to minute updates from Newmarket. Wellllll, if not minute by minute it will be daily. We encourage all of you to add comments on the blog throughout the week to keep it lively and to feed the media.

CBC television spent half a day at Glencolton on Friday and is expected to do a piece on the news. Michael is doing a radio one interview Tuesday morning for Sounds like Canada. We will know more about when these are airing shortly. We expect to be in room 401 in the courthouse again however this has not been confirmed.

Log on to the new blog to find out the details.

Remember, you “heard it through the bovine”

http://thebovine.wordpress.com

October 20, 2008

Michael Schmidt was found guilty of contempt of court. Read more >>


Content last modified on January 28, 2009, at 12:47 AM EST