“You can’t stop this because there’s such a thing as cows, they give milk and we’re going to drink it,” said Albrecht, who runs a dairy farm with her husband, Steve Martin, near Clifford in southwestern Ontario.
“It’s impossible for you to stop this, so quit trying to stop it. Quit putting energy, time, money – wasting people’s time and money – into it. It’s healthy… For them to tell us it’s not healthy, we don’t have to buy that; we don’t have to believe it, we don’t have to trust them.”
Also holding a protest sign outside the courthouse for the case being heard May 29 and 30, Martin agreed.
“People should have a right to choose what they eat,» he said. «It’s as simple as that. It’s a pretty basic issue here.»
Albrecht and Martin were among about three dozen raw milk supporters who gathered in front of the courthouse.
York Region, Peel Region and the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit are seeking an injunction in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice against “certain individuals and entities” involved in the continuing sale and distribution of unpasteurized milk and milk products.
The respondents are Michael Schmidt, Elisa Vander Hout, Markus Christian Schmidt, Agri-Cultural Renewal Co-operative Inc., Nikolaus Alexander Johannes Osthaus, the Christian Community Church in Canada John Doe, Jane Doe and persons unknown. Intervenor status has been given to Our Farm, Our Food Co-operative Inc.
It is illegal to sell raw milk in Canada but Ontario allows farmers to consume it when it is produced by their own cows.
“The application seeks an injunction order to stop the illegal activities of the involved parties and to ensure the health protection of the community,” the region said in an email.
“When an individual refuses to comply with a public health order to cease the sale, offering for sale, delivery and/or distribution of unpasteurized milk and milk products, the region can take legal steps to stop the activity. York Region uses the legal system as a last resort to ensure compliance.”
This is the latest legal battle in an ongoing standoff between governments and supporters of raw milk, who want unpasteurized milk to be able to be distributed among members of community-owned farms.
Public health officials say raw milk can contain salmonella, E. coli, listeria monocytogenes and other harmful bacteria, which can make consumers very ill.
Consumer Sibernie James-Bosch said the demand for raw milk is growing.
“The issue is: how do we access the raw milk?» she said. «We can’t have cows in our backyards in suburbia or Aurora, Bradford, Newmarket, we just can’t, but we want it for our health and there’s a lot of different reasons why people want it as well.
“But the government is preventing the farmers from supplying it. So, we decided that we want to have cow shares (in a shareholder arrangement) and this is the crux of the matter that has been going back and forth in court all the time: are the cow shares legal, are they not legal? But at the bottom of it all is: who decides what we eat and drink?”
Source: York Region
Link: https://www.yorkregion.com/news-story/7340196-raw-milk-supporters-protest-injunction-case-at-newmarket-courthouse/
