BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication).
*************************
When the Ontario legislature returns to business at Queen’s Park this month, MPPs will continue debate over Bill 156, the Security from Trespass and Protecting Food Safety Act — also known as the “Ag Gag” bill. While Minister Ernie Hardeman and his caucus work hard to try to sell, spin and grind it as a bill aimed at safety, bio-security and delivering 'family' farms from evil trespassers, Bill 156 is actually a whole other animal. Everyone should be concerned about this ill-conceived, poorly planned bill, including farmers.
Like other initiatives undertaken by our current provincial government, there were the usual roundtable discussions, meetings and calls which folks from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs held with a number of farming organizations, commodity groups, stakeholders and those impacted by interference to livestock operations. This was in an attempt to gather feedback on what legislation should look like. What we never heard come out of these specific discussions were documented statistics. For instance, how many trespassing incidents were recorded by police in Ontario on family farms, say, for the period 2015 to 2018? If there were actual trespassing incidents, the police would have been called, correct? Especially if it was a “bio-security or sanitation or family safety threat." Were any charges laid? Any convictions?
We don’t even need protesters around for bio-security and sanitation issues to occur. Last week the Canadian Food Inspection Agency recalled Sealtest brand products including skim, one and two per cent milk across Ontario and Quebec due to the presence of sanitizer in their products.
In December 2019, the Ryding-Regency Meat Packers, Canadian Select Meats Inc. and The Beef Boutique Inc. all had licences revoked due to the E. coli outbreak that led to the recall of nearly 1,000 different raw beef and veal products. No further plans to reopen as of January 2020.
Bill 156 is not about protecting small farms from trespassers. If it was, then all the people out snowmobiling across farmers’ fields trespassing, tearing up our properties, would be mentioned in all of this, too — they are not.
People are being punished by the provincial government for speaking out. It is about bullying and silencing anyone in Ontario who is a whistleblower when it comes to livestock abuse on farms, at slaughterhouses, in transport.
And that great sales pitch we heard from the provincial government about the Provincial Animal Welfare Services (PAWS) Act? That won’t apply here. Who is going to call to report abuse on their employer or co-worker or family? Who is going to want to even think about being an informant? Here’s a newsflash, provincial government: all that support you garnered over the PAWS Act? It’s all been eroded because of Bill 156.
Livestock producers have pressured and lobbied the provincial government — and not on behalf of the little farmers. It’s agribusiness big-time at Queen’s Park. Bill 156 is a desperate attempt on the part of the agribusiness sector to try and protect themselves from public scrutiny, conceal animal abuse where it exists and prevent consumers from knowing the truth about the way animals in the meat and dairy industries live and die. No one should be punished for daring to question those in any industry — especially the voiceless animal industry.
Here’s a thought — how about if you’re going to be in the business of farming animals for profit, you simply be ethical? What would you have to hide then?
T. Edwards
Oro-Medonte
***********************
