Canadian taxpayers subsidizing world's largest cricket farm

If Canadians wanted to eat crickets, we wouldn’t be forced to subsidize the cricket farm | Western Standard - Karen Selick:

July 3, 2022 - "I know a Canadian man who lives in Thailand. He teaches English as his primary occupation, but he and his wife also have a 'hobby farm' raising crickets.... When the insects are ready for harvesting, his wife — a Thai native — fries them up with popular Thai seasonings. The crickets are then sold as snacks.... For Thais, eating insects isn’t novel. Take a look at some of the other mouth-watering delicacies they eat: bamboo worms, silkworms, grasshoppers and giant water bugs....

Takoradee, Deep-fried insects for sale in Bangkok, Thailand, 2006. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.

"Thais aren’t the only people in the world who eat insects.... Recently, however, it has been announced that Canada, of all places - where I’ve lived all my life and have never known anyone to eat crickets - will become home to the world's largest cricket farm, newly built in London, Ontario by Aspire Food Group. The company’s CEO, Mohammed Ashour, predicts that North Americans will soon join two billion other people on the planet who, he claims, already eat insects.

"Note, though, that the world’s insect-eaters are almost all in third-world countries.... The Thai restaurants I’ve been to in North America offer beef, pork, shrimp and chicken on the menu, but I’ve never seen one offer worms, grasshoppers or crickets. People eat bugs primarily when they can’t afford more appetizing forms of protein. I checked with a friend in the nearby but much wealthier country of Singapore. He ... told me that, no, he has never seen anyone selling crickets. Singapore’s per capita GDP is seven times that of Thailand. Even Malaysians, who live right next door to Thailand but have a GDP per capita that’s 54% higher, don’t eat crickets, although there are apparently insect agriculture start-ups gearing up right now, just as in Canada. I wonder why.

"Aspire’s enormous spanking-new plant has been subsidized by a million-dollar award (the Hult Prize) received from the United Nations. As well, the company appears to have received $16.8 million from Canadian taxpayers through something called NGen (Next Generation Manufacturing Canada). It looks as though that’s just the first instalment, however; the project total for the 'insect protein supply chain in Canada' is shown on NGen’s website as $73 million.

"Aspire’s website acknowledges that it also received a third government grant, namely $10 million from SDTC (Sustainable Development Technology Canada) in June 2020.  SDTC describes itself as 'a foundation created by the Government of Canada in 2001 to invest in clean technologies that address climate change, air quality, clean water and clean soil'....

"A search for 'crickets' in this database of Canadian Government Grants and Contributions revealed 24 separate grants totaling $13.8 million for food-related purposes, including another $8.5 million for Aspire Food Group under something called the AgriInnovate Program. As a taxpayer, I object strenuously to this use of my money for the manipulation of people’s eating habits.  If people wanted to eat crickets, they’d buy them without any need for subsidies. If they don’t want to, they shouldn’t be continually pushed into doing so, with their own tax dollars doing the pushing.

"As far as the environment is concerned, there are other, non-coercive ways of making agriculture more productive while improving the environment. Farmer Joel Salatin of the famous Polyface Farm has lectured and written about this for decades. His method of regenerative agriculture restores land fertility while producing five times as much per acre as the neighbouring farms in his county. Regenerative Salatin-style farms are popping up all over the place in Canada. I’ve been buying all my meat, eggs, honey and flour from such farms for at least five years. These farmers work hard, improve their land, feed their customers, but if they make a profit at it — whoosh! It’s syphoned off to subsidize their cricket-rearing competitors. Pardon the pun, but it’s just not cricket."

Read more: https://www.westernstandard.news/opinion/selick-if-canadians-wanted-to-eat-crickets-we-wouldn-t-be-forced-to-subsidize-the/article_5c9fc48a-fa17-11ec-b9dc-531a22aa8391.html

Ontario anti-lockdown MPP freed on bail

Randy Hillier gets bail – but also gets silenced | Western Standard - Karen Selick: 

Hillier at 2021 anti-lockdown protest, Niagara Falls, Ont, Photo: Beth Baisch, Dreamstime

March 29, 2022 -"I’ve known Ontario MPP Randy Hillier for about 20 years. I’ve found myself in agreement with him on every important issue I can think of over that time. The pandemic was no exception. I admired his courage in publicly opposing Ontario’s official government narrative about lockdowns, mask mandates and vaccination mandates. I applauded his denunciation of the tyrannical federal policies that led to the Ottawa Freedom Convoy. 

"Therefore, when I received a message early Monday morning (March 28) saying that Randy was being charged with nine Criminal Code offences ... and would be surrendering to the Ottawa police that day, I was alarmed. I knew he had been accumulating provincial charges for various No More Lockdowns protests he had organized and attended around the province, but sources have been telling me that many charges of this kind are being delayed and ultimately dropped by prosecutors who don’t want to face a well-thought-out Charter challenge. Criminal Code charges by the Ottawa police were a different kettle of fish. My concern, of course, was Randy might face the kind of treatment that had been given to convoy organizer Tamara Lich, who spent two weeks in jail before finally receiving reasonable bail conditions.

"Randy retained Ottawa criminal lawyer David Anber, and a bail hearing was held via Zoom on Monday afternoon. Anber had already negotiated with Crown counsel Tim Wightman and they had hammered out an agreement under which Randy would be released on bail subject to 15 conditions he’d have to comply with. Counsel were able to agree on the wording of 14 of those conditions: standard bail terms such as posting a bond (in this case, $35,000), residing with his surety at a fixed address, not communicating with other people who have been charged with offences also arising out of the Freedom Convoy, and so on. However, they couldn’t agree on the wording of the fifteenth condition, namely what Randy would be permitted to say on social media pending trial about the issues he has been expounding on over the past two years.

"I managed to get into the Zoom call and listened to the legal arguments. The Crown wanted to restrict Randy from posting anything 'on social media of any type' regarding not only the Freedom Convoy, but also provincial policy on mask mandates, vaccination mandates, 'or the Anti-vaccine cause [sic].' He also wanted to prevent Randy from attending or providing 'any type of support (including financial support) to the freedom convoy or any anti mask/vaccine organization or causes [sic].' Anber pointed out as an elected member of the legislature, it was actually Randy’s job to comment precisely on important issues like this before the legislature. He also argued that in a free and democratic society, it’s important to have competing voices saying different things about the issues.

"The Crown prosecutor then seemed to narrow down what he was asking for. It’s forbidden on Ontario court Zoom calls to make your own recordings of the proceedings, so I had to type furiously in an effort to catch what he was saying. He seemed to concede that the wording of the disputed bail condition would not prevent Randy from making his views heard in the mainstream media or in the legislature only on social media, which the Crown described as his primary tool of communication.

"This isn’t much comfort. For starters, how is social media defined nowadays? I no longer get paper copies of major daily newspapers delivered to my door. I read them online, and frequently participate in the online comment sections. Does the electronic interaction between a newspaper and its readers nudge the paper over the line into the social media category? Is clicking a 'like' button part of 'posting?' What about sharing someone else’s post? It’s not entirely clear what will be forbidden, and the stakes would be high if Randy were to be accused of violating his bail conditions. But more importantly, I can’t see the difference in 'risk to the public' between the two types of media.....

"Justice of the Peace Logue took only a 10-minute break before deciding in favour of the Crown, demonstrating she has apparently bought the government’s pandemic narrative hook, line and sinker. Although she paid lip service to the Charter, she gave short shrift to Randy’s freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. Randy and his lawyer are contemplating whether or not to appeal.

"Meanwhile, there’s one other aspect of the bail hearing that struck me as grossly unfair.... When Randy was brought into the call at the end from his jail cell to be asked whether he accepted the conditions the judge had ordered, it was apparent that the police officer had just brought him to the phone for that purpose, and he hadn’t been allowed to listen to or watch the entire proceedings. Accused people can normally attend their bail hearings, which allows them to listen carefully to the allegations being made against them by the Crown, inform their lawyer of any important points he or she might need to know, and evaluate their own lawyer’s performance in the courtroom. Randy was denied the benefit of all of these."

Read more: https://westernstandardonline.com/2022/03/selick-randy-hillier-gets-bail-but-also-gets-silenced/

Raid on raw milk farm thwarted by social media

Wrong that raw milk raids continue | Guest column | Opinion | Toronto Sun - Karen Selick:

October 4, 2015 - "On Friday, Oct. 2, 20 or so investigators from various Ontario government departments, accompanied by six armed police officers, raided Glencolton Farms, the co-operative farm in Grey Bruce County where raw milk advocate Michael Schmidt manages the dairy operation .... They arrived with a truck and a search warrant authorizing them to seize and remove numerous items for a raw milk investigation.

"The news spread quickly on Facebook and Twitter. Soon, 50 co-op members were at the farm, shoulder-to-shoulder, barring the exit to the invaders. Eventually, a deal was negotiated: the cops and bureaucrats would leave with nothing more than a few computers that had already been removed (which they promised to return), and the co-op owners would stand aside.

"This is the third such raid that Michael Schmidt has undergone.... Each time, Schmidt has been convicted of one or more regulatory offences relating to raw milk. Each time, he has been fined thousands of dollars.... Each time, the story caught the attention of increasing numbers of Canadians, who became curious about raw milk and wanted to acquire some. So each time, the province’s strong-arm tactics have backfired, increasing rather than reducing the number of raw milk drinkers in the province....

"Today, Canada makes the pasteurization of milk mandatory, but many countries around the world do not. Roughly half of the U.S. states allow sales of raw milk. In at least six European countries, raw milk is legally sold in vending machines....  The Canadian government says that unpasteurized milk is dangerous and people shouldn’t drink it. But ... there has not been even a single report of illness relating to the raw milk that Schmidt has produced over the past 27 years.....

"The controversy over raw milk has led researchers in Europe to conduct wide-ranging scientific studies.... The GABRIELA study published in 2011 ...  involved 8,000 school-aged children. Those who had consumed raw milk had a roughly 50% lower risk of asthma and allergies.

"Since asthma kills approximately 250 Canadians every year, it is perfectly reasonable for adults afflicted with the disease to seek out raw milk as a preventative measure for their children.

"Schmidt has consistently sought opportunities for the past 27 years to meet with provincial officials and negotiate a way to give Ontarians the option of consuming raw milk without breaking the law. The response has always been a cold shoulder.... Kathleen Wynne’s administration continues to follow the failed policy of raiding and harassing Schmidt and the co-owners of the co-operative farm."

Read more: http://www.torontosun.com/2015/10/04/wrong-that-raw-milk-raids-continue
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Food inspectors try to jail woman whose sheep they killed

Help defend farmers charged in rare sheep case | Indiegogo - Karen Selick:

August 7, 2015 - "We need help raising a legal defence fund for Montana Jones and Michael Schmidt, two Ontario farmers charged with defying the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). We have to be careful what we say here, because the government recently asked for (and got) a publication ban on this case.

"Back in 2010, the CFIA issued an order  quarantining Montana’s farm. They suspected her sheep had a disease called scrapie.... They did live biopsies on Montana’s flock. All were negative for scrapie. But the CFIA said that wasn’t good enough. The sheep would have to be killed, and their brains examined....

"On the day before the CFIA were coming to slaughter the sheep, someone removed them surreptitiously from the farm.... Eventually, they found the flock about 8 weeks later, 300 km away. The CFIA killed all the recovered sheep, and examined their brains. All tested negative for scrapie, just as Montana had predicted they would....

"Now four people have been charged with criminal offences. One person has pleaded guilty.  The other three, including Montana Jones and Michael Schmidt, are awaiting a jury trial.  Their charges were laid in December, 2012, but the case is still at the preliminary hearing stage.  No trial date has been set yet....

"The Canadian Constitution Foundation and lawyer Shawn Buckley are defending Montana and Michael, but it’s going to be expensive. The prosecution, with their huge resources (your tax dollars), are trying to exhaust our resources....

"The prosecution has wasted our resources (deliberately, we suspect) by bringing one long motion after another.  One of their motions was to force me (Karen Selick) off the case, alleging I had a conflict of interest because I represented both Montana and Michael. The prosecutors have now subpoenaed me as a witness (yes, against my own clients) as a technique for keeping me off the case.

"They also brought a lengthy motion to force Shawn Buckley off the case, but fortunately the judge ruled that Shawn could carry on.  Then there was the publication ban motion — another long court procedure that used up the defence’s resources and hampered our ability to inform the public about government actions.

"The CFIA clearly wants to put Montana and Michael in jail. When the CFIA investigator first raided Michael Schmidt’s farm in August, 2012, he crowed to Michael, 'Your travelling days are over, Mr. Schmidt.'  The prosecutor once told me that he intends for them to go to a federal penitentiary, which means a minimum sentence of two years. In fact, with the number of charges facing each of them, they could conceivably end up in jail for a decade or more.

"Please help keep these ethical farmers out of jail.  Please donate, then share this page with anyone who cares about healthy natural food, preserving biodiversity, freedom from rampant bureaucracy, freedom of the press, and justice in Canada’s courts.

"The Canadian Constitution Foundation — 'freedom’s defence team' — is a registered charity in both Canada and the US. If you donate at least $25, you’ll get a receipt that you can use to claim a deduction on your income tax return."

Read more: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-defend-farmers-charged-in-rare-sheep-case#/story
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Canadian government kills sheep to ensure they aren't sick

Canadian Government Destroys Heritage Sheep Herd and Wants to Send Farmer to Prison | Health Impact News - Brian Shilhavy:

April 25, 2013 - "Shepherdess Montana Jones began accumulating her flock of rare Shropshire sheep in 2000.... But in early 2010, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) suddenly quarantined Montana’s farm. A single sheep that she had sold in 2007 had died on a farm more than 1,500 miles away. It tested positive for a disease called scrapie. The CFIA thought the rest of Montana’s flock might be infected.

"The CFIA conducted live biopsies on Montana’s flock during 2011. All were negative for disease. None showed any symptoms of illness. But the CFIA said the live tests were only 88% accurate. They would need to kill the sheep and dissect their brains to know for sure whether they were ill, they said.

"Montana and her lawyer Karen Selick of the Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) fought the CFIA throughout the early months of 2012, pointing out the absurdity of killing the sheep to make sure they weren’t sick.... Intransigent, the CFIA ordered that the sheep be destroyed. They told Montana they’d be coming to seize the sheep early on the morning of April 2, 2012.

"On the morning of the scheduled slaughter, Montana found that the sheep had disappeared.... The CFIA and Ontario Provincial Police mounted a massive search for the sheep, conducting door-to-door searches throughout rural Ontario and employing helicopters for aerial surveillance.

"About 9 weeks after the sheep’s disappearance, the CFIA received a tip-off from an undisclosed source. The sheep were located 200 miles away from Montana’s farm, at a farm very close to raw milk crusader Michael Schmidt’s farm. The CFIA seized, killed and tested all the sheep, including numerous lambs that had been born to them during their absence. All were negative for scrapie.

"Now Montana Jones has been charged with numerous criminal offences, including conspiracy, breach of quarantine, and disobeying a regulatory order. The CFIA also alleges that Michael Schmidt is involved in the conspiracy. He too is facing criminal charges. If convicted, Montana faces up to 12 years in jail and fines of $1.5 million. Michael, charged with one less charge, faces up to 10 years in jail and fines of $1.25 million.

Read more: http://healthimpactnews.com/2013/canadian-government-destroys-heritage-sheep-herd-and-wants-to-send-farmer-to-prison/
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Liberty Summer Seminar & Jaworski Family Win Freedom of Assembly

Canadian Constitution Foundation

 Press Release

For Immediate Release: February 14, 2011.

Liberty Summer Seminar & Jaworski Family Win Freedom of Assembly

The Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) today announced that it has succeeded in getting charges dropped against Marta and Lech Jaworski for hosting the Liberty Summer Seminar on their rural property in the Municipality of Clarington.

For video footage, click here.

Background

The Liberty Summer Seminar (LSS) has been held annually outdoors at the Jaworskis’ home for 10 years. The seminar brings together university professors, think-tank executives, and liberty-minded activists to speak to an audience consisting primarily of students about political and economic freedom.

The Jaworskis, who fled Poland in 1984 while it was still a totalitarian regime, were astonished to find themselves charged in August, 2010 with an offence under Ontario’s Planning Act, merely for hosting the seminar on their 20-acre property. “We left Poland seeking freedom, but when we tried to help celebrate freedom in Canada, we found ourselves being treated like suspected criminals,” said Marta Jaworski, 57.

The Jaworskis retained a local lawyer to help them fight the charges but Clarington refused to budge.

Freedom of Peaceful Assembly

In December, 2010 the CCF took on the case. The CCF is a registered charitable organization that engages in public interest litigation in selected cases where it perceives government bodies to be breaching citizens’ constitutional rights.

The CCF filed court documents maintaining that the forbidding of the LSS would constitute a breach of the Jaworskis’ constitutional right to freedom of assembly under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The municipality informed the CCF last week that the charges against the Jaworskis would be withdrawn, in recognition of the fact that “their use of the property was purely for the purpose of a peaceful assembly and expressive activity”.

CCF Litigation Director Karen Selick said, “We are very satisfied with this result, and we’re particularly pleased that Clarington conceded the Jaworskis’ constitutional rights instead of putting them through the ordeal of a trial”.

http://www.canadianconstitutionfoundation.ca/article.php/215