Four farm organizations in Ontario –Farm & Food Care Ontario, Ontario Pork, Ontario Federation of Agriculture and the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario — released a joint statement on May 4 in response to the dismissal of charges announced by Justice David Harris on Anita Krajnc’s charge for criminal mischief related to interfering with farm animals while in transit.
The farm organizations said they are extremely disappointed with the decision and are concerned that activists will be encouraged to engage in escalating activities that are a growing threat to animal welfare, food security and human safety.
The organizations would not say what kind of a sentence they would have liked Justice Harris to dish out on A.K. I asked. Would 30 days in jail be enough? Maybe 90 days? A year? How about 6 to 10 years in prison? Maybe a fine of some kind?
I’m referring to her as A.K. No need to publicize her name over and over. No matter the outcome of this strange court case, A.K. would be the winner. She got her publicity and even if she was handed a prison sentence, being in the limelight and the support she would receive from like-minded people would be well worth it. The case has made her a minor celebrity on social media.
Here are some facts I dug up: A.K. is co-founder of Toronto Pig Save, which was started in 2010. She is 49, holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Toronto. She has been Assistant Professor at Queen’s University. She has also been a media democracy activist and a writer. She was an aide to Charles Caccia, former Minister of Environment.
The related incident occurred on June 22, 2015, outside Fearman’s Pork Inc. slaughter house in Burlington. The protest was undertaken by Toronto Pig Save, a group to which A.K. belongs. A.K. and her group were providing water to pigs in trucks carrying them to slaughter, as they stopped at a traffic island through the vents on the sides of the truck. As they were doing so, a driver of one of the trucks, got down and went to her and asked her to stop.
The next day, Eric van Boekel, from whose farm the pigs were brought, filed a case against A.K. He complained to police because he was worried there were contaminants in the water. He said that could lead the Fearmans Pork slaughterhouse to turn his hogs away.
Van Boekel also said he was worried about the animal activists, particularly that one would get hurt while reaching into the truck. On September 9, 2015, A.K. was charged with criminal mischief, the penalty for which ranges from a fine to 10 years in prison. In response, the group arranged a vigil on September 24. On October 14, 2015, A.K. appeared in court for an arraignment, to have charges read to her. In the context of the case The Daily Telegraph reported that under Canadian law pigs are considered property and can be transported without food and water for 36 hours.
On October 4, 2016, A.K. was arrested on charges of obstructing police and breaching her bail conditions, after a truck heading to the slaughterhouse overturned and a number of pigs briefly gained their freedom. Police had taped off part of the street to deal with the incident, and A.K. was arrested after ignoring their instructions. Protesters complained of slaughterhouse staff trying to block the public’s view of the injured and dead pigs.
Justice David Harris found A.K. not guilty of criminal mischief on May 4, 2017, judging that a crime had not occurred because simply giving water to the pigs did not constitute interference “with the operation, enjoyment or use of” the pigs by their owners as argued by the Crown. Justice Harris also dismissed the argument that A.K’s actions created a safety risk via possible contamination, finding that the driver had delivered the pigs immediately afterwards with no mention of the incident because he did not think there was a real risk, and that in the past, despite knowing that the pigs had been given water, abattoirs had never refused them.
What a circus!
