Farmer takes battle over raw milk sales to Ontario's highest court

 

TORONTO -- A farmer defending his self-professed right to sell unpasteurized milk is telling Ontario's top court he feels an obligation to question a law he feels is outdated and unjust.

Raw milk farmer Michael Schmidt is arguing that by making the sale and distribution of unpasteurized milk illegal, Ontario is infringing on both his and his customers' basic freedoms.

Schmidt's lawyers are pointing out that the Charter of Rights includes "the right of individuals to make decisions pertaining to their own bodies and their own health."

He says he wants to know if the charter is alive in Canada today.

Schmidt made his address to the Ontario Court of Appeal as his supporters filled one Toronto courtroom and overflowed into another where proceedings were broadcast on a screen.

Schmidt has been locked in a decades-long battle with Ontario over raw milk, which he believes is not only safe but offers health benefits.

"The law needs to evolve and the pasteurization law seemed not to evolve," he said in court.

But the province doesn't agree with Schmidt, calling raw milk a "significant public health risk."

Ontario's lawyers argue the law is meant to protect public health and infringes neither Schmidt's nor his customers' charter rights.

Schmidt was originally charged in 1994 and later convicted of selling or distributing unpasteurized milk.

It's not illegal for farmers to drink raw milk from their own cows, so a few years later Schmidt devised a so-called "cow share" program.

His approximately 150 customers bought ownership in a cow or herd for $300, $600 or $1,200, a system Schmidt believes is legal.

The Crown argues that Schmidt is still the one with legal title to the cows, as there is no evidence his customers "enjoy the benefit" of ownership except for a right to consume the milk and cheese products for a fee.

A provincial court judge convicted Schmidt in 2011 of 13 charges under the Health Protection and Promotion Act and the Milk Act and fined him $9,150. That decision overturned an earlier one, in which another judge had acquitted Schmidt.