Raw milkman Michael Schmidt refuses fines—and embraces jail time
After he professed a willingness to die to see the sale of raw milk legalized, it should come as no surprise that food freedom crusader Michael Schmidt is prepared to go to prison for his cause. Schmidt was in court in Newmarket last week for sentencing on convictions related to the sale of unpasteurized milk. The judge—who seemed entirely sympathetic to the cause—handed down a relatively gentle fine, but Schmidt, ever the hard-liner, refused to accept it.
Raw-milk crusader Michael Schmidt was handed a $9,150 fine and one year of probation Friday on convictions related to selling and distributing unpasteurized milk.
In an interview after the sentence was handed down in a packed Newmarket, Ont., courtroom, Mr. Schmidt said he would not be paying the fine. “I’d rather go to prison than pay the fine and that’s a matter of principle,” he said. “If I pay the fine, then this is almost like an admittance of guilt.”
An appeal will be filed within the next 30 days, he said.
We can’t say we have high hopes for this appeal, since Justice Peter Tetley basically agreed with Schmidt and still overturned his earlier acquittals. Tetley told the courtroom that there are many people, even in his own family, who drink the stuff, and that “the present legislation is inconsistent, at best.” And while Tetley acknowledged that “there’s a lot to admire about Mr. Schmidt,” he said it wasn’t a judge’s place to challenge the law.
Schmidt, however, wasn’t having it. “Sorry to draw the line, but since the Nuremberg trials, ‘doing my job’ is not a justifiable defence anymore for doing something not right,” he said in an interview after the sentencing. The former farmer’s continued defiance is entirely unsurprising by this point, though he claims he couldn’t pay the fine if he wanted to. “I don’t own anything,” he said. “I’m basically on the grace of other people.” (This may explain why defence lawyer Karen Selick argued for a $10 fine.) Worse, this sentence isn’t even the end of Schmidt’s legal battles: he faces contempt of court charges in Vancouver next week in connection with a cow share in Chilliwack, B.C.
• Raw milk farmer sentenced to fine and probation [Toronto Star]
• Ontario farmer fined $9,150 for raw milk [National Post]
• Ontario raw-milk advocate fined $9,150, given year probation [The Globe and Mail]
I get raw milk, fresh eggs, grass fed meat delivered to me via a service offered by some friends of a farm in New Market. I benefit from farmers bending the rules like Micheal. Please support him, donate, spread the word. Canada needs to wise up , this total control of farmers is EVIL.
Just send the nutter to Borstal and be done with it. A more noble cause I could so easily imagine, the man is campaigning for rhubarb.
Apparently Schmidt was also automatically required to pay a $1945 “victim surcharge”, despite this being a case where there was plainly no victim.
Mr. Schmidt’s problems are the same as mine. Government is using agencies, marketing boards and commission in the legalized theft of God given rights and our right to private property.
Bob Mackie
Mackies Mountain Archery
Following both of these stories,for a while now,having a hard time believing the degree of persecution leveled at Michael and Bob,and most likely other less publicized cases.God knows who these small minded bureaucrats think they are,maybe every farmer in Ontario needs to put a “Raw Milk” sign at the end of the driveway.This is dictatorship nothing more nothing less!
Farmers were demoted to subservient status when they gave up the right to sell unpasteurized milk (at the farm gate or anywhere). Farmers should have only accepted inspection, testing, etc. to ensure standards are kept up.
Niche dairy products (where an interesting value-added would be possible) are the exclusive luxury of the dairies, the farmer having been pushed aside by regulations. The public is increasingly railroaded into buying only from the big dairies where milk processing removes all the good from milk but looks after us by adding back some vitamins. The milk marketing board ought to be shaking in its boots in fear of being scrapped. Instead they doggedly oppose innovation that could help family farms actually thrive.
Farmer, have you thought about following through on the idea (above) of Allen Bunyan? Putting a “Raw Milk” at the foot of your driveway? It reminds me of all the people in Holland donning yellow stars during WW2, as if they all were Jewish. Apropos given Michael Schmidtʻs reference to Nuremberg.
The overblown comparisons need to stop. Comparing the raw milk affair to the Holocaust is ridiculous, and offensive to people who suffered much more than Schmidt and his yuppie customers. Michael Schmidt is not Jesus Christ or Bobby Sands or whoever else. He’s a businessman who is not allowed to sell a niche product due to (potentially justified) public health concerns. That said, the government should leave him alone. If one of his customers gets sick, they can work it out with him person-to-person.
Bob if you’re reading these comments please contact me,I met with David Honey yesterday and plan to be with him at your court case Thursday.I cannot divulge any details here however it does involve your case, and that of Michael Schmidt.Awareness is a key issue and we have a plan to address that matter.My e-mail is abunyan@vaxxine.com
when you live in a country that controls everything you do
say hear listen to and eat
that is a hitler holocost funny those that yap about
that never mention that stalin starved to death 12 MILLION ukraine farmers in the thirties NO THATS NOT MENTIONED
we drank raw milk and ate butter from raw milk
since we were 7 4 2 and three days
old
I am 24 and my brother is 16 all we want to do is
milk twenty four cows and have a one hundred acer farm
and five acers of whole food from gardens
to sell people
we can farm for 130 k but society is to busy
paying the sandra bulocks of the world 45 MILLION dollars a year
if we get our farm my dad will sell milk openly
and the canadian government can spend 60 thousand dollars a year of YOUR TAX PAYERS money to keep him behind bars
for selling a food thats LEGAL IN CALIFORNIA
the eighth largest economy in the world
alisha hillman if you want to farm share garden share
and help me keep my family together
we are asking the HUMAN BEINGS OF THIS WORLD TO HELP US
Twitter Singledad1234
or call me 1 519 347 2376
For those of you that think you have a God-given right to drink raw milk: are you aware that 1/5 cases of foodborne illness is actually transmitted person to person? So when you drink raw milk you not only put yourself at risk but potentially those around you.
Although I agree wholeheartedly with being able to choose what I eat, I am one of a number of local disgruntled ex-employees that remain unpaid for work at the Schmidt farm. Unfortunately he and wife also bend the rules in what’s right and wrong… and take advantage of contract workers knowing they have no recourse other than court to recoup unpaid wages. With Schmidt’s refusal to acknowledge or pay any fines and the monies thrown at him so he can further thumb his nose at authority, it makes it daunting to anyone in the same situation as I.
It’s easy to paint a lovely picture of a raw milk crusader being crushed by the big bad government. Up close and personal, he’s a dishonest bully. My humble opinion.