You have 0 items in your cart
Katie Pasitney from Universal Ostrich Farms
Day 1 of the Judicial Review @ 701 West Georgia Street, Vancouver BC.
Katie provides an update from Federal Court, where the case of Universal Ostrich Farms against the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is underway.
Good morning everybody. We are here and we are ready, so thank you for everybody’s love and support. We’re all checked in, waiting in the breakout room for court to start, and just continued prayers and lots of love through today. Let’s just pray that truth and science gets heard today and holds a place in our judicial system and is protected. Hi everybody we’re just here, we’re ready, and lots of love. We’ll let you know how everything goes.
Courtroom Notes provided by Kari Simpson
🌟 Update #1
Ostrich warrior and lawyer, Michael Carter was the first to address the court.
In his address Mr. Carter presented a concise record of the events leading up to the decision by CFIA. He exposed a number of failings by the CFIA to follow its own policies.
(Writer’s comments- Most interesting was how the ostriches were found to have a variant of the Avian flu and how the so-called CFIA experts refused to answer questions during the discovery process because they weren’t qualified!!)
🌟 Update #2
Save Our Ostriches warrior lawyer Michael Carter gave the opening statements on behalf of the ostrich farm.
Mr. Carter, provided a concise account of the events leading up to the decision by CFIA to kill the ostriches.
It was obvious from the record that CFIA didn’t follow its own guidelines. Most important were the statements made by CFIA “experts” involving the identified variant of Avian flu, found by the testing. CFIA experts admitted during the discovery process that they weren’t qualified to respond to questions about the variants transmission.
🌟 Update #3
Just before the morning break, lawyer Lee Turner took over from Michael Carter.
Mr. Turner turned the focus onto how the CFIA failed to properly address the new emerging variant.
Using the World Health Organization Animals (WHOA) directives to member countries on what should be done it was obvious that the CFIA didn’t follow the directives.
As Canada follows and relies on WHOA, Mr. Turned used their definition of “poultry” to demonstrate to the judge that these ostriches did not fall into the guidelines associated with poultry.
Morning break.
🌟 Update #4
11:26 am court resumes after morning break. Lee Turner describes for the court how negligent the CFIA was in dealing with the new variant.
Referring to CFIA’s own vet, Cathy Furness, affidavit where she acknowledges that the test results from the 2 dead ostriches showed a unique reassortment of genome type not identified before in Canada, Mr. Turner again detailed what the CFIAs responsibilities were and that they failed to meet those requirements. Including testing, monitoring and research.
🌟 Update 5
Lawyer Lee Turner took time to address Justice Zinn’s earlier questions about expert witnesses, qualifications and concerns about one of CFIAs affiants who made statements of opinion without being qualified as an expert.
Some exchanges with the Justice and referenced discussion regarding precedent cases.
Michael Carter will be back presenting after the lunch break.
Court will resume at 1:20 pm
🌟 Update 6
The judicial review hearings continues. Lawyer Michael Carter, raises the numerous flaws in the CFIA decision making. With regard to the December 31, 2024 cull order the evidence shows that the decision by CFIA was “fatally flawed.”
Referring to the sworn affidavits by CFIA it is clear that CFIA agents making the decisions didn’t have all the information! Dr. Fuentes’s confirms the only information they relied upon was the lab report from Abbotsford.
🌟 Update 7
Lawyer Michael Carter navigates the mixed orders fiasco with Justice Zinn.
On Jan 2, 2025, CFIA gives the ostrich farm an exemption based on the valuable and rare genetics the ostriches possess. CFIA asks the owners to provide more information. CFIA doesn’t inform owners what info they need and gives them a form that is used for a commercial poultry farm. This firm isn’t applicable to the ostrich farm.
On January 10, the farm owners are then informed that their exemption has been REVOKED! No explanation, just orders to kill the ostriches by Feb 1.
Carter also informs the court that CFIA has a policy of being transparent but failed to provide information as to why they changed their decision about the rare and valuable gentics.
Justice Zinn is engaged. Doesn’t miss a word, including ones that are mis-spoken.
🌟 Update 8
Court is over for today
Lawyer Michael Carter finished his submissions by informing the judge that the CFIA has discretion. Decision should be flexible, reflect scientific considerations…
Discussion then turned to vaccinations and both CFIA and WHOA agree that immunity is the goal.
Issues around trade agreements clearly reflected that CFIAs reliance on using trade as an affected aspect was bogus. The CFIAs affiant swore that he had no knowledge of any trade deals being broken due to Avian flu.
“CFIA’s statement that trade is affected is not true.”
Carter finished his submissions and the taxpayer funded CFIA lawyer began her submissions calling the definition if poultry and the low pathogen designation a “Red Herring”.
Judge questioned her on how she got to the designation of the tested virus being “highly pathogenic?” She responded by referring to a number of statements that didn’t make it “crystal clear.”
Discussions around the poultry designations also included what was happening at the farm and if it exceeded “research”.
Court ended with more to come tomorrow morning at 9:30 am.
