Letter to Police Department: Superintendent Anthony Odoardi, inspector Ivan L'Ortye, Officer Mark and Officer Smethurst

Sofina Foods:  Michael Latifi (CEO of Fearmans Inc. pig killing facility) and Kevin Kemp (VP Business Performance)

Ontario Ministry of Transport (Commercial Vehicles Operating Registration, CVOR)

Cc: Humberto de Silva (CUPE trainer)

Anna Pippus (Animal Justice)

SAFETY REPORT FOR OCTOBER 2019

Dear Sirs,

We thank Superintendent Odoardi, Inspector L’Ortye and Officer Mark for meeting with us in October 2019 and trying to arrange a larger meeting. We see this as crucial. We are writing to you to summarize the repeated safety violations that occur weekly at Fearmans slaughterhouse in Burlington. We require your continued assistance immediately to stop these serious concerns which we believe may result in a serious injury or fatality if not addressed.

We called the police during two vigils in October after trucks ran into activists and will continue to do so each time there is hazardous driving at the pig vigils. This summary report and attached individual safety reports goes over the safety violations and provides an analysis and recommendations for immediate remedies. We believe that top management can implement easy fixes to eradicate these dangerous and potentially fatal situations.

Summary of facts

-       In the act of bearing witness to animals going to slaughter, we stop the drivers to say there is a better way, there is a needed transition from animal protein to a plant based society for the sake of the animals, the environment and people’s health. We have a Charter right to communicate that. We also have a deeply held belief that we need to communicate with the pigs on the truck. We bear witness to the pigs because as Leo Tolstoy said we should not look away when someone is suffering; we need to come close and try to help. We should be able to express ourselves safely, just as a labour group conducting a picket line should be able to do this.

- A majority of pig transport trucks stop 1-2 meters in front of activists at the entrance to Fearmans “Pork” Inc. pig killing facility. This is important to note.

-       However, increasingly many of these pig transport trucks make a wide turn and stop in a way that block two lanes. This endangers protesters and drivers since (i) some drivers drive through the left lane past the stopped trucks endangering activists or (ii) veer to the left crossing the yellow line (illegally) and drive into oncoming traffic from the East endangering other drivers.

-       A smaller number of pig truckers, mainly repeat offenders, deliberately drive into activists. This is illegal and constitutes at least dangerous driving—perhaps worse than dangerous driving, something akin to weaponizing vehicles, as there is reckless driving by repeat offenders. We have video evidence in the attached Safety Report for October 2019.

Who’s responsible?

-       This has been going on for years, yet little if any action has been taken. What’s worse, there is often friendly banter and relations with the security guards and police which the drivers, regardless of their behaviour, are aware of plus the drivers are not spoken to when they run into activists so the drivers are actually encouraged to be repeat offenders.

-     On the other hand, many activists have been ticketed for minor offences such as trespass or interfering with traffic. We are not aware of any trucker engaged in dangerous driving being charged.

-       The Fearmans slaughterhouse, trucking companies and police are enabling this dangerous situation by not taking action.

-       There is a sense that the decision makers at the top are enabling the system of violence against protestors:

A.        I (Anita) asked one of the security guards right after a truck ran into activists: “You guys are security here. There was a red truck that ran into women.  Are you willing to talk to the driver and say ‘do not run into people’?” The security guard said, “It’s not my job to talk to anybody other than make sure that this line is being held. Unfortunately, I can’t give you anything else…” (October 17, 2019).

B.    Two weeks later, police officer Smethurst witnessed one truck running into activists. He said he had to check with his higher ups what to do and didn’t talk to the driver. Instead he told us he’d file a report.

-       The culture of impunity for violent behaviour and dangerous driving has developed over the years and  is maintained by a system which top leaders can change.

-       Recall the case of the Walkerton E-Coli scandal, when seven people died and dozens fell sick due to water contamination from cow factory farms. The Public Inquiry found the Harris government created a climate of “regulatory chill” in which civil servants were afraid to introduce regulations necessary to protect the safety of Ontario’s drinking water. The Harris government created a system in which needed environmental protection measures were not introduced, implemented, enforced or properly reviewed.

-       Similar cases support the idea that top managers can put a stop to violence. Take the case of Toronto Pig Save’s safety arrangements with the three slaughterhouses in Toronto:

A.        Slaughterhouse 1: Maple Leaf Foods, located at 100 Ethel Ave. in Toronto, responded in less than 6 months with a safety agreement. Martin, the plant manager, changed the culture of one of violence with trucks running into people and one truck driver successfully prosecuted by the police, to one where the arrangement was for every chicken transport truck to stop on Ethel street for 5 minutes so activists could safely bear witness. On Friday, Nov 8, one of our group’s members Dr. David Jenkins (inventor of the glycemic index, a vegan and climate activist and holder of 5 degrees from Oxford U) is meeting with CEO Michael McCain to discuss ways of promoting plant-based proteins and transitioning to a plant-based future. The company now owns LightLife and Field Roast and calls itself a “protein company,” not a meat company anymore.

B.        Slaughterhouse 2: At St. Helen’s cow slaughterhouse, a privately held corporation, we’ve had cordial relations with the owner Robert Bielak for years and a couple of years ago finally reached an informal safety arrangement where trucks stop on Glen Scarlett Road, some for as long as 20 or 30 minutes (the slaughterhouse has a small kill pen area so trucks have to wait outside before unloading).

C.         Slaughterhouse 3: Similarly, at the same time as St. Helen’s, at Ryding Regency cow slaughterhouse the security guard started shutting the gate so the cow transport trucks would stop for 2 minutes so activists could safely bear witness.

-       The Chain of Command at Fearmans pig killing facility: If the decision makers decide to have a safety agreement the culture of violence would stop overnight as the Toronto slaughterhouse experiences illustrate.

Analysis: Weaponizing Vehicles

-           What we face is dangerous driving almost every week. It’s deliberate, active violence towards activists, repeated week after week.

          - Most drivers do not run into activists. There are however a handful of outliers and       repeat offenders.

-       Using transport trucks as a weapon is a serious violation and could lead to injury and death of humans, both activists and on site security.

-       A small group of dangerous transport truck drivers are weaponizing their vehicles, that is, using transport trucks as a weapon against activists threatening to run them over by running into them (playing a “game of chicken”). This is a serious violation and could lead to injury and death of humans.

-         There are operating their vehicles recklessly and carelessly, in violation of the Criminal Code of Canada and Highway Traffic Act.

-       The police are enabling this dangerous situation by not taking action.

-       In a spectrum of weaponizing a vehicle: operating a vehicle wrecklessly in the hope that activists get out of the way is one end of the spectrum (where there can be homicide) and, on the other end, you can have a person entering a vehicle for the purpose of killing people, which can be classified as a form of domestic terrorism. An example of the latter: On April 23, 2018, Alek Minassian, an Incel with mental health problems, drove a Chevrolet express van onto the sidewalk to deliberately hit pedestrians. He killed 10 and injured 16, mainly women. He was targeting women. While the Canadian government wanted to keep the number of incidents classified as terrorism low, the Independent in the UK headline read “… it still counts as terrorism” (April 25, 2018).

-       I’m traumatized by the violence and afraid for the safety of activists and security guards as well as drivers who bypass the trucks taking up two lanes.

-       We are taking reports now every single time but don’t want to wait until a human tragedy happens before action is taken.

Taking actions

-       There is an urgency with this communication. It’s a matter of time that something tragic is going to happen unless action is taken.

-       It’s an easy fix. The police could stop this instantly. If a police officer arrested a trucker who ran into people and put him in jail for a day this would stop instantly. Word would get out that there is zero tolerance. Then the outlier aggressive truckers would stop.

-       We ask that the superintendent join the next vigil and put a stop to any dangerous driving.

-    We request that you set up a special police liaison who knows this situation be assigned to the pig vigils. This way s/he can regularly address the parties (currently there is a different officer each week). You have a Labour Disputes Coordinator at Halton Police. We request you set up an Animal Protection Disputes Coordinator.

-       We request that a female officer to be regularly on site. Almost 100% of the time, it is male drivers in transport truck driving into women, including young women and mothers. The security guards are also men. We seem to have difficulty communicating our concern for activists’ safety that could possibly be dealt with by having more sensitive and compassionate officers on site.

We want a safety arrangement this week. It’s an easy fix. There needs to be zero tolerance for dangerous driving and weaponizing vehicles. Also, police can stop transport truckers from purposely blocking two lanes and creating traffic hazards. We don’t want to be doing these safety reports each week.

We can provide you with particulars or specifics of individual incidents of truckers operating vehicles in a careless or reckless manner, however our objective here is to achieve a safety agreement that balances the right of activists to freely express their legitimate concerns with the need for commercial vehicle operators to conduct safe transport operations. The police are here not just to protect property but also to protect our rights of free expression. We need your help now please.

Kindest regards,

Anita Krajnc