Farmer not convicted but jailed one month for threats he denies, and having an old unlicensed rifle in his pickup truck
Farmers Forum staff
OTTAWA — Ottawa-area beef farmer Ronald Greene recently marked his 71st birthday inside the city jail where, as of June 26, he continued to be held without bail after nearly a month behind bars.
The farmer’s imprisonment without conviction was sparked by a series of unfortunate events. First, the animal police, PAWS (Police Animal Welfare Services), rounded up and removed 45 Charolais cattle — out of a herd of 150 — from Greene’s farm located near the village of Carp. Greene said one calf was killed in what a neighbour described as a rodeo roundup with agents on horses, followed by a stampede.
An acquaintance visited Greene after the roundup and then called Ottawa police, claiming Greene had uttered threats against a couple of other neighbours and a provincial animal welfare police officer because he was angry that the cattle were taken.
Jack MacLaren took this photo of a dead calf he said was killed during the raid at Ronald Greene’s farm.
A police swat team showed up a few days later and searched Greene’s home. They found Greene’s .22 rifle in his pickup truck — a gun he says he’s owned since 1975 and keeps on hand to fend off the coyotes but said he has rarely used it after 1977 when he lost use of one eye.
In a call to Farmers Forum from the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre, Greene denied making any threats. He confirmed that he was charged with uttering threats, unsafe storage of a firearm and possession of a firearm without a licence.
Rules have changed on the paperwork needed to own even a simple .22 over the years and Greene said he thought nothing of having the rifle.
“I was under the belief that I didn’t need a licence to hunt on your own property to shoot coyotes,” he told Farmers Forum. “I thought there were laws, a regulation, that you were allowed to shoot predators if they’re bothering your own property.”
He said he does store the gun properly but had it in his truck while performing his duties as a farmer.
Greene fired his lawyer and recently hired lawyer Edward Burlew, of Thornhill, in the Greater Toronto Area, who said he could not comment on whether his client “was in possession of a firearm or not,” adding it was only an allegation.
Burlew said the grounds for holding the farmer were “questionable and need to be tested” and said his first task would be to secure his release.
The lawyer said he has represented well over 1,000 gun owners in court since 1997. In a 2011 article in Canadian Lawyer magazine, Burlew said that in “a great many cases I have been able to show that the police officers and the crown attorneys don’t fully understand the legislation’s technicalities.”
Burlew said that the Crown is seeking an 18-month sentence and 24-months probation.
Greene has appeared in court, mostly by video link, several times since his arrest, but wasn’t granted bail, said Ottawa paralegal Jane Scharf, who has become keenly interested in the farmer’s plight.
Scharf said she was informed by the Crown that the farmer will not get bail because his case involves firearms-related charges. He’s at risk of being held in custody for many months pending the outcome of a trial, according to Scharf.
“If they charge him on an indicted basis, they could take 30 months until the end of a trial,” she said, adding that a scheduled pre-trial conference during the week of June 25 could still potentially result in his release. She expressed some optimism that Greene’s new lawyer would be able to achieve that result.
Scharf has arranged an affidavit in which a number of neighbours attest to his character. She’s also started an online campaign raising awareness of his situation.
Scharf, who visited Greene at the jail, said that the farmer reported crowded conditions and violence at the institution.
The farmer’s legal woes were touched off on April 29 when a PAWS investigator visited in response to a complaint about two dead cattle seen near the road. After that visit, Greene sold the herd to a local drover but continued to host the animals at his farm.
The PAWS roundup crew arrived unannounced at his property on May 23. Greene, who has not been charged with an animal welfare offence, attributed the deaths of the two animals to the wet spring and possible twisted stomachs.
The May 23 roundup of 45 head lasted eight hours and resulted in the death of one calf and injury to as many as seven other animals, Greene said. “They drove them into the corner of the barn and killed one,” he said, adding his fences were also wrecked when the stampeding cattle crashed through them.
In the end, PAWS didn’t keep the animals anyway. The agency abandoned plans to liquidate the seized cattle at a local sale barn after discovering that Greene didn’t own them. PAWS wanted to return the animals to the new owner — the local drover — but insisted on inspecting the owner’s premises first. When the drover refused, another local farmer, former MPP Jack MacLaren, got involved and let them use his place. MacLaren’s facilities underwent inspection and passed.
Greene said that PAWS’ own veterinarian determined that the cattle were in good condition.
PAWS said it removed the animals “as the standards of care were not being met” but had no further comment.
Greene said he finds the “time pretty long” in jail and is eager to be back to the farm and repair the fences that PAWS broke. He said he never imagined himself in this situation.
Jail “is not a great place to be in,” he offered. “I don’t bother anybody. I just stay to myself.”
