Abbotsford/Vancouver – UPDATE (from Excelsior 4 via Zoe Paled/Excelsior 4) -JANUARY 12, 2024 – An Excelsior 4 update to share. After surrendering at 9AM Friday, Amy and Nick found out that they have lost their conviction appeal. They were scheduled for a bail hearing at 12:30PM Friday. Bail has been granted, and Amy and Nick will be released in a few hours. The Canadian ‘justice’ system is criminalizing peaceful protestors, and letting the perpetrators of large scale, documented animal abuse operate with impunity.
UPDATE (from Black Press) – JANUARY 12 2024 – In an unanimous decision, The B.C. Court of Appeal has upheld the break-and-enter convictions of two animal-rights activists who participated in a 2019 protest at an Abbotsford hog farm. Amy Soranno and Nick Schafer of Kelowna say they now plan to appeal their sentences of 30 days in jail and one year of probation. The Court of Appeal decision was issued Friday (Jan. 12), with all three justices agreeing that the trial judge did not err when he excluded evidence about the alleged mistreatment of animals at the Excelsior Hog Farm. “The evidence of animal mistreatment was irrelevant in determining whether the protesters had disrupted ‘lawful’ activities,” the appeal ruling states. The justices also agreed that expert evidence regarding general biosecurity risks should not have been put before the jury and the trial judge should have given “limiting instruction” about the evidence. “However, the error in allowing the jury to consider this evidence was harmless,” the ruling states.
UPDATE November 20, 2023 – In May 2023, the two people who participated in a 2019 protest at the Excelsior hog farm in Abbotsford, filed an application to appeal their break-and-enter convictions.
Amy Soranno and Nick Schafer of Kelowna were each sentenced in October 2022 to 30 days in jail and one year of probation. They were granted bail pending the appeal.
Cameras had been placed by members of the Meat the Victims group, to which Soranno and Schafer belonged.
A third person , Geoff Regier had his charges dropped prior to the trial. The fourth, Roy Sasano was acquitted at trial.
Soranno and Schafer were each convicted and sentenced on a charge of break-and-enter. They also each had a mischief charge, which was stayed at sentencing.
UPDATE – The criminal appeal of two activists convicted in July 2022 will be heard Thursday, November 23 by a three-judge panel of the BC Court of Appeal in Vancouver.
From the Excelsior 4 website: excelsior4.org – The appeal comes just days after national animal law advocacy organization Animal Justice exposed additional, recently documented footage of alleged abuse at Excelsior received from an anonymous whistleblower. Animal Justice says this latest evidence of cruelty exceeds the levels exposed by activists four years ago and has called on the BC Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (BCSPCA) to recommend charges against the owners of the hog farm.
To view the latest video footage of abuse at Excelsior, go to: https://animaljustice.ca/exposes/abused-pigs-excelsior-hog-farm.
