In First Week of Animal Rights Trial, Judge Blocks Evidence of Animal Cruelty, and Crown Failed to Provide Crucial Disclosure

ABBOTSFORD, BC – Last week, the Crown began its case in a four-week jury trial against three animal rights activists—Roy Sasano, Amy Soranno, and Nick Schafer—who are charged with a total of 14 indictable offences of Break and Enter and Criminal Mischief for their role in exposing animal cruelty at Excelsior Hog Farm in 2019. A fourth activist, Geoff Regier, had his charges dropped in May, after a pretrial hearing. Together, the four activists have been dubbed the Excelsior 4.
 
In a Wednesday ruling, presiding BC Supreme Court Justice Frits Verhoeven, known for his controversial Fairy Creek injunction, prevented the defence from arguing that Excelsior had engaged in unlawful animal abuse, thereby foreclosing on testimony from planned expert defence witnesses. Justice Verhoeven’s ruling also forbids the defence from showing the jury any video footage of animal cruelty at Excelsior, including the footage the activists are being tried for exposing.

After the activists were denied their chosen defence, and without any hope of explaining to the jury why they took the actions they did, Amy Soranno’s defence lawyer, Leo Salloum, responded to Justice Verhoeven’s ruling on Thursday by saying he was now unlikely to submit any more evidence on her behalf. “Not having the ability to play that video cuts the legs out from under several of the defences that we had been planning to raise,” said Salloum.

Soranno further stated that, “By preventing us from putting on a defence and forbidding us from explaining to the jury why it was necessary to hold Excelsior Hog Farm accountable for their criminal abuse of animals, the legal and moral deck is stacked against us.”

In another major revelation, defence lawyers discovered on Thursday that the Crown had failed in its obligation to disclose large volumes of additional evidence, some of which appears exculpatory for at least one of the defendants. Justice Verhoeven gave the defence the weekend to review evidence that should have been provided years ago.

“At the start of this case three years ago, the police claimed to lose hours of animal cruelty evidence, then last week Justice Verhoeven denied us the ability to show the jury any animal cruelty evidence,” said Roy Sasano, another Excelsior 4 defendant. “Now, we discover that for years the Crown failed to disclose additional volumes of evidence we needed to prepare for trial. The animal agriculture industry, law enforcement, and the courts appear more interested in criminalizing activists than getting at the truth.”

Two owners of the hog farm, Calvin and Jeff Binnenedyk, were called by the Crown to testify over multiple days. On cross-examination, Calvin Binnendyk revealed he was completely unfamiliar with the laws pertaining to the treatment of farmed animals, such as the Criminal Code and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.
 
Sasano’s defence lawyer, Joe Killoran, asked Binnendyk how he would even know whether he was legally compliant if he was unfamiliar with the law. However, Justice Verhoeven cut short the line of questioning, saying that the hog farm is not the party on trial. Calvin Binnendyk’s lack of knowledge about animal cruelty laws was especially alarming to the defence, given his brother Ray’s position as director of the BC Pork Producers Association. Ray is expected to take the witness stand this week.
 
Supporters expressed solidarity with the Excelsior 4 by hanging large banners from a Highway 1 overpass in Abbotsford on Wednesday that read, “Stop Criminalizing Animal Activists” and “Abbotsford Hog Farm Guilty of Animal Cruelty.”

The Crown’s case will continue this week, but the trial may now be shortened from its anticipated four weeks, as a result of the restrictions that Justice Verhoeven placed on the defence strategy last week.
 
The Excelsior 4 trial comes more than three years after the exposure of animal cruelty at the Abbotsford hog farm, yet Excelsior Hog Farm has never had to answer for the video footage clearly depicting animal abuse. To learn more about the Excelsior 4 case—how industry has avoided accountability, how the police have mishandled evidence, and how the Crown is criminalizing activists—see this 7-minute video: https://youtu.be/FJGAI02SWzw. Additional information can also be found at the Excelsior 4 website: https://excelsior4.org.