Sentencing Hearing August 26 for Activists Convicted of Indictable Offences for Exposing Animal Cruelty at Excelsior Hog Farm in 2019

What: Press conference followed by sentencing hearing for two animal activists
When: Friday, August 26: Press conf at 9:30am / Sentencing hearing at 10am
Where: BC Supreme Court, 32375 Veterans Way, Abbotsford, BC

Although Soranno and Schafer were convicted for their role in exposing criminal animal abuse at the Abbotsford hog farm in 2019, the jury acquitted a third activist, Roy Sasano. A fourth activist, Geoff Regier, had his charges dropped in May. Together, the four activists have been dubbed the Excelsior 4.

Because of a publication ban imposed by BC Supreme Court Justice Frits Verhoeven, the activists were unable—until now—to share trial evidence that is crucial to the public interest. Never before seen documentation detailed below includes rights violations by law enforcement, as well as missing and destroyed evidence.

What follows are brief descriptions of this malfeasance, and Soranno, Schafer, Sasano, and Regier are all available for interview to provide additional details. Contact Kris Hermes at 604-228-9993 or krishermes@earthlink.net to arrange an interview.

The Abbotsford police obtained a warrant in May 2019 to search Soranno’s phone, but it was limited to the April 2019 “Meat the Victims” protest at Excelsior Hog Farm for which they were arrested. Police violated the scope of the warrant by extracting hundreds of additional videos and contacts from Soranno’s phone they were not entitled to, and which were used to obtain a second warrant in August 2019. Police then violated the second warrant by, again, exceeding the scope of evidence they were allowed to obtain and use against the activists at trial.

The Crown then used this unlawfully obtained evidence to lay more charges against the Excelsior 4. Justice Verhoeven recognized these warrant violations at a pretrial hearing in May, but refused to sanction the police or preclude the evidence from being used at trial.

The Abbotsford police were also responsible for missing and destroyed evidence. Three hidden cameras were found at Excelsior Hog Farm in March 2019, along with SD cards containing hundreds of hours of video evidence, some of which depicted criminal animal abuse, according to the Excelsior 4. But, instead of ensuring the preservation of this evidence during an active investigation, the SD cards mysteriously went missing while in police custody.

Then, on August 14, 2019, for no apparent reason, the Abbotsford police ordered the destruction of all three cameras the activists were accused of planting in the hog farm. Police records revealed at trial show that the evidence destruction occurred a day after the BC Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (BCSPCA) contacted the police to discuss whistleblower Geoff Regier. Days earlier, on August 5, 2019, Regier had emailed the BCSPCA to let them know that the cameras in police possession contained evidence of animal abuse.

The BCSPCA turned Regier over to police in violation of its own confidentiality policy, giving the appearance that the BCSPCA and Abbotsford police were colluding to criminalize animal activists engaged in nonviolent civil disobedience. In July 2019, Regier made contact with the BCSPCA to provide the private charity—and the only agency authorized to enforce animal cruelty laws in BC—video evidence of criminal animal abuse at Excelsior. Instead of recommending charges against Excelsior, the BCSPCA broke its privacy agreement with Regier and turned him over to police despite no obligation to do so.

In addition to its inexcusable practices, the BCSPCA admitted in 2020 that it has no capacity to regulate the more than 6,000 commercial farms in the province. “BC needs an enforcement agency to protect farmed animals that is accountable to the public, not a private charity that is unfit for the role and only answerable to its board of directors,” said Amy Soranno.

In the first week of trial, Justice Verhoeven effectively blocked the defence from showing the jury any video footage of animal cruelty at Excelsior, including the footage the activists were tried for exposing. The judge also prevented them from arguing that the hog farm had engaged in unlawful animal abuse, which foreclosed on testimony from expert witnesses the defence had intended to call to the stand. “Without the ability to enter video evidence of animal abuse, the legs were cut out from under several of the defences we had been planning to raise,” said Soranno’s legal counsel Leo Salloum.

Also in the first week of trial, Excelsior Hog Farm co-owner Calvin Binnendyk told the jury that the 2019 protest was “hard to deal with,” and resulted in “quite a few sleepless nights.” Binnendyk painted his family as the “victims.” Yet, newly released video footage depicts the Binnendyks joking around while dozens of protesters are occupying their farm.

Notably, the footage of the Binnendyks came from one of the farm’s exterior CCTV cameras, illustrating the Binnendyks’ priority to capture video on the outside—but not the inside—of their farm. During the Excelsior 4 trial, the BCSPCA joined the demands of activists for CCTV cameras at federal slaughterhouses across the province.

At the conclusion of the trial—the day the jury found Soranno and Schafer guilty—one of the jurors came to court wearing a shirt that read, “Make Canada Great Again.” The Canadian Anti-Hate Network called the phrase “a far-right slogan, copying Trump’s far-right MAGA movement,” according to a recent statement the group made. Besides being a slap in the face to activists who simply wanted to expose animal cruelty, case law indicates that an appearance of bias by jurors may be sufficient grounds to reverse a conviction.

The sentencing hearing for Soranno and Schafer comes more than three years after the exposure of animal cruelty at the Excelsior Hog Farm, yet the Binnendyks have never had to answer for the video footage clearly depicting animal abuse. “The fact that we face jail time while Excelsior Hog Farm is free to continue its abusive practices is a mockery of justice,” continued Soranno. “Despite the consequences we face, we will continue to shine a light on the criminal animal abuse taking place at Excelsior, and the failure to hold them and other factory farms accountable.”

To learn more about the Excelsior 4 case—how industry has avoided accountability, how the police mishandled evidence, and how the Crown is criminalizing activists—watch this 7-minute video: https://youtu.be/FJGAI02SWzw. Additional information can also be found at the Excelsior 4 website: https://excelsior4.org.