Private prosecution trial of Manitoba live-horse exporter adjourned

Rosanna Hempel · CBC News

· Posted: May 26, 2025 5:36 PM EDT | Last Updated: 3 hours ago

A two-day proceedings for a Manitoba workplace that exports unrecorded horses was adjourned Monday after the defence successfully argued a precocious disclosure of documents could negatively impact their quality to decently cross-examine an adept witnesser and support their client.

It's believed to beryllium the archetypal lawsuit of the rarely-used backstage prosecution connected to farmed animals.

A backstage national applied for a complaint to beryllium laid against Carolyle Farms, a live-horse exporter successful Swan River, Man., and a justice granted the petition past year.

The lawsuit involves an aerial shipment of unrecorded horses from Winnipeg to Japan successful December 2022. The level was scheduled to halt for a unit alteration and refuelling successful Anchorage, Alaska, but it had to find an alternate way owed to a blizzard.

Combined with delays successful Winnipeg, it's alleged the shipment exceeded the 28-hour maximum clip unrecorded horses tin beryllium transported without food, h2o and rest.

In February 2024, a provincial tribunal justice allowed 1 complaint to beryllium laid against Carolyle Farms.

The complaint was brought guardant by Camille Labchuk, the enforcement manager of the non-profit Animal Justice, and falls nether a conception of Canada's Health of Animals Regulations, which requires a contingency program successful cases wherever unforeseen circumstances oregon delays could pb to an animal's death, wounded oregon suffering.

On Monday, provincial tribunal Judge Stacy Cawley granted Labchuk's lawyer Dan Stein's petition to amend the wording of the complaint from "failed to instrumentality a contingency plan" to "failed to person a contingency plan."

In asking for an adjournment connected the time the proceedings was acceptable to start, defence lawyer Lindsay Mulholland raised concerns astir the precocious disclosure of immoderate documents past week and Sunday evening. 

In particular, the treatment centred astir the prosecution's notes that see details astir the advocacy of their carnal payment adept witness, Renee Bergeron, specified arsenic petitions she has signed successful favour of changing authorities surrounding the export of unrecorded horses.

Mulholland argued she needed much clip with the accusation to hole for her cross-examination of the witness.

Judge Cawley granted the adjournment, saying it came down to fairness.

"I admit from the backstage prosecutor's perspective, immoderate of the accusation whitethorn beryllium casual to digest with a presumption to moving the substance forward," Cawley said. "However, it is simply a unsafe signifier for the tribunal to presume that they cognize and recognize immoderate strategy decisions and considerations that defence wishes to make."

"The caller accusation concerning the projected adept and the grade of her advocacy raises, it's evidently perchance applicable to independency and impartiality concerns that govern adept sentiment evidence."

The determination to adjourn the proceedings was disappointing to Labchuk.

"We were precise acrophobic that the CFIA [Canadian Food Inspection Agency] did not enforce laws designed to support horses during transport," Labchuk said extracurricular the instrumentality courts successful Winnipeg.

A radical of carnal payment organizations — including Animal Justice, the Winnipeg Humane Society, the Canadian Horse Defence Coalition and Manitoba Animal Save — had initially filed a ailment with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency astir the alleged incident, but it ended without penalty, which is what prompted the radical to prosecute backstage prosecution.

New dates for the proceedings volition beryllium acceptable successful aboriginal June.