A high-profile occupation last month by protestors at an Alberta Hutterite colony’s turkey farm has led to criminal charges against four people.
RCMP on Wednesday announced charges of one count each of break and enter to commit mischief for a 46-year-old Edmonton man, a 24-year-old woman from Pincher Creek and a 28-year-old woman and 16-year-old female from Calgary “for their alleged involvement” in the event.
Fort Macleod RCMP said Wednesday their investigation into the Labour Day incident at the Jumbo Valley colony remains ongoing.
RCMP said they responded at about 7:15 a.m. on Sept. 2 to a “large gathering of people protesting on a turkey farm and the adjacent highway.”
Once there, RCMP said, they “located several people who had entered the barn area unlawfully,” but the incident was “resolved peacefully with the land owner and protestors, all of whom departed by 12:15 p.m.”
The youth charged is to appear in Fort MacLeod Provincial Court on Nov. 15, RCMP said; the three adults charged are to follow on Nov. 27.
The incident at Jumbo Valley, in the wake of recent similar events at farms in Ontario and British Columbia, led Alberta’s UCP government earlier this month to propose amendments to the province’s trespass laws and heavier fines to “punish illegal protestors who invade farms, and to discourage such dangerous activity.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network
