Farmer Goes To Jail

John Boonstra, a cattle farmer in Smithers, British Columbia, was sentenced on October 11, 2011, to three days jail time, one day for each charge under section 79.6 of the Fisheries Act. Jailing environmental offenders remains rare, even for repeat offenders, but a three day sentence is conspicuously short. Mr. Boonstra failed to comply with a June 2008 Court Order. Boonstra was first charged by Environment Canada in March 2005, and found guilty in 2008, for having allowed agricultural discharges into the Robin Creek, for having allowed the harmful alteration, disruption or destruction of fish habitat, by letting his cattle walk into the creek in 2004, and for having twice failed to pay his penalty and to replant the damaged area with native plants.