The B.C. Supreme Court has banned the sale of raw milk in the province, rejecting the co-op structure that allows for sharing of unpasteurized milk in Ontario.
In a judgment released Thursday, the court ordered The Home on the Range dairy in Chilliwack, B.C., to cease selling raw milk. The Fraser Health Authority sought an injunction to stop the sale of raw milk, claiming the dairy is "willingly causing a health hazard" under the Public Health Act.
The decision confirms that the sale of both raw milk and raw milk products is prohibited under the Public Health Act, according to Fraser Health Authority spokesperson Roy Thorpe.
Advocates for raw milk say it is more healthy and has more nutrients than pasteurized milk, which is heated to destroy pathogens. The dairy argued that it was not actually selling raw milk but distributing it to its members, who had each purchased shares in a co-op that then entitled them to a portion of Home on the Range's production.
In Ontario, dairy operator Michael Schmidt won a similar case in January, after a court in that province found that his co-op structure - which he called a cow share - meant that he was distributing milk privately, rather than to the public at large. That is a critical point in Ontario, whose legislation has as a goal "the promotion and protection of the health of the people of Ontario."
Home on the Range attempted to use that decision as a precedent in B.C. But the court rejected the comparison, saying "the question of whether the milk or milk products are distributed to the public or to members of the cow share is of no relevance to British Columbia" since this province's legislation has no wording akin to the Ontario law.
Instead, B.C.'s public health law simply "prohibits a person from willingly causing a health hazard," and raw milk is presumed to be a health hazard, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Miriam Gropper wrote in her judgment. The only remedy available to Home on the Range, she said, is to lobby for a change in the law.
This is not the first clash between provincial health authorities and the dairy. In January, the BC Centre for Disease Control warned that British Columbians should discard any raw milk products from Home on the Range, after an investigation by public-health officials found some of the farm's unpasteurized products tested positive for fecal contamination.