• Menu
  • Skip to right header navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Country Life In BC Logo

The agricultural news source in British Columbia since 1915

  • Headlines
  • Calendar
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • About
  • Archives
  • Contact
  • Search
  • Headlines
  • Calendar
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • About
  • Archives
  • Contact
  • Search

Primary Sidebar

Originally published:

December 2017
Vol. 103 Issue 12

Subscribe Now!

Sign up for free weekly FARM NEWS UPDATES

Select list(s) to subscribe to


By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: Country Life in BC, 36 Dale Road, Enderby, BC, V0E1V4. You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact
Your information will not be
shared or sold ever

Stories In This Edition

Body cams are out

Turkey allocation reviewed

Meet ‘n’ Greet

Producers take concerns to Victoria

Editorial: Double standard

Back Forty: Perception is in the eyes of the beholder

Viewpoint: Trade negotiations creating uncertainty

Cattlemen speak out about groundwater licensing debacle

Sweet reward

WorkSafeBC set to lower most rates

Salmon farm debate raises concern for range tenures

Sidebar: Good relationships on the range

Breweries allowed

FIRB’s quota review is taking too long

Dairy farming under the microscope

Technology key to the fortunes of dairies of all sizes

BC Tree Fruit election may prompt legal action

Disease control worries honey producers

Beekeepers risk dumping charge

Honey in the house

Crop insurnace claims up

Stockmen receive update on wildfire recovery

Property assessments set for major shift after fires

Water access for range cattle

Compensation possible in Island sheep kills

Fall at its finest

Protection program has helped ranchers

Fair boards encouraged to sign up for Premises ID

Meadow Valley meats eyes new slaughterhouse

Potential for termination of Site C cause for hope

Jack Frost nips crops on heels of hot summer

Six-digit cattle attract deep-pocketed ownership teams

Kelowna seeks input on the future of local water management

West Kelowna pursues bylaw for worker housing

Sidebar: Taking the next step

Agri-tourism regulation has little impact on farmers

Privacy, conflict of interest need good protocols

Sidebar: Field media requests with confidence

Vernon orchardists develop award winning orchard

Seed growers find support at gathering

Photo bomb

Cleaner water promises greener greenhouses

4-H BC on the move

Entrepeneurs squeeze a profit from pressed fruit

Research: Heritage turkeys add a touch of nostalgia

4-H Canada’s top scholarship awarded to BC member

Woodshed: Awkward moments abound as date night nears

Langley meadery finds the sweet spot

Entertaining tidbits

More Headlines

Follow us on Facebook

Comments Box SVG iconsUsed for the like, share, comment, and reaction icons

6 days ago

Farmland Advantage is receiving a $445,000 grant from the federal government. The program, the “brainchild” of Invermere cattle rancher Dave Zehnder, provides compensation to farmers for their conservation efforts to protect BC’s grasslands, riparian areas and wildlife habitat. The funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada under the Species at Risk Partnerships on Agricultural Lands (SARPAL) and Priority Places programs, will be administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC. Rewarding farmers for enhancing riparian areas appeared in our March 2022 edition and you can view it at ... See MoreSee Less

Link thumbnail

Rewarding farmers for enhancing riparian areas

buff.ly

INVERMERE – Farmers and ranchers in the Columbia Valley will continue to see rewards for taking action to conserve and enhance important riparian areas on their farms. The Windermere District Farmer...
View Comments
  • Likes: 1
  • Shares: 0
  • Comments: 0

Comment on Facebook

2 weeks ago

A standing-room only crowd of more than 250 people attended a public hearing the Agricultural Land Commission hosted in Langley Monday night regarding a proposal to include 305 acres controlled by the federal government in the Agricultural Land Reserve. More than 76,000 people have signed an online petition asking municipal and provincial governments to protect the land from development, and for the federal government to grant a long-term lease to the Heppells. Read more in this morning's Farm News Update from Country Life in BC. conta.cc/3XYXw6k ... See MoreSee Less

Link thumbnail

Your weekly farm news update

web-extract.constantcontact.com

The agricultural news source in British Columbia since 1915 January 25 2023 Surrey ALR inclusion cheered A standing-room only crowd of more than 250 people attended a public hearing the Agricultural L
View Comments
  • Likes: 2
  • Shares: 0
  • Comments: 1

Comment on Facebook

Mike Manion Pitt Meadows City Councillor

2 months ago

Christmas tree growers in BC are seeing strong demand this season and prices remain comparable to last year. But the number of tree farms has decreased dramatically over the past five years and the province will increasingly need to look elsewhere if it wants to meet local demand. More in this week's Farm News Update from Country Life in BC. ... See MoreSee Less

Link thumbnail

Christmas trees in demand

buff.ly

Christmas tree growers in BC are seeing strong demand, with high quality trees making it to market. “The market is good. We’ll probably outdo last year and last year was one of our best years…
View Comments
  • Likes: 2
  • Shares: 0
  • Comments: 0

Comment on Facebook

2 months ago

Another four poultry flocks in the Fraser Valley have tested positive for avian influenza over the weekend -- 15 in the last week alone. There are 60 farms currently under quarantine in BC, more than any other province in Canada and three times that of Alberta, which ranks second. Officials maintain the virus is being spread by dust and groundwater and not farm-to-farm transmission. No farms in the Interior have tested positive this fall. ... See MoreSee Less

Another four poultry flocks in the Fraser Valley have tested positive for avian influenza over the weekend -- 15 in the last week alone. There are 60 farms currently under quarantine in BC, more than any other province in Canada and three times that of Alberta, which ranks second. Officials maintain the virus is being spread by dust and groundwater and not farm-to-farm transmission. No farms in the Interior have tested positive this fall.
View Comments
  • Likes: 2
  • Shares: 3
  • Comments: 1

Comment on Facebook

Avian influenza virus can be killed by chlorine at no higher a concentration than is present in drinking water, so unless farms are using untreated groundwater in their barns I don't see how it could be a source of transmission. www.researchgate.net/publication/5594208_Chlorine_Inactivation_of_Highly_Pathogenic_Avian_Influen...

2 months ago

In a surprise move, Lana Popham -- hailed at the recent BC Dairy Industry Conference as a key ally of the agriculture sector -- has been replaced by Abbotsford-Mission MLA Pam Alexis as part of a cabinet overhaul today by new BC premier David Eby. Popham will now oversee Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport. The two ministers worked closely together following the atmospheric river events last fall. ... See MoreSee Less

In a surprise move, Lana Popham -- hailed at the recent BC Dairy Industry Conference as a key ally of the agriculture sector -- has been replaced by Abbotsford-Mission MLA Pam Alexis as part of a cabinet overhaul today by new BC premier David Eby. Popham will now oversee Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport. The two ministers worked closely together following the atmospheric river events last fall.Image attachment
View Comments
  • Likes: 10
  • Shares: 8
  • Comments: 8

Comment on Facebook

Goes to show how far-removed our current government is from the agricultural sector. To put someone in this position who has no farming background is a slap in the face to all of our hard-working producers.

Going to be a heck of a learning curve. Helping the agricultural community recover from the biggest natural disasters in history, handling the avian influenza outbreak that is threatening our poultry industry, dealing with a crisis in meat processing, managing ongoing threats from climate change, supporting producers who are facing unprecedented inflation in an industry with very slim margins to begin with..... to name a few of the challenges our new Minister will have to face all with one of the lowest budgets of any ministry. I wish her the best of luck but I hope she's got a lot of support around her.

Best of wishes in your new position

Congrats to Pam, cool to see a Fraser Valley based ag minister but also so sad to see Lana reassigned . I have no doubt she will do an amazing job in her new role.

Will be missed by #meiernation

Bryce Rashleigh

Nooooooo!

Lana did a shit job and now we have a minister with no farming background at all. Aren’t we lucky..

View more comments

Subscribe | Advertise

Body cams are out

December 1, 2017 byPeter Mitham//  Leave a Comment

CHILLIWACK – BC’s privacy watchdog has rejected a bid to outfit farm workers with body cameras intended to reduce livestock abuse, saying companies need to follow specific protocols before they do so.

An undercover video by Mercy for Animals – the same activist group that used hidden cameras to secure footage of animal abuse at another Chilliwack company, Chilliwack Cattle Sales, in 2014 – led to the termination of several employees at Chilliwack chicken catcher Elite Farm Services Ltd. earlier this year.

The six employees were filmed physically abusing, sexually assaulting and dismembering chickens.

Elite immediately revamped its training program and took steps to make employees more accountable, including outfitting them with body cameras that would document shift activities.

Elite’s efforts caught the attention of acting BC privacy commissioner Drew McArthur. McArthur questioned whether the measures were genuinely addressing employee behaviour or simply a snap response to public outrage over the abuse.

“My office unequivocally condemns all forms of animal abuse,” wrote McArthur in a report released in November. “[But] I was concerned that video surveillance was being used as a ‘quick fix,’ without thoughtful consideration of its potential privacy impacts.”

An investigation was launched, prompting Elite to immediately cease the use of body cameras. Elite

co- operated fully with the investigation, which concluded that specific protocols need to be followed if organizations want to monitor staff activities through body cameras or other forms of surveillance.

Last resort

“Video surveillance should only be used as a last resort, not as a substitute for ineffective recruitment and training protocols,” McArthur said. “[Elite] did not assess the privacy risks associated with implementing video surveillance. In addition, the employees subjected to the surveillance were not the same employees who were responsible for the misconduct; those individuals no longer work for the company.”

The report states that the province’s Personal Information and Privacy Act limits the use of video surveillance to three very specific situations:

• a real and serious threat to personal safety or the security of property;

• the organization has tried all reasonable alternatives without success; and

• there is a reasonable prospect that video surveillance will address those threats.

These conditions were not met in the Elite case, the report argues.

Perhaps the most shocking claim in the report is the assertion that no reasonable person would consider Elite to have suffered an employee management problem.

“A reasonable person would not consider the purposes for the collection to be appropriate in the circumstances,” the report states. “There is insufficient evidence of a safety, security or employee management problem, nor evidence of other significant issues that would authorize the Company to monitor and video record employees, farmers and other contractors going about their normal duties.”

With respect to its its own staff, and notwithstanding the lack of problems managing its workers, the report states that Elite failed to obtain the consent of its employees to the use of the body cameras.

“The company does not have any privacy policies in place that state the purpose for surveillance. It did not notify its employees and non- employees subject to surveillance that it would be collecting their personal information. Finally, it did not conduct a privacy impact assessment,” the report says.

The report makes no reference to the appropriateness of Mercy for Animals’ use of hidden video cameras to film and expose the abuse by Elite’s workers. Elite president Dwayne Dueck did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.

BC SPCA lobbies for cameras

However, the report complicates recent calls by the BC SPCA, which polices animal cruelty on behalf of the province, for cameras to be installed in all facilities raising, handling or processing livestock.

“Cameras will give assurance to Canadian citizens that animals raised in intensive farming systems are, at minimum, receiving the basic care required in the national Codes of Practice,” the BC SPCA said in urging support for a petition calling for the measure. “England and France have already passed laws to require all slaughter plants to have cameras, so let’s make Canada next.”

While the privacy commissioner may not feel “a real and serious threat exists” to the property of farmers – in this case, livestock – Shawn Eccles, senior manager, cruelty investigations with the BC SPCA, disagrees.

“I can see where there would be some privacy issues … but there is a concern from our perspective with respect to animal welfare and the need for monitoring,” he said. “There are auditing systems that are out there currently where video cameras are used, and I don’t think there’s a reasonable expectation of privacy if you, as an employee of a contractor, are aware that there are cameras going to be in those barns and the purpose of those cameras is to ensure that animal welfare standards are being met.”

The ruling also hits close to home because the BC SPCA is itself considering adopting body cameras.

“We’re just now exploring the potential use of body cameras for our constables that are out in the field investigating cases of abuse and neglect,” he said.

Mercy for Animals, for its part, responded to McArthur’s report with a call not just for surveillance cameras but live, streaming video so that it is accountable to the third party and the public.

“Mercy For Animals is calling on Commissioner McArthur to allow video recording inside farms and slaughterhouses in order to prevent egregious animal cruelty,” the organization said in a statement. “Further, Mercy For Animals is urging Elite Services not just to equip workers with body cameras but to live- stream to the Internet and/or to a third- party auditing firm.”

Related Posts

You may be interested in these posts from the same category.

Trial decision expected

Hog farm won’t face charges

Johnston’s Packers targeted by activists

Protest sends warning signal

Cattle

Codes of practice need producer input

Animal cruelty charges laid

New farmers need to research livestock needs

Poultry abuse underscores need to measure up

Chilliwack dairy fined for allowing “culture of abuse”

Previous Post: « Producers take concerns to Victoria
Next Post: New year, new start »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Copyright © 2023 Country Life in BC · All Rights Reserved