Minister listens as prison farm advocates make the case for reinstatement

Aug 17, 2016

Ralph Goodale, the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, visited the Collins Bay Correctional Institution on Tuesday, before meeting with over 300 people at Kingston City Hall on Tuesday night, August 16, to hear submissions from the public. As expected, what he heard was consistent and boisterous support for re-establishing the six farms across the country, and specifically the two in Kingston.

Well-organised prison farm advocates in Kingston had been waiting for this day ever since Mark Gerretsen, the Liberal candidate in the Kingston and the Islands riding during the last election, made a commitment to work towards bringing back the farms in Kingston.

When in opposition, Liberal MPs Mark Holland and Wayne Easter, who was the agriculture critic at the time, supported the efforts to save the prison farms in opposition to the decision by the Harper government to close them.

Prisons farm advocates, mostly from Frontenac County, formed the Pen Farm Herd Co-op to purchase and maintain the unique genetic character of the prison farm herd, a major volunteer effort that has continued for three years, demonstrating the depth of local support for the prison farms.

They were on hand to advocate for the reinstatement of the prison herd, as were a number of former prison officials and inmates, all talking about the rehabilitative value that caring for animals brings to the prison population.

Goodale did not make any commitments on behalf of the government, but said the meeting was part of a feasibility study aimed at re-establishing “agri-food employment initiatives for offenders”.

In a meeting with the local prison farm committee after the public meeting, he appeared to go further.

One of the people at that meeting said that Goodale told them that the government was busy determining “how to get this done”.