Prison Farm Debate Response

Helen Forsey | Jul 10, 2025

I must respond to the June 19th submission by Michelle Foxton in regard to the prison farm and abattoir at Joyceville. 

As a proud agricultural graduate of McGill University, a National Farmers Union associate member since the 1970s and a member of the Pen Farm Herd Co-op since its beginning, I have always supported the concept of prison farms as they were meant to be. But the present situation at Joyceville and Collins Bay, and the documented plans of the federal government and the Correctional Service of Canada for establishing an industial livestock operation there using prison labour, make a mockery of the whole concept.

Like too many well-meaning people, Ms. Foxton has apparently been completely taken in by the sophisticated and elaborate cover story concocted over the past nine years to disguise the continuing boondoggle. The fancy new cow barn at Joyceville conveniently hides the massive manure lagoon designed for the eventual goat operation. That barn cost taxpayers about ten times what a real dairy farmer would have spent to build it, and its supposed "research" is shrouded in mystery, a vague and fabricated justification that my alma mater should be ashamed of. Foxton's access to the site and to those involved was carefully orchestrated in order to maintain the fiction enabling her to write so glowingly about what is essentially an elaborate farce.

Foxton also supports putting prisoners to work in the abattoir slaughtering and butchering animals. Given the research on the issue, I am appalled that she would take such a position, which is also especially troubling for me as a survivor of domestic violence.

As for Mr. Neufeld's article, in the face of the hard-won Access to Information material that he cites, Ms Foxton was understandably unable to claim any of it was factually wrong. He has meticulously backed up his arguments with the original documentation, and I can attest to their truth from my own knowledge and experience. 

The kindest way to understand Ms Foxton's claims is to attribute them to naivete and wishful thinking supported by some powerful vested interests. In any case the grim facts remain.  

The whole prison farm story since 2016 has been a fiasco and heartbreaking personal betrayal for many of us. 

We owe Mr. Neufeld - and MP Reid - a debt of gratitude for persisting in exposing the truth.

Helen Forsey

St. John's, NL and Ompah, ON