B.C. man fails in third attempt at overturning province’s raw milk ban

Gordon Watson's continued his decades-long 'campaign for real milk' — which at one point included a 'cow share' program — even though a constitutional challenge failed

Author of the article:

The Canadian Press

Darryl Greer

Published Oct 21, 2024  •  1 minute read

Raw milk activist Gordon Watson outside New Westminster Supreme Court in April 2012. Photo by Les Bazso/Postmedia/File

A B.C. Supreme Court judge says a longtime raw milk advocate who once tried to circumvent regulations through a “cow share” program can’t try to overturn the provincial ban on unpasteurized milk again after two previous unsuccessful attempts.

Judge William Veenstra says in a ruling posted online Monday that raw milk activist Gordon Watson’s latest attempt to change raw milk regulations can’t succeed because the matters have already been heard and decided by the court more than a decade ago.

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The ruling says the idea behind cow sharing, in which participants are offered fractional ownership in a cow, was to exploit a legal loophole allowing farmers to consume raw milk from their own herd.

Veenstra’s ruling says Watson was involved in a “cow share” program in the early 2000s that was eventually shut down when the Fraser Health Authority obtained a court injunction in 2011 due to raw milk being considered a health hazard under the Public Health Act.

It says Watson’s decades-long “campaign for real milk” continued even though his constitutional challenge failed and after he was found in contempt of court for operating a raw milk operation in Chilliwack, B.C.

The ruling says Watson characterized the raw milk from the “cow share” program as “dividends from our jointly-held asset in the form of fluid milk labelled ‘Enzymatic Bath Lotion.”‘

Watson filed another constitutional challenge in April 2024, trying to restrain “the government from enforcing the Public Health Act in respect of raw milk,” but Veenstra’s ruling issued in Vancouver says his latest claims were barred because of the earlier rulings in 2011 and 2013.

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