You can take action
Save Our Prison Farms Legal Defense Fund:
Options for taking action to help save Canada's prison farms range from personal to organizational; from writing, to volunteering, to donating. Here is a list of action options with further information included on each page:
Pen Farm Herd Co-op - "Wanna be a Farmer?"
Please link here to sign up for the contact list.
Write to MPs - the most important action individuals can take!
Please consider making a donation to the Save Our Prison Farms Campaign
Write a letter to the editor of your local paper, or a regional or national publication - find a searchable list of news media from across Canada here, and model letters to the editor that can serve as inspiration on the Save Out Farms site run by the Union of Solicitor General's employees, here.
Download a petition for collecting signatures in your community
Organizations sign the National Campaign Position Statement
Submit a Testimonial on this site
Send an email to Dianne Dowling, dowling@kos.net, if you'd like to be added to the mailing list.
Despite 18 months of strong public opposition from Canadians of all backgrounds, the Conservative government has decided to try to kill the prison farms by shipping out the Frontenac Institution dairy herd from Kingston to the OLEX (Ontario Livestock Exchange) auction house, this Sunday, August 8 and next Monday, August 9. The Save Our Prison Farms national campaign is calling on citizens to stop them. Kingston area residents have demonstrated that they will not let one cow leave the farm.
Citizens of all ages are called to come out en masse at 12 noon (or earlier, if you can) on Sunday, August 8 to peacefully demonstrate, and to block the shipment of the cows. We are asking the thousands of people who support this vital program and all the good it represents to re-plan their Sunday and book their Monday off work to show our government that we intend to save our farms. It’s not too late for Prime Minister Harper to listen to majority Canadian opinion.
We need everyone to be there to make the strongest, calm and peaceful statement about broad public support for the prison farms. Citizens will be able to choose the level of participation they are comfortable with - from actively blocking the cattle trucks (which involves risk of arrest), to standing nearby or across the road as witness, as supporters to the demonstration, or to bring food and water for participants.
Organizations, such as the Frontenac Federation of Agriculture and the Sisters of Providence will be in the demonstration, but leave participation in the blockade up to individual members. The same goes for everyone - all comfort levels and all ages can participate as they see fit.
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We want to make it clear to the CSC (Correctional Service of Canada) that we have no intention of hindering access to the prisons. This will be a soft blockade - we will ONLY block animal transports, NOT shift changes, prisoner transfers, or emergency access.
We want to stress to the Kingston City Police that this campaign has always been peaceful and will remain so. Peaceful civil disobedience, as inspired by Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., is a way for citizens to democratically express themselves when a government has stopped listening to the majority opinion of its people. We ask that you join your friends and neighbours in trying to make our community safer by saving the prison farms - please help everyday citizens express by standing down on Sunday and Monday.
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It could be a long day, so bring water, snacks, sunscreen/hats. Please park at Frontenac Mall or on the side of Bath road.
Please note: There will be no meeting on Saturday, August 7 at Zorba's.
You can help at the watch station at Zorba's (1474 Bath Road, across from Frontenac Institution prison farm) anytime during the day or evening on Saturday to help make signs or walk on the side of Bath Road with signs calling out the public to Sunday and Monday's demonstration/blockade. You can also meet at the Market Square Farmers' Market to help distribute leaflets downtown anytime between 10am-3pm. Look for the Save Our Prison Farms volunteer with the sign and leaflets.
Please link here to sign up for the phone tree. You will be called if we need to mobilize a blockade on short notice if they try to sneak the cows out. You can indicate what times of day you are willing to be called.
