It amazing that Canada has all these resources available to keep our country safe from rogue enemy alien squirrels....
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SQUIRREL 1, CANADA 0
Lawyers, politicians and bureaucrats squabble over Sabrina the refugee rodent
By COLIN FREEZE
UPDATED AT 1:46 PM EDT Wednesday, Oct 6, 2004
MISSISSAUGA, ONT. -- Canada will apparently stop at nothing to deport Sabrina the flying squirrel.
Ever since a squirrel aficionado drove her across the border in June, her existence has been plagued by government veterinarians seeking to ban her, police constables wanting to seize her and a team of Crown lawyers litigating to send her back to the United States.
Yet Sabrina, a furry, 90-gram four-month-old who has emerged as the most controversial squirrel in the history of Canada, is not without friends.
Even her outspoken local MP, Carolyn Parrish, has waded in, yesterday calling Ottawa's squirrel-deportation effort "an absolute example of government waste."
"It's the cutest little animal," said Toronto lawyer Clayton Ruby, who has taken on the case. So far, he has been able to convince the Federal Court of Canada to let Sabrina stay: "At the moment, it's 'Squirrel one, Canada nothing,' " he said.
Steve Patterson, the Mississauga naturalist who started it all, vows he'll continue to keep his beloved squirrel with him 24 hours a day.
In an interview yesterday, he spoke of how he didn't envision any of this happening when he drove Sabrina across the border 3½ months ago -- and smack into a legal quandary involving a new rodent-importation ban so obscure that hardly anyone knows about it.
The ponytailed 51-year-old had long wanted to buy a northern flying squirrel to boost his career in giving nature talks to children.
Although Mr. Patterson frequently takes care of and feeds the animals in the Canadian wilderness, where the glaucomys sabrinus (Sabrina's species) have climbed and glided and scurried for millions of years, it's illegal to capture one here.
So, being a law-abiding man, Mr. Patterson diligently filled out all the proper forms with Canadian and U.S. authorities so he could import a domesticated squirrel. On June 26, he travelled to Ratkateers Rodentry in Indiana, paying $150 (U.S.) for Sabrina. The same day, he declared Sabrina at the border and was waved through without incident.
But the end of the car trip was the beginning of the legal battle.
Last year the Canadian Food Inspection Agency passed new anti-rodent importation regulations, in the wake of a U.S. scare in which it was suspected some imported African animals passed on monkey pox to as many as 80 U.S. citizens, who became sick and recovered.
No one has ever accused Sabrina of actually having monkey pox, but she came to Canada after the new regulations had been put in place. And to Ottawa, rules are rules.
On July 5, Mr. Patterson got a call from CFIA saying that they had been notified about Sabrina and that he had to give her up.
The next day, he was sent a formal Order to Remove, explaining he had three days to drive to the border and hand the squirrel over to a U.S. official on the other side.
But Mr. Patterson refused to do it -- Sabrina had by then bonded to him like a child to its mother, he says.
In late July, two CFIA officials -- backed up by two Peel Regional Police officers -- showed up at the door of his Mississauga townhouse. They had come to confiscate the rodent.
But fortunately for Mr. Patterson and Sabrina (who typically sleeps nestled in her owner's tucked-in shirt in the hollow space near the small of his back), they were not home at the time.
After he expressed his displeasure about the visit to authorities, police backed off. And then the Attorney-General of Canada took Mr. Patterson to court.
The government was preparing to argue that Sabrina's stay could cause "irreparable harm" to Canada. In response, Mr. Patterson set up an on-line petition and the Save Sabrina Legal Defence Fund on his website -- http://www.glaucomys.org/sabrina. He vows to fight to the end: "I'm 11th-generation Canadian but I've still got a lot of Irish blood in me."
Last month, Mr. Ruby and his partner Brian Shiller, prevailed against government lawyers during a Federal Court of Canada hearing. On Sept. 21, Madam Justice Elizabeth Heneghan ruled it was "doubtful" whether the government had even "shown that a serious issue exists here."
Yet last week, Ottawa gave notice it would exercise its right to appeal the decision, saying Judge Heneghan made a "perverse and capricious" decision. No date for the appeal has been set.
In an interview yesterday, Debbie Barr, a senior CFIA veterinarian who testified against Sabrina in the first trial, said that she wasn't free to discuss the specifics.
But "it certainly would be against the law to bring in an animal that's in the prohibition order," she said.
Dr. Barr said that any such scofflaw animal could open the floodgates, not just for rodents, but possibly problematic livestock, such as cows. But the logic of the CFIA mystifies Ms. Parrish, the outspoken MP best known for anti-American outbursts.
She says she tried very, very hard to contain herself as she spent four hours on the phone this summer, pleading Sabrina's case to intransigent officials.
"We have thousands of illegal immigrants living underground in the country and we can't find them, but we can find a squirrel?" asked Ms. Parrish, who says her argument failed to persuade the CFIA.
______________________________________
SQUIRREL 1, CANADA 0
Lawyers, politicians and bureaucrats squabble over Sabrina the refugee rodent
By COLIN FREEZE
UPDATED AT 1:46 PM EDT Wednesday, Oct 6, 2004
MISSISSAUGA, ONT. -- Canada will apparently stop at nothing to deport Sabrina the flying squirrel.
Ever since a squirrel aficionado drove her across the border in June, her existence has been plagued by government veterinarians seeking to ban her, police constables wanting to seize her and a team of Crown lawyers litigating to send her back to the United States.
Yet Sabrina, a furry, 90-gram four-month-old who has emerged as the most controversial squirrel in the history of Canada, is not without friends.
Even her outspoken local MP, Carolyn Parrish, has waded in, yesterday calling Ottawa's squirrel-deportation effort "an absolute example of government waste."
"It's the cutest little animal," said Toronto lawyer Clayton Ruby, who has taken on the case. So far, he has been able to convince the Federal Court of Canada to let Sabrina stay: "At the moment, it's 'Squirrel one, Canada nothing,' " he said.
Steve Patterson, the Mississauga naturalist who started it all, vows he'll continue to keep his beloved squirrel with him 24 hours a day.
In an interview yesterday, he spoke of how he didn't envision any of this happening when he drove Sabrina across the border 3½ months ago -- and smack into a legal quandary involving a new rodent-importation ban so obscure that hardly anyone knows about it.
The ponytailed 51-year-old had long wanted to buy a northern flying squirrel to boost his career in giving nature talks to children.
Although Mr. Patterson frequently takes care of and feeds the animals in the Canadian wilderness, where the glaucomys sabrinus (Sabrina's species) have climbed and glided and scurried for millions of years, it's illegal to capture one here.
So, being a law-abiding man, Mr. Patterson diligently filled out all the proper forms with Canadian and U.S. authorities so he could import a domesticated squirrel. On June 26, he travelled to Ratkateers Rodentry in Indiana, paying $150 (U.S.) for Sabrina. The same day, he declared Sabrina at the border and was waved through without incident.
But the end of the car trip was the beginning of the legal battle.
Last year the Canadian Food Inspection Agency passed new anti-rodent importation regulations, in the wake of a U.S. scare in which it was suspected some imported African animals passed on monkey pox to as many as 80 U.S. citizens, who became sick and recovered.
No one has ever accused Sabrina of actually having monkey pox, but she came to Canada after the new regulations had been put in place. And to Ottawa, rules are rules.
On July 5, Mr. Patterson got a call from CFIA saying that they had been notified about Sabrina and that he had to give her up.
The next day, he was sent a formal Order to Remove, explaining he had three days to drive to the border and hand the squirrel over to a U.S. official on the other side.
But Mr. Patterson refused to do it -- Sabrina had by then bonded to him like a child to its mother, he says.
In late July, two CFIA officials -- backed up by two Peel Regional Police officers -- showed up at the door of his Mississauga townhouse. They had come to confiscate the rodent.
But fortunately for Mr. Patterson and Sabrina (who typically sleeps nestled in her owner's tucked-in shirt in the hollow space near the small of his back), they were not home at the time.
After he expressed his displeasure about the visit to authorities, police backed off. And then the Attorney-General of Canada took Mr. Patterson to court.
The government was preparing to argue that Sabrina's stay could cause "irreparable harm" to Canada. In response, Mr. Patterson set up an on-line petition and the Save Sabrina Legal Defence Fund on his website -- http://www.glaucomys.org/sabrina. He vows to fight to the end: "I'm 11th-generation Canadian but I've still got a lot of Irish blood in me."
Last month, Mr. Ruby and his partner Brian Shiller, prevailed against government lawyers during a Federal Court of Canada hearing. On Sept. 21, Madam Justice Elizabeth Heneghan ruled it was "doubtful" whether the government had even "shown that a serious issue exists here."
Yet last week, Ottawa gave notice it would exercise its right to appeal the decision, saying Judge Heneghan made a "perverse and capricious" decision. No date for the appeal has been set.
In an interview yesterday, Debbie Barr, a senior CFIA veterinarian who testified against Sabrina in the first trial, said that she wasn't free to discuss the specifics.
But "it certainly would be against the law to bring in an animal that's in the prohibition order," she said.
Dr. Barr said that any such scofflaw animal could open the floodgates, not just for rodents, but possibly problematic livestock, such as cows. But the logic of the CFIA mystifies Ms. Parrish, the outspoken MP best known for anti-American outbursts.
She says she tried very, very hard to contain herself as she spent four hours on the phone this summer, pleading Sabrina's case to intransigent officials.
"We have thousands of illegal immigrants living underground in the country and we can't find them, but we can find a squirrel?" asked Ms. Parrish, who says her argument failed to persuade the CFIA.
