Fish-kill retrial wraps up for P.E.I. farm

Closing arguments Thursday in Charlottetown in the retrial of Brookfield Gardens centred on whether the farming operation did enough to guard against a fish kill that hit P.E.I.'s North River four years ago.

More than 1,000 fish were found dead following a heavy rain one night in August 2014.

"They took all reasonable steps to avoid that particular event," defence lawyer Robert MacGregor told court. 

"We can't just look back in hindsight and say they should have done more."

MacGregor argued that Brookfield Gardens exceeded provincial guidelines by attempting to improve buffer zones and planting grassed headlands around an 11-hectare (28-acre) field the company leased to grow carrots.

"The standard is not perfection," MacGregor told the court. 

MacGregor pointed to the company's four-year crop rotation plan as proof of the farmers' due diligence — the legal minimum is three years.

'They took a risk'

Federal prosecutor Jonathan Langlois-Sadubin described events differently.

The prosecutor told court Brookfield Gardens shouldn't have used the highly-sloped field in the first place, and chose to ignore signs of trouble to come.

"Their management of the field was motivated by business considerations," the prosecutor told court. "They took a risk but made no big investment in conservation ... Unfortunately in this case, the risk didn't pay off."

The three-day trial included prosecution testimony from two soil conservation experts.

Travis and Gerald Dykerman, two of the three owners of the family-run enterprise, testified for the defence.

Brookfield Gardens has pleaded not guilty to a charge under the Fisheries Act of allowing release of a deleterious substance into a watercourse.

The company was acquitted on the same charges back in 2015, but the P.E.I. Court of Appeal overturned that decision and ordered a new trial.

Provincial Court Judge John Douglas said he should have a decision in the case in late August.

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