The Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario is objecting to the potential release of Farm Business Registration information.
Its concerns come after the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said it has received a request under the Freedom of Information program to provide the farm business names and FBR numbers for those registered between March 1, 2019, and February 28, 2020.
The request became public when OMAFRA began canvassing a subset of just under 500 farm business owners for feedback.
“The Freedom of Information request is causing concern because of suspicions that the request may be coming from an animal activist group or individual,” wrote Marie Versteeg of the CFFO.
“It’s possible that the requester of FBR information could intend to broadcast the locations of farm properties in order to organize protests,” she said.
“The Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario has submitted our concerns to OMAFRA’s Freedom of Information and Privacy Coordinator, objecting to the release of this information to an unknown third party.
“Information collected through the FBR program must be considered private, not least of all because so many farm businesses are also the location of private homes,” she said.
Any FBR registrant could file concerns about this FOI application with OMAFRA’s FOI office in Guelph.
