Classic tale of winding up in trouble for good deed

The Canada Agricultural Review Tribunal has upheld a notice of violation issued by CFIA in "a classic tale of one person doing a good deed in helping a neighbour and then winding up in trouble for his good deed."  Joseph Nalli transported, for no fee, seven sheep to a stockyard to help his neighbour, who was suffering from health concerns.  The neighbour had not tagged the sheep prior to their departure and, once at the stockyard, Nalli immediately told stockyard staff that the sheep were untagged. 

The stockyard staff would not accept the sheep until they were tagged.  After requesting and receiving instruction from a CFIA inspector on how to apply the tags, Nalli went into his trailer and tagged seven sheep with approved tags.  The CFIA inspector recorded the tag numbers and later, when tracing to whom the approved tags had been issued, found they were registered to Nalli and not to his neighbour who owned the sheep.

In its decision on the review of the notice of violation, the Tribunal accepted that Nalli was acting in good faith without fee to help a neighbour and that he was undoubtedly apologetic for using his own tags on his neighbours sheep.  The Tribunal also noted that, while it is regrettable that Nalli’s efforts to help a neighbour resulted in his committing a regulatory violation, the Tribunal is only permitted, under its enabling statutes, to assess the validity of the notice of violations issued by the agencies it oversees.

Read the decision at: Nalli v. Canada (CFIA).