Season three of Farm Crime launches Friday on CBC Gem
The policing of ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½’s agriculture industry in rural and isolated communities is arduous and labour intensive. Because of the vast terrain, that means there are as many cold cases as problems solved.
Vancouver Island factors into that equation on new episodes of the streaming documentary series Farm Crime, the third season of which premieres today on CBC Gem. In the first episode of the new season, The Cedar Culprit, filmmakers investigate stolen Cedar trees from the Wei Wai Kum First Nation near Campbell River. During episode three, Fate of the Feral Rabbits, the story of rabbits from the University of Victoria facing execution after escaping from a Coombs sanctuary is told.
“We try to find something which has some depth to it, and a lot of moving pieces,” said Farm Crime creator and executive producer, Geoff Morrison. “It’s a question of whether we can do the story justice, and if it has the right ingredients for the series. But it also has to connect with our viewers and enlighten them about an aspect of farming and agriculture they probably don’t know much about.”
In searching for topics, Morrison and his team cast a wide net and the third season is no exception, from a Ponzi scheme involving pigeons in Ontario to P.E.I. potatoes sabotaged with sewing needles. The two Island-centric stories shared on Farm Crime this season certainly fit the bill, he said. “When I came across the [cedar theft] story in the news, it looked like it would be an interesting story to explore.”
The episodes can be streamed on-demand starting today. Morrison expects there to be great interest in the new season, given the reception to previous installments. He was already familiar with Vancouver Island and its vast wilderness; previously, he co-directed War for the Woods, a documentary on the 1990s logging controversies in Clayoquot Sound, which aired in March on The Nature of Things.
For that reason, he said he was not surprised to discover that a timber salvage company, which had a license to harvest scrap and felled timber, was operating outside of authorized areas on the Wei Wai Kum First Nation First Nation.
But the episode concerning rabbits borne from the University of Victoria campus (of which he had little prior knowledge) as jarring, to say the least. “I don’t think until it was really learned about the aftermath of what had happened to some of those rescued rabbits in Coombs did we start to put it together.”
The story of the approximately 1,500 rabbits is well-known around these parts, and angered some to the point of protest when the fate of some of the rabbits who were relocated from UVic to an up-island sanctuary came to light. Ninety of them were eventually shot — legally, mind you — in 2010 after escaping onto a neighbouring farm. The owner who hired the trapper was attempting to curtail potential damage to her hay and horses, at which point blame was shifted to the provincial government.
“It created a big controversy, depending on how you see the story,” Morrison said. “[The neighbour] was completely vilified for her actions, by hiring a trapper to shoot these animals, but that was on the advice of the ministry. And the way people in Victoria responded, with a very humane approach to it — it seemed like a very interesting dichotomy.”
Stories do not need to have a final resolution in order be considered for Farm Crime, according to Morrison. Though not every episode is fully impartial (“We certainly don’t cast any judgment, however,” he added), the episodes all treat the crimes and incidents seriously. The episodes are a window into various communities and aspects of farming an agriculture, “which a lot of urban viewers probably don’t know too much about,” he said. Only one of the two episodes centred on Vancouver Island this season has a clear resolution.
“We are looking at that rural-urban divide, and things need to be dealt with differently depending on the community. Even if there isn’t a perpetrator brought to justice, or clean ending to the story, that’s still okay.”
