Only in Canada...
...a top civil right lawyer will battle to keep a squirrel in the country    And then...have a press conference about the decision labled as "breaking news"
On the one hand side this is very good that our breaking news aren't about murders and wars but about funny nice things...but on the other lol it's a little insane
Cute squirrel though 
| quote: | Refugee rodent wins two rounds against government
By COLIN FREEZE
Friday, April 1, 2005 Updated at 12:43 AM EST
From Friday's Globe and Mail
Toronto — It's a rare baby squirrel that takes on the government and changes the laws of the land. But Sabrina, the refugee rodent, appears to have done just that.
This morning, Sabrina's handlers will announce in Toronto that they've successfully resisted Ottawa's deportation efforts. The celebrated U.S.-born flying squirrel that was imported as a baby last year can now stay in Canada for good.
The federal government went to great lengths to try to kick out Sabrina. The reasons for its change of heart are as murky as the rules that rendered the animal a sciurus-non-grata in the first place.
But it's understood that the rodent got a little helping hand from Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan and Agriculture Minister Andy Mitchell.
In fact, three weeks after The Globe and Mail reported on Sabrina's case last fall, the two ministers quietly changed the Health of Animals Act.
They signed a regulation allowing squirrels and other recently banned rodents to be imported to Canada for "educational purposes," as long as they arrived in "a regulated fashion that poses a minimal risk to the health of Canadians."
"This was done with a variety of people in mind: researchers, educational people, zoo facilities," Alex Swann, spokesman for Ms. McLellan, said in an interview yesterday.
"I can't comment definitively on whether this benefited this particular squirrel, but clearly we were cognizant of the situation that certain people found themselves in," he said.
Steve Patterson, a Mississauga, Ont., nature-lover who purchased Sabrina to help him give talks to children, had been taken to court by federal officials on the grounds that he illegally imported the squirrel. The lawsuit persisted despite the regulatory change, but has recently been settled.
The ponytailed squirrel expert is to appear with Sabrina at a news conference today, and would not comment on the case yesterday. But his lawyer circulated a statement saying Sabrina "can now remain in Canada permanently."
Mr. Patterson bought Sabrina for $150 (U.S.) in Indiana and declared his purchase at the border last June. He ended up shelling out thousands of dollars in legal costs to keep Sabrina in Canada.
Unknown to him, a monkey pox scare involving imported animals in the United States had caused Canada to ban the importation of rodents.
While Mr. Patterson was initially waved through when he declared Sabrina at the border, federal officials later realized they had made an error and came calling for the banned baby squirrel.
By then, Sabrina had bonded to Mr. Patterson, who had grown fond of the squirrel. He rejected the officials who told him to give up the rodent.
A couple of police officers came to his home to confiscate the animal, but he refused them, too.
Ottawa then took him to Federal Court. Mr. Patterson set up a legal defence fund to hire lawyers Brian Shiller and Clayton Ruby.
The Save Sabrina legal team won its first case, but then the government appealed.
It was at this point that The Globe featured the case of Sabrina in a front-page story — causing the case to be discussed at the federal cabinet and prompting media in the United States, Germany, Russia and New Zealand to take an interest.
Shortly afterward, the ministers changed the regulations. |
Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/serv...Story/National/
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