Every Monday, Mark Powell drove to a pork factory in Burlington, Ontario, where his wife died to water the pigs on their way to slaughter.
Regan Russell did it every week until one day in June 2020, when a transport truck driver drove her to death.
Police accused the driver of inadvertent driving death — a non-criminal state crime — Investigators stated he had no intention of committing a crime This is because of the crime.
Two years later, the proceedings have stagnated in court and no trial date has yet been set. Powell says he has lost confidence in his investigation and is looking to the civil court to get an answer about his wife's death. "He wants to know what happened to him," Powell said.
Last week he filed a $ 5 million proceeding over her death. Truck driver Andrew Blake, truck company, Brussels Transport, and Sofina Foods, the company that owns the Fearman's Pork processing plant, are among those named in the proceedings. Unproven claims claim that negligence on their part led to Russell's death. The
claim alleges that the driver was unable to maintain proper lookout and made a safe and improper turn. Brassels Transport also claimed that it could not take steps to confirm that the driver was competent, and Sofina could not provide safety to pedestrians around Fearmans.
"Since this issue is currently being heard in court, the allegations contained in the invoice to Sofina have not been substantiated at this time, and Sofina should comment other than actively defending. You can't. This problem. " Sophina said in her email.
Neither the truck driver's lawyer nor the Brussels Transport responded to requests for comment.
'Watch every night'
65-year-old activist Russell is demonstrating outside a slaughterhouse in western Toronto on June 19, 2020, as he did every week. rice field. For many years. She and some friends protested controversial state law, raising fines for trespassing on farms and food processing facilities as part of a group of activists, the Toronto Pig Save. The
bill also made it illegal to interfere with trucks carrying livestock. Part of the bill appeared to target the Toronto Pig Save, a supporter who had photographed and watered pigs in transport trucks as they approached the slaughter. They call it a "witness".
After his wife's death, Powell has lived with anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorders. He wasn't there at the time, but Russell's friend explained how she died under the wheels of a truck. He watched the aftermath video.
"I see it every night when my head hits the pillow," he said.
His friend wonders how he deals. "I did some practice," he said, his voice dragged.
In 2014, Powell lost his 29-year-old son Zachary. When he was garneyed by an ambulance, he can still see the rescuer throbbing in his boy's chest. Zachary's heart was giving up.
Powell uses the power of his family to move forward after his defeat. He admits that his other son, Joshua, supported him when he fell and helped his wife take on the decades of fighting animal rights.
On his Father's Day last week, he and Joshua donated a bench in a game reserve north of Toronto to honor Russell. It reminds Powell of the bench named Zachary in Hamilton Park.
He and Joshua also set up the Regan Russell Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to keeping her voice alive by funding and supporting the fight against the bill she was fighting. I launched it.
The Foundation seeks to intervene in a constitutional objection to the law of animal justice.
"It gives us the means to fight bad law," he said. "I have hope and power. I hope that such a foundation will make an animal voice on the government floor and know that Regan's voice is heard."
Every week, activists meet to protest outside Fearman's Pork. But now they are standing at the median where the truck stops at the light — away from where Russell died — watering the pigs.
"I always praise her and support her what she stood until my death," Powell said.
