The owners of a farm and residential property next to Universal Ostrich Farms in Edgewood have filed a civil claim in the Supreme Court of Canada against the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), and His Majesty the King in Right of Canada.
Plaintiffs Trevor Klug, Margaret Greba, and their daughter Alyson Turnbull’s 28-acre privately owned property was seized and occupied by the CFIA and RCMP in the fall of 2025.
The property is separately owned from Universal Ostrich Farms. However, according to the civil claim, a CFIA warrant served on the ostrich farm owners included the plaintiffs’ property, “creating the illusion without evidence” that the plaintiffs’ property is an ostrich farm.
“Filing this suit has required us to revisit every detail of what happened during the 52-day seizure, occupation, and destruction of my parents’ residential property next door to Universal Ostrich Farms, using a warrant that did not even have my parents’ name or responsibilities on it,” Turnbull said in a February 17 Facebook post. “Reliving it has been difficult in new ways I didn’t fully expect.”
From September 22 to November 13, 2025, the plaintiffs say the RCMP occupied the property 24 hours a day, without the consent of the property owners. CFIA employees, contractors, and agents were also on the property.
“The RCMP and CFIA engaged in the continued occupation of private property and entirely disregarded the information confirming the property of the plaintiffs was not the ostrich farm,” reads the claim.
The plaintiffs say they had no prior communication with CFIA before their land was seized. They say they repeatedly notified the RCMP and CFIA that they were trespassing, but they continued to trespass, and restricted the plaintiffs’ rights to enter and monitor their land.
“We were forced to go through an armed checkpoint just to enter and exit our own property, showing ID, waiting for permission, and dealing with shifting levels of aggression at our own gate,” said Turnbull. “I documented everything I could, but I didn’t feel safe sharing it in real time. When you are living under constant surveillance and relying on the same officers for access to your own gate, you think very carefully about what you say.”
The plaintiffs say that while on the property, the CFIA constructed hay-bale enclosures for the ostrich kill pen and, after contamination, transported the hay across the property without consent. In the claim, Turnbull and her parents say they pleaded and requested that the RCMP and CFIA stop spreading the hay, but were met with “laughing, taunting, and a complete disregard for the property rights of the plaintiffs.”
The claim also states that the RCMP and CFIA directed heavy trucks and equipment across the property, marring and damaging the grounds with deep ruts and pathways.
The plaintiffs are seeking injunctive relief, remediation of the land, and damages as determined by the Court.
“We lived beside weeks of visible animal suffering that ended in sudden gunfire without warning," said Turnbull. Our sense of safety and privacy were completely shattered, and we are still distraught that our land was used to facilitate something so horrific.”
