Guilty plea to one pesticide infraction, other charges stayed

A legal battle ended today for a well-knownIsland farmer.Alex Docherty, a former chair of the P.E.I. Potato Board, pleaded guilty to spraying pesticide without a valid applicators certificate. Other charges connected to pesticide use were stayed.

Outside court,Dochertysaid he wasrelieved but frustrated.

"If they're charging me, then they're leaving somebody else alone," said Docherty. "But it's sad for our industry, these frivolous charges.We used to call them recreational charges that they just come up with something to doand lay charges."

Environment officials laid the charges as a result of theirinvestigation of a fish kill on theClydeRiverfollowing torrential rains on July 24, 2016. As part of that investigation, officials scrutinized pesticide application log books of local farmers, including Docherty, showing where, when and how they had used pesticides that summer. Most of the charges concerned the contentsof those log books.

A three-day court trial had been slated to beginTuesday in Charlottetown.Dochertywas facingfour charges.His farming business,SkyeView Farms, faced four identical charges. His guilty plea -- to a single incident of spraying without a valid Class A applicatorscertificate --brought the case to aclose.

Dochertybelievesthe incident on the ClydeRiver last summer had more to do with the torrential rains than with local farming practices.

"We're all in it together. There's no farmer certainly wants to harm a fish," said Docherty. "They shouldn't call them fish kills. It's an event that occurred and nobody can explain usually."

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Docherty'sone guilty plea related to a single incident last June. Court heard he sprayed part of a neighbour's cornfield with Roundup, but his applicator's certificate, which must be renewed every five years, had expired.Docherty'sadult son, who did have a valid certificate, was riding in the cab of the sprayer with him at the time.

Docherty was fined $1,000. He now holds a valid applicator's certificate.

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