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DISCLAIMER: Jodi Bishop has given Friends of Kentville permission to publish this notice. We are publishing it so people can read the document themselves. We are not alleging that the notice was unlawful or that anyone involved acted improperly. We are asking for clarification of the circumstances surrounding it.”
I’ve been digging further into what happened with Jodi Bishop and the Friends of Kings meal at Centre Square on September 22, and there’s one part of this that is becoming increasingly difficult to reconcile.
The RCMP prohibition notice says the incident was September 22 at 4:43 p.m. and prohibits Jodi from Centre Square for a year, from October 1, 2026 to October 1, 2027. But the notice doesn't actually tell us what happened at 4:43 p.m.
It doesn't identify an alleged offence or say that Jodi refused to leave, caused a disturbance, damaged anything, or violated some particular rule. It simply gives the date and time and identifies the Town of Kentville as the occupier/authorized representative.
Then there's the food permit issue.
On September 17 - five days before the meal - Mayor Andrew Zebian emailed Jodi back:
“I know we had spoken two weeks ago regarding you using Town property without a provincial food permit. Were you successful with obtaining a food permit and have you spoken with the Town about possibly booking space?”
So this wasn't something that suddenly came up after the September 22 meal. The Mayor was already telling Jodi that she needed a provincial food permit.
But when I went back to the actual Nova Scotia Food Safety Regulations, I found something pretty important.
The regulations specifically exempt food prepared and served by a not-for-profit organization for functions or gatherings. The exemption has an exception for functions held in conjunction with a fair, exhibition, festival or other temporary food-service event.
Friends of Kings has been doing these community meals at Centre Square for years. This is community outreach - providing a meal and a place for people to gather - rather than a commercial food operation. The group isn't charging people for the food or operating a restaurant out of Centre Square.
And that's important because community spaces are often exactly where this kind of outreach happens. A community meal isn't just about the food. Centre Square provides a place where people can sit down, eat, talk and connect with other people. For people who may not have many other places to do that, the space itself is part of the outreach.
So, based on the regulation and the established nature of these meals, the provincial food-safety exemption appears directly applicable here. The fact that Friends of Kings is an informal local community group rather than a commercial food business doesn't, by itself, take it outside the exemption.
That doesn't mean the Town had to allow them to use Centre Square. That's a separate question.
The Town controls its property and can have rules about who can use it, whether space has to be booked, and what conditions apply. But that's different from saying a provincial food permit was required.
And that's where I think the unanswered questions really are:
Why was Jodi being told she needed a provincial food permit for these meals? And why was she singled out when she only began volunteering in May?
The Mayor's September 17 email is particularly interesting because he mentions the provincial food permit and then separately asks whether she had spoken with the Town about “possibly booking space.”
So even in his own wording, these appear to be two separate issues: provincial food regulation and permission to use Town property.
I don't think we should fill in the missing pieces ourselves.
What we have is a long-running community meal program, a provincial regulation that specifically exempts not-for-profit organizations serving food at functions or gatherings, and a Mayor telling the organizer five days before the September 22 meal that she needed a provincial food permit.
Then, on September 22, something happened at 4:43 p.m. that ultimately resulted in an RCMP prohibition notice lasting a year despite the fact no law enforcement was present for the alleged incident.
What happened at 4:43 p.m., and how did the food-permit issue factor into any of this?
That's still the part the public hasn't been given an explanation for.