Note: This bill was defeated Wednesday evening, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet ministers joining the Conservatives to vote it down.
Greg Farrant isn’t a betting man. But if he were, he’d put money on the latest federal attempt to crack down on animal cruelty dying this evening in the House of Commons.
“The bill criminalizes currently legal, highly regulated activities, it lowers the standards to lay criminal charges and it removes protections under the current criminal law,” said Farrant, manager of government affairs and policy with the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters.
The crux of the concern lies in the bill’s proposed amendments to the Criminal Code – a concern a senior Liberal MP also raised during debate in the Commons.
Farrant’s group has been outspoken in opposition to Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith’s private member’s bill that seeks to modernize federal animal cruelty laws. Farrant is quick to note that he and other members of the anglers and hunters federation believe the laws need updating – Canada’s animal protection legislation has been largely unchanged since 1892, according to advocacy group Animal Justice.
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But Erskine-Smith’s bill is a re-hash of similar bills debated on the floor of the House of Commons since the 1990s, all of which have been defeated, for much the same reasons Erskine-Smith’s stands to, Farrant said.
Hunters, anglers and farmers have lobbied against all bills to update animal cruelty laws, viewing each as a Trojan Horse that could criminalize putting a worm on a fishing hook, legal hunting, raising livestock, and even some religious practices, such as kosher killing.
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“The outdoor and agriculture communities across the country support reasonable animal cruelty legislation,” Farrant said in an interview Wednesday, hours before the scheduled vote. “But key sections of this bill are poorly defined and leave currently legal and heavily regulated activities open to frivolous charges brought by animal rights activists.”
Farrant suggested a focused bill explicitly dealing with illegal puppy mills, the sale of cat and dog fur, importing shark fins and animal fighting would gain support and traction.
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“If you want to move the yardstick, focus the bill with measures on which we can all get together,” he said. In fact, the federation has supported legislation to increase fines on puppy mills and to penalize cruelty against service animals, Farrant said.
The anglers and hunters federation solicited opinions from four veteran criminal defence lawyers, all of whom warned that outdoor and agriculture communities will face “problems” if the bill passes, Farrant said. Each of the opinions has been shared with all MPs.
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Erskine-Smith’s colleague, Toronto MP Bill Blair, who serves as parliamentary secretary to the justice minister, echoed some of the group’s concerns during a previous debate in the Commons.
“I believe that there is considerable merit in the proposed amendments brought forward,” Blair said last May. “The bill may inadvertently create a conflict of law, making existing, legally regulated, activities illegal by the very nature of their existence.”
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Blair said he was also concerned the bill could raise constitutional issues.
“It may effectively render hunting, fishing, trapping, ranching and other heritage and indigenous activities illegal because they may be deemed brutal or vicious.”
Erskine-Smith said he doesn’t have high hopes for his bill, noting that fewer than five per cent of private member’s bills make it through the House of Commons. That said, he is left a bit perplexed by the criticisms against the Criminal Code amendments included in the bill.
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He didn’t draft that section – the most contentious section – of the bill, he said. Instead, he used wording from previous Liberal justice ministers that had already passed the House in earlier Parliaments, and also included language Canada’s animal-based sectors previously supported.
The silver lining for the Toronto MP is that Canada’s animal cruelty laws are, once again, on the government’s radar, he said.
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“If the bill fails second reading, at least we’ve succeeded at putting animal protection on the agenda,” the life-long vegetarian said. “But we have to get back to a place where people feel their concerns are heard.”
That, he said, is more likely to happen through government legislation than through a private member’s bill.
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Through monitoring debates and speaking with MPs, Farrant has found that rural Liberals are against the bill as are some cabinet ministers, Conservatives and some NDP MPs.
“I don’t make predictions about Parliament,” he said. “One should never assume. But if you add up the numbers, it looks like the bill will be defeated.”
Facts about animal cruelty in Canada:
- Animal cruelty laws in the Criminal Code were first enacted in 1892. The last meaningful update to the laws was in 1954.
- Animal cruelty provisions are “riddled with loopholes,” making cases undesirable for prosecutors.
- It is not a criminal offence to kill a stray or wild animal without reason.
- It is not criminal to beat an animal to death so long as the animal dies immediately.
- Offences against animals currently fall under property offences in the Criminal Code.
- Shark finning is illegal in Canada, importation is not.
- There is no current requirement to accurately label fur garments, which opens the door for dog and cat furs – on trims or coats, for example – to be sold on the market
Source: Animal Alliance of Canada
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