The death of Bill C-50

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The death of Bill C-50: Shame on animal industry groups

By Shelagh MacDonald

The government fell on November 28. Dying on the order paper was Bill C-50, the government’s amendments to the animal cruelty sections of the Criminal Code.
As Paul Macklin, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice, has said, “This legislation has a long and notorious history in Parliament.”
It was first introduced in 1999 and has gone through extensive debate in both Houses since then. In fact, in 2003, animal industry groups, animal protection groups and all political parties supported the bill. Unfortunately, the Senate prevented its passage at that time.
Now, two years later, animal industry groups are re-raising the same issues that were debated, and resolved, from 1999 – 2003.
The number one reason Bill C-50 has made no progress since May – and has now died – is this withdrawal of support from various animal industry groups. A large coalition consisting of mostly farming groups and a few organizations representing trappers and researchers had actively supported the bill until February of this year, but is now lobbying for changes.
Another group of hunters and anglers is also lobbying feverishly against Bill C-50, and finding some support among Members of Parliament and Senators.
It is absolutely outrageous what these groups are now asking for; they want to be exempt from the animal cruelty section of the Criminal Code, something that is completely inappropriate and offensive to our judicial system. This would be comparable to exempting police officers or hockey players from assault laws and no-one should be exempt from the Criminal Code.
What industry groups don’t want to understand is that there are two words in the Criminal Code that allow them to carry out their activities: ‘lawful excuse’. ‘Lawful excuse’ permits the pursuit of lawful activities, such as hunting, fishing, trapping and farming. It has been stated repeatedly by Justice officials: everything that is lawful today will continue to be lawful under Bill C-50.
It is important to note that Bill C-50 is not about new law; it is about improving the current law. The key words that describe the offences are unchanged from the current legislation to Bill C-50. In addition, all of the defences that are available today, such as legal justification and excuse, will continue to be available under Bill C-50. The current legislation has not been used to prosecute standard industry practices, and nothing in Bill C-50 has changed that.
The CFHS is saddened that these industry groups are more interested in pursuing incomprehensible and unreasonable demands than protecting animals from cruelty and abuse. One certainly is left wondering what kind of cruelty they want to inflict on animals for which they are asking for an exemption.
It is a disgrace that Canada’s law remains in the 19th Century, while animal industry groups continue to stand in the way of long-overdue amendments to animal welfare legislation which, we all know, currently allows heinous crimes against animals to go unpunished.
For further information, contact Shelagh MacDonald, Program Director, CFHS:
1-888-678-2347
shelaghm@cfhs.ca
http://www.spca.bc.ca/legislation/default.asp


Canadian Law
Provisions dealing with animal cruelty were first written into the Criminal Code in 1892. These were very, very modestly updated in 1956. Since 1998, the CFHS has worked with three different Ministers of Justice to bring forward five versions of a Bill that would bring the Criminal Code provisions dealing with animal cruelty up to date. Media releases document that effort. Indeed, the struggle for federal animal cruelty laws that would bring Canada in line with other countries in this regard remains an ongoing one.

The federal election
At the dissolution of Parliament, Bill C-50 was being debated in the House. This is where the parties stood on the bill when the government fell on November 28, 2005:
·The Liberals, with the exception of some rural MPs, supported the bill.
·The NDP was unequivocal in its support of Bill C-50.
·The justice critic for the Bloc Québécois claimed his party supported the legislation but this was not always obvious from the comments of Bloc MPs.
·The Conservative Party was allied with the animal industry groups and opposed Bill C-50 unless it included exemptions of some sort for industry groups. Otherwise, they supported Bill S-24, a far inferior bill introduced in the Senate by John Bryden.
Election day will be on January 23, 2006. It is important that candidates for all parties know how important amendments to the animal cruelty provisions of the Criminal Code are to many Canadians. The CFHS is asking its members and supporters to make their views about modernizing Canada’s animal cruelty laws known to ALL of the candidates in your riding.