The federal Conservatives are proposing legislation that threatens jail for animal rights protesters who trespass on farmers’ private property and endanger their animals’ health.
Bill C-275, or “An Act to amend the Health of Animals Act (biosecurity on farms),” passed second reading in the House of Commons on June 21 after MPs voted almost unanimously in favour, by a
vote of 313 to 3, as first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.
Only Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith and the two Green Party MPs—Elizabeth May and Mike Morrice—voted against the private member’s bill, which will now move to the next stage to be
considered by the Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food.
Speaking to his bill during Commons
debate on May 1, sponsor Conservative MP and agriculture critic John Barlow said “there have been numerous actions of protesters on farms. It is becoming more and more daring and reckless.”
Barlow introduced Bill C-275 in November 2022 after having introduced similar legislation earlier that lapsed as a result of the 2021 general election.
His previous
Bill C-205 had passed both second reading in the House and consideration by the Commons agriculture committee between March and June 2021.
His new
legislation aims to amend the Health of Animals Act to make it a federal offence to “enter, without lawful authority or excuse, a place in which animals are kept if doing so could result in the exposure of the animals to a disease or toxic substance that is capable of affecting or contaminating them.”
The bill threatens a fine of up to $250,000 or up to two years in jail or both for individuals. Animal rights groups that organize farm protests would be subject to a fine of up to $500,000.
During
debate on May 1, Barlow noted that it “would not, in any way, disallow protesters from protesting on public property about the issues that they are passionate about and that are important to them.”
“They can hold those rallies and protests outside the farm gate, but there has to be a line in the sand,” Barlow said.
“When they cross that line onto private property and put the health of animals at risk as well as the mental health of our farm families at risk, there has to be a line there. There have to be strict rules in place to deter that action.”
Animal Diseases
During
debate on the bill on June 15, Barlow said animal diseases have been spread in recent years as a result of the protesters.
“There was an outbreak of rotavirus in Quebec when protesters were found at a hog operations in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec,” Barlow said. “Mink farms in Ontario had an outbreak of canine distemper when protesters were on the farms.”
Agricultural groups including the Chicken Farmers of Canada (CFC) previously voiced support for Barlow’s similar Bill C-205 during
committee hearings in 2021, while animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has urged Canadian lawmakers to reject Barlow’s new Bill C-275.
“This law is detrimental to animals because it’s intended to deter people from exposing cruelty to animals,” PETA
writes on its website.
Nick de Graaf, then-vice chair of the CFC,
told the Commons agriculture committee on June 3, 2021, that Canadian farmers have “feared the possibility of activists trespassing on our properties and into our chicken barns” for years.
“Biosecurity is critical to the prevention of disease in flocks,” he said. “On my farm, I track visitors and know who is on the property to mitigate the risks of introducing a domestic, reportable or emerging disease on the farm.”
