Canadian anti-Cruelty and Species-at-Risk bills die twice
OTTAWAA once promising session of Parliament for Canadian animal protection bills adjourned on June 21 in Ottawa with both an update of the 107-year-old federal anti-cruelty law and the proposed Species-at-Risk Act effectively dead.
Both bills actually appeared to be dead by mid-April, between the concerted opposition of the Canadian Alliance, the minority party which dominates western Canada, and the opposition of Liberal Rural Caucus chair Murray Calder.
Anne McMillan, previously Justice Minister for the Liberal government, first introduced the revamp of the anti-cruelty law in 1998, and re-introduced it in 2000, but had still not advanced it out of the House of Commons when in January 2002 she was made Health Minister. Her successor as Justice Minister, first-time cabinet member Martin Cauchon, was not expected to push itbut he did, and on June 3 it easily cleared the Commons, after a motion to close the debate passed, 120-71.
The closure motion was the real test of the bill. Despite the overwhelming support in the Commons, however, the bill was not taken up immediately by the Senate.
"With persistent rumors that this parliamentary session may be ended by the government in September to allow a new session, the bill could die as unfinished business," reported Barry Wilson, Ottawa correspondent for the Western Producer, of Saskatoon.
Calder was believed to be behind the delay. "When the Liberal majority forced the bill through the Commons on June 4 by cutting off debate," Wilson wrote, "Calder successfully urged reluctant rural Liberals to vote for it because Cauchon had promised an amendment in the Senate guaranteeing that normal farm animal practices would not be at risk. In the Senate, that promise disappeared. Montreal Liberal senator Joan Fraser was designated to shepherd the legislation through the Senate, and she said there was no deal."
Calder then said he would "speak to the prime minister" about it.
But the appointment of Fraser to push the billif indeed she was appointed may have doomed it right there. Longtime Montreal animal advocate Anne Streeter recalled clashing with Fraser over the Liberal defense of the Atlantic Canada seal hunt, which killed at least 295,000 seals in 2002, 20,000 more than the original quota. The quota was extended when the prices paid for seal pelts proved to be unexpectedly high.
But Fraser's name did not even appear on an Animal Alliance of Canada list of 15 Senators named to the committee to review the anti-cruelty bill.
The even more hotly debated Species-at-Risk Act would have instituted penalties for killing animals and plants on the Canadian endangered species list.
The Canadian endangered species list currently recognizes that species are endangered or threatened, but does not actually do anything to protect them. Protective legislation for each species may then be passed by Parliament, but of the 402 officially endangered species now recognized in Canada, most have no federal protection at all.
After extensive early-June amendments, the Species-at-Risk Act cleared the House of Commons on June 11, 148-85.
Like the anti-cruelty bill, however, the Species-at-Risk Act is bitterly opposed by the Canadian Alliance, and is also opposed by the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, the largest farm lobby in Canada, mostly because it does not compensate landowners at full market value for any loss of use of property due to the presence of an endangered species.
At the provincial level, Ontario wise-users on June 13 won passage of the Heritage Hunting and Fishing Act, which redefines hunting, trapping, and fishing as rights of Ontarians rather than conditional privileges.
Quebec agriculture minister Maxime Arseneau on May 31 announced the formation of a nonprofit organization called Anima-Quebec to establish and enforce institutional animal care guidelines throughout the province. Named to the steering committee, however, were mainly animal use industry representatives, and Anima-Quebec was given a start-up budget of only $150,000 (Canadian), with a mandate to seek donations to do more.
Elisabeth Kalbfuss of the Montreal Gazette reported that handling similar duties costs the Ontario SPCA $10 million per year.
"It is a good day for animals and animal lovers," Montreal SPCA executive director Pierre Barnoti said, "but it is only a first step. We are going to start naming inspectors. How many? Two, three, five? In Ontario there are 347."
Streeter told ANIMAL PEOPLE that she believes Arseneau formed Anima-Quebec in the first place to keep Barnoti from extending the inspection activities and authority of the Montreal SPCA. Chartered as the Canadian SPCA, the Montreal SPCA historically had the right to pursue anti-cruelty law enforcement anywhere in Quebec, but has rarely had the budget to do so.