To download a PDF version of this letter, please click here.
To the attention of all Ontario Members of Parliament
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Subject : REPEAL OF BILL 156
Vegan Option Canada stands in solidarity with the Animal Save Movement and all engaged citizens who choose to expose the animal, sanitary and climatic crisis and do not endorse any unnecessary suffering. Consequently, Vegan Option Canada considers that Bill 156 is unconstitutional, infringes on the fundamental rights of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, and violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Fundamentally, section 2(b) of the Charter is aimed at promoting and safeguarding the open debate and discussion essential to a free and democratic society. The right to freedom of expression includes expression that gives the public, including consumers, access to information that would enable them to make informed food purchasing choices. Whistleblowers have long played a vital role in exposing animal cruelty, unsafe working conditions, and environmental problems on industrial farming operations. Such exposés are in the public interest, promoting an open dialogue about animal use practices and food safety. Ag gag laws can also adversely affect industry by eroding public confidence in the food system.
Bill 156, which makes it illegal to ‘interact’ with the animals and for employees to report animal suffering, is an attack on civil liberties. The right to witness and protest injustice are cornerstones of a democratic society. Groups like Me Too and Black Lives Matter use witnessing to draw much-needed attention to injustice. Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr. engaged in civil disobedience when confronted with unjust laws. Before Bill 156 was passed, New Democratic Party MPP John Vanthof said:
People are going to get hurt because of this. They [the ag industry] read a lot more into this than a simple deterrent, and that is a problem... when someone’s badly hurt or killed, it’s going to be an issue here [Queen’s Park] again, and it’s going to be a much bigger issue for that family.
On June 19, Regan Russell, a 65-year-old who had been advocating for the rights of others for 40 years, was killed by a Brussels Transport truck transporting pigs to slaughter. She was standing at the gates of Fearmans slaughterhouse, at a good distance from the transport truck stopped in traffic.
In solidarity with all citizens engaged and concerned about animal rights and welfare, Vegan Option Canada calls on Ontario MPPs to
- condemn Bill 156 and take action to stop its effects
- update animal protection laws provincially, and that your federal political counterparts strengthen animal protection laws federally, as is desperately needed. Most people would be shocked to know that Canada’s animal protection laws are among the most archaic and antiquated in the world.
- pass legislation requiring slaughterhouse owners, such as Fearmans, to enter into an agreement with the Animal Save Movement to grant two minutes of peaceful witnessing for protesters.
- implement a Regan Bill of Rights. This new bill calls for the recognition of personhood and sentience of animals and removes their property status, and includes defunding animal agriculture and replacing subsidies for funding a just transition to a plant-based food system. Furthermore, it would seek to protect protesters and whistleblowers.
