Published November 18, 2023

Brenda O’Farrell
The Advocate

An animal rights group is challenging the Ontario government in court, claiming the province’s law that bans undercover investigations of animal cruelty on farms is unconstitutional.

The non-profit group Animal Justice says the law – the Security from Trespass and Protecting Food Safety Act – violates the federal Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The law, which was enacted in 2020, bans activists from going undercover to investigate animal cruelty at farms and slaughterhouses. They were in court late last month in Toronto.

The group’s case puts forward the argument that the fundamental freedom of expression protected by the charter includes what it calls the “expressive activity” that focuses on the treatment of animals in the farming industry.

The same freedom of expression should also include the actions of individuals who choose to gather outside slaughterhouses to “show compassion to animals in their last moments of life.”

The group’s lawyer, according to a report by the CBC, said the work to obtain so-called undercover video footage and its dissemination is an exercise of rights protected by the charter. The law infringes on the right of free expression, peaceful assembly and the presumption of innocence until proven guilty.

The group argues there is a distinction between illegal occupations of farms, or violent raids, which are illegal, and undercover filming. A section of the law that is being challenged makes it illegal to obtain a job at a farm under false pretenses in order to videotape operations in a covert manner.

In a statement issued as the case opened, Ontario’s Attorney General simply said the law is constitutional.

The statement read: “The legislation does not impede expression by activists, journalists or anyone else, nor does it otherwise breach the charter.”

The law, which can fine trespassers to a maximum of $15,000 on the first offence, came about after livestock producers pressed the provincial government to take action against trespassers and people who demonstrate at processing plants.

The hearing wrapped up in early November. A ruling in the case is not expected until early 2024.

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