The government’s widely supported attempt to modernize
cruelty-to-animals legislation is in jeopardy because it has been
unable to ease fears that farmers will be vulnerable to legal charges
over animal husbandry practices.
Opposition Canadian Alliance MPs have found creative ways to delay a
parliamentary vote on the bill, moving amendments that delay its
passage.
With limited parliamentary time left to approve the bill before summer,
the government is faced with the dilemma of deciding whether to force
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an end to the debate through closure or allow opposition obstruction to
continue.
The problem for the government is that it is not certain it could win a
vote on the issue. A number of rural Liberals are insisting that the
price of their support is a government clarification that normal
farming practices would not be subject to challenge.
Rookie justice minister Martin Cauchon has been negotiating with
members of the Liberal rural caucus on a government amendment that
would be introduced when the bill gets to the Senate.
That would mean the legislation would have to come back to the House of
Commons from the Senate to allow MPs to approve the amended bill. With
just five weeks of parliamentary time left before summer adjournment,
the Liberals are running out of time.
On May 1, government House leader Ralph Goodale said he is considering
strong-arm tactics to get the bill through the Commons and into the
Senate.
Opposition MPs say the government could easily win approval by making
an amendment that effectively exempts from prosecution such farm
practices as dehorning and castration.
“It is a concern to many that we are allowing a well-organized,
well-funded and vocal small number of people to dictate to rural
Canadians how they will live their lives and how they will carry out
their day-to-day functions,” Lethbridge Alliance MP Rick Casson said in
the Commons April 30.
But even the critics insist they too support the broader goal of
tougher laws against animal cruelty.
Animal rights activists have won wide parliamentary support for their
argument that existing laws are too lax.
Farm groups insist they agree and want animal cruelty laws toughened,
but they do not want normal farm practices to be sideswiped.
The government has insisted legitimate farm practices are not the
target, but so far it has refused to make minor amendments requested by
farm groups to make that obvious.
