Recent Library of Parliament Legislative Summaries

The Library of Parliament in Ottawa has recently published a number of legislative summaries of important federal bills.

Among them are:

• Legislative Summary of Bill C-56: An Act to amend the Excise Tax Act and the Competition Act: "Bill C-56, An Act to amend the Excise Tax Act and the Competition Act (short title: Affordable Housing and Groceries Act), was introduced in the House of Commons on 21 September 2023 by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and received first reading that same day. The bill was passed by both chambers of Parliament after being amended in the House of Commons, and it received Royal Assent on 15 December 2023. Bill C-56 has two parts: Part 1 amends the Excise Tax Act (ETA) to temporarily enhance the Goods and Services Tax (GST) new residential rental property rebate in respect of new purpose-built rental housing. Part 2 amends the Competition Act to promote competition, particularly in the grocery sector. This legislative summary provides a brief description of the key amendments contained in Bill C-56."
• Legislative Summary of Bill C-48: An Act to amend the Criminal Code (bail reform): "Bill C-48 makes changes to Canada’s Criminal Code ... provisions concerning judicial interim release, also known as bail. It adds to existing “reverse onus” provisions that shift the prosecutor’s burden of demonstrating why an accused person should be held in detention pending trial onto the accused, who instead must demonstrate to the judge or justice of the peace that there is no reason warranting their detention. These amendments are in response to concerns raised by various stakeholders about crimes being committed by repeat violent offenders, in particular those who use firearms. These reverse onus amendments apply to accused persons who were previously convicted of a violent offence and are subsequently charged with violent offences or offences involving firearms, knives, bear spray or other weapons. The bill also proposes changes to address the risks posed by intimate partner violence, particularly when committed by repeat offenders. It adds considerations a justice must take into account during bail decisions regarding community safety and security concerns."
• Legislative Summary of Bill S-15: An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Wild Animal and Plant Protection and Regulation of International and Interprovincial Trade Act: "The bill creates various Criminal Code offences in relation to elephants and great apes, including: possessing, breeding or impregnating elephants or great apes in captivity; possessing an elephant or great ape that is kept in captivity and failing to take reasonable measures to prevent natural breeding; and participating in any activities that involve elephants or great apes kept in captivity being used for entertainment purposes."

Law Library of Congress Report on Regulation of Wild Animal Wet Markets

 The Law Library of Congress has published a comparative law report on the Regulation of the Sale of Wild Animals and Their Meat in Markets:

This report, prepared by staff at the Law Library of Congress, examines the regulation of 'wet markets' at which wild animals, or the meat of such animals, can be purchased for human consumption. It covers 28 jurisdictions around the world, with a particular focus on sanitary requirements for such markets and the legality or otherwise of trading in wild animals or wild meat (also referred to as 'bushmeat'). The term 'wet market' can be taken to generally refer to 'a partially open commercial complex with vending stalls organized in rows; they often have slippery floors and narrow aisles along which independent vendors primarily sell wet items such as meat, poultry, seafood, vegetables, and fruits.' Such markets may or may not sell live animals and do not necessarily include wildlife or the meat or other products derived from wild animals.

Wet markets and other types of local or traditional food markets exist in countries around the world and are an important source of food as well as supporting the livelihoods of many people. However, they have also been identified as potential or likely sources of outbreaks of zoonoses (diseases or infections that are transmissible from animals to humans), including most recently in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. A recently published study on the effect of a wet market on COVID-19 transmission dynamics in China explained that

[e]vidence suggests that the novel coronavirus likely jumped from a primary reservoir (e.g. horseshoe bats) to an intermediary reservoir, possibly generating an outbreak among wild animals in at least one wet market in Wuhan, China (By Jon CohenJan, 2020, Li et al., 2020). The virus first infected multiple individuals working at, or visiting, the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market at an early stage, initiating multiple chains of transmission that ensured sustained transmission in the human population (Yang et al., 2020). While details of the origin of the outbreak remain uncertain, significant evidence strongly links the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan with the early spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) among humans (Li et al., 2020).

In April 2020, the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) stated in a media briefing on COVID-19 that the WHO is working with United Nations bodies to develop new guidance on the safe operation of wet markets. He stated that the 'WHO’s position is that when these markets are allowed to reopen it should only be on the condition that they conform to stringent food safety and hygiene standards.' The director general also emphasized that governments must 'vigorously enforce bans on the sale and trade of wildlife for food'."

The Law Library of Congress is the world’s largest law library, with a collection of over 2 and a half million volumes from all ages of history and virtually every jurisdiction in the world.

Over the years, it has published dozens of comparative law reports which are a treasure trove for legal research on a huge variety of issues.

English Law Commission Report on Protection of Wildlife

The English Law Commission has published a report on wildlife law that seeks to simplify the legal framework for wildlife management in England and Wales:

"(...) we recommend that the patchwork of existing legislation be replaced by a single statute. The new statute brings together the law governing the protection, control and management of wildlife to make it more consistent, easier to understand and simpler to use. Reflecting relevant EU directives and international conventions as well as national wildlife policy, the statute provides a regulatory framework organised around schedules listing protected and controlled species and prohibited conduct."

"Existing protections for wild animals, birds and plants are maintained but a statutory procedure for amending the schedules is introduced, allowing for more strategic management of species. The existing requirement for protected species lists to be reviewed every five years is extended to include all relevant lists. Ministers retain the power to make changes between reviews, but they will be required to publish their reasons if they do not follow expert advice."

"We recommend a reduction in the current dependency on criminal law by allowing an appropriate mix of regulatory measures such as guidance, advice and a varied and flexible system of civil sanctions such as fines and bans. But the penalty for the most serious wildlife crimes will be extended from six months to two years in prison."

Library of Parliament Legislative Summary of Justice for Animals in Service Act

The Library of Parliament recently published a legislative summary of Bill C-35, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (law enforcement animals, military animals and service animals) (short title: Justice for Animals in Service Act):

"Bill C-35 creates a new offence, criminalizing the act of killing or injuring a law enforcement animal, military animal or service animal."

"Currently, an offence is committed under sections 444 and 445 of the Criminal Code (Code) when someone wilfully kills, maims, wounds, poisons or injures cattle or when someone kills, maims, wounds, poisons or injures a domestic animal wilfully and without lawful excuse. Section 429(2) of the Code provides a defence, stating, 'No person shall be convicted of an offence under sections 430 to 446 where he proves that he acted with legal justification or excuse and with colour of right'."

"There are also a number of provisions that address cruelty to animals, including section 445.1 of the Code, which establishes that it is an offence to cause unnecessary suffering to an animal."

It is possible to follow the progress of the bill on the LEGISinfo website.

English Law Commission Report on Wildlife Law: Control of Invasive Non-Native Species

The Law Commission of England has published a report on Wildlife Law: Control of Invasive Non-native Species:

"Invasive non-native species are ones that arrive as a result of human action and cause environmental and economic damage. They pose a significant threat to ecosystems as well as damaging property and infrastructure. Existing law does not contain sufficient powers to allow for their timely and effective control or eradication. Our recommendations in relation to species control orders will allow for a proportionate and necessary response to an increasing problem."

The report is part of the Commission's Wildlife Law project.

Law Library of Congress Comparison of Regulations Concerning the Private Possession of Big Cats

The Law Library of Congress has produced a report that compares the Regulations Concerning the Private Possession of Big Cats:

"This analysis compares and contrasts the different legal approaches taken by twenty-one countries and the European Union in regulating the private possession of big cats. All the countries surveyed are members of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). This analysis describes the legal provisions regarding keeping big cats in captivity, the requirements for licenses, and permission for breeding of big cats."

Canada is one of the countries included in the report.

The Law Library of Congress is the world’s largest law library, with a collection of over 2.65 million volumes from all ages of history and virtually every jurisdiction in the world.

Animal Law Growing In Canada

From today's Globe and Mail, an article entitled The new legal hot topic: animal law:

"Animal law classes are the hot new offering at Canadian law schools. The University of Toronto and Queen's University will both start teaching animal law this fall, joining at least six other Canadian universities where dogs and cats are already on the curriculum."

"Before you reel at the notion of Rover retaining a lawyer to petition for 10 walks a day or the fish suing the cat for harassment, fear not. It's a serious field of study; even in the U.S., where animal law is more developed and lawsuits are much easier to pursue, courts have not been overrun by frivolous Fido filings."

"Some experts compare animal law today to environmental law in the 1970s - just emerging from its reputation as a special-interest niche (with a tinge of left-wing loony) to become a solid discipline that is widely accepted and potentially lucrative for practitioners."

Australian Law Reform Commission Journal Issue Devoted to Animal Law

The most recent issue of Reform, devoted to animals and the law, is now online. Reform is a publication of the Australian Law Reform Commission.

"At the Sydney meeting of the Australasian Law Reform Agencies Conference in April 2006, over 100 institutional law reformers from 32 law reform agencies in 25 Commonwealth countries endeavoured to identify the ‘over the horizon issues’ that would occupy them in the coming decades. These issues included: the environment and sustainability (especially global warming and water resources); the telecommunications revolution and the new media; changing demographics, such as the ageing population base in developed countries, and the worldwide scourge of HIV-AIDS; the challenges of ensuring national and international security without departing from human rights protections; and, finally, animal welfare and animal rights—described by speakers as perhaps 'the next great social justice movement'. "

"This issue of Reform is devoted to exploring the parameters of this emerging consciousness about the need to treat non-human animals with dignity and respect. Previous issues of Reform routinely feature a range of distinguished scholars, thinkers and practitioners. However, we are most deeply honoured to be able to open this issue with a piece from John M. Coetzee, Nobel Laureate in Literature and author of Lives of Animals (1999) and Elizabeth Costello (2003)."

Earlier issues of the journal going back to 1995 are available on the Commission website.

Animal Law Courses Spreading Across Canada

The most recent issue of The Lawyers Weekly features an article entitled Animal law: from the classroom to the real world? that describes the emergence of animal law as a serious field of study and perhaps legal practice:

"If the law schools are any indication, animal law is a growth area. University of Toronto has just become the seventh law school to offer animal law on its curriculum, after McGill, Dalhousie, University of Alberta, University of Ottawa, University of Victoria and Université du Québec à Montréal(...)"

"Just as actually practising environmental law was seen as a pipe dream of law students in the ’60s and ’70s, but then became a reality for thousands of lawyers, animal law may become more than just law school courses and philosophical debates. As views change about the rights and realities of animal lives, so too may the laws and case law that cause lawyers to catch onto to societal trends. Just look at the students in [Lesli] Bisgould’s first animal law class at the University of Toronto. You just might mind find a future successful animal law lawyer."

Other Library Boy posts that mention animal law include:

• Animal Law Website (June 19, 2005): "The Michigan State University College of Law has created this very helpful collection about animal welfare law and associated topics."
• New Customized Search Tools for Canadian Legal Material (March 7, 2007): "Legal Research / Recherche juridique: this searches through the legal research guides and tutorials of Canadian law schools and their libraries. For example, try searches for 'animal law' or 'histoire droit québécois '. "

Animal Law Website

The Michigan State University College of Law has created this very helpful collection about animal welfare law and associated topics.

The site is heavily US-slanted, with information about animal law in different states, but there are resources about the animal laws of other countries too. Oddly, though, given the debates in Canada about pit bull bans in Ontario and in other provinces, Canada did not make the cut.

Still, a very useful resource.