Bill C-251 (Historical)

Ban on Shark Fin Importation Act

An Act to amend the Fisheries Act and the Wild Animal and Plant Protection and Regulation of International and Interprovincial Trade Act (importation of shark fins)

This bill is from the 42nd Parliament, 1st session, which ended in September 2019.

Sponsor

Introduced as a private member’s bill. (These don’t often become law.)

Status

Outside the Order of Precedence (a private member's bill that hasn't yet won the draw that determines which private member's bills can be debated), as of March 10, 2016
(This bill did not become law.)

Summary

This is from the published bill.

This enactment amends the Fisheries Act to prohibit the practice of shark finning.
It also amends the Wild Animal and Plant Protection and Regulation of International and Interprovincial Trade Act to prohibit the importation in Canada of shark fins that are not attached to the shark carcass.

Similar bills

C-246 (42nd Parliament, 1st session) Modernizing Animal Protections Act

Elsewhere

All sorts of information on this bill is available at LEGISinfo, an excellent resource from Parliament. You can also read the full text of the bill.

Bill numbers are reused for different bills each new session. Perhaps you were looking for one of these other C-251s:

C-251 (2022) Conservation of Fish Stocks and Management of Pinnipeds Act

C-251 (2020) VIA Rail Canada Act

C-251 (2013) An Act to amend the Excise Tax Act (no GST on reading materials)

C-251 (2011) An Act to amend the Excise Tax Act (no GST on reading materials)

Shark FinningPetitionsRoutine Proceedings

November 20th, 2017 / 3:20 p.m.

See context

NDP

Fin Donnelly NDP Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to table e-petition 706, initiated by Brad Hazledine from Freelton, Ontario.

The petitioners ask that the government adopt my private member's bill, Bill C-251, as a government bill so we can finally ban the importation of shark fin to Canada.

Sharks are a vital part of healthy ocean ecosystems around the world. Unfortunately, 70 million to 100 million sharks are being killed each year for their fins, and one-third of all shark species are now at risk of extinction as a result.

This call for action comes on the heels of the tragic death of Rob Stewart. Rob was an award-winning Canadian filmmaker who ultimately and tragically ended up giving his life for this cause. Canada could honour his work and provide a lasting legacy for his efforts by adopting Bill C-251.