Thank you.
Mr. Scarth, I heard you describe yourself once as a recovering lawyer so I'm going to talk about legislation here.
On November 24 of last year every member of Parliament received a letter signed by a number of groups, including Delta Waterfowl and the Manitoba Wildlife Federation regarding Bill C-592, which is a private member's bill by the NDP member of Parliament for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine. It's an act to amend the Criminal Code regarding cruelty to animals.
In the letter we received...I will quote from it:
Bill C-592 seeks to re-introduce the same wording that has caused all of these previous bills to be defeated.
There they're referring to other animal rights bills.
If passed, the bill could unintentionally criminalize all sorts of accepted, necessary and traditional practices. Everything from food production, hunting, fishing, and trapping, research using animals, sports and entertainment, and private ownership would be impacted.
Mr. Scarth, could you talk about the legal implications of a bill like this, especially if a judge chooses to interpret it in a very extreme manner? How could this affect hunting and trapping?