Thank you very much to the chair and members of the committee for the opportunity to provide comments on Bill C-47, specifically on the proposed amendments to the Food and Drugs Act pertaining to cosmetics testing on animals.
I am the deputy director of Humane Society International/Canada, part of Humane Society International, which has a presence in more than 50 countries, making us one of the largest animal protection organizations in the world. Our organization has been working for a decade in Canada to achieve these historic measures for animals, so we are absolutely delighted to see Canada moving forward with this critical legislation.
I am also very proud to co-represent with Darren a coalition of industry, animal protection, and retail companies that have been working together for the past few years to build alignment and consensus on the principles of this legislation. We sent a letter of support for this legislation to the committee by email, but unfortunately, due to time constraints, I was informed that there was not enough time to have it translated before these proceedings, so I would like to take the opportunity to read the letter into the official record.
The letter is dated May 17, 2023:
Dear Chair and Committee Members,
We are writing to you today to convey our full support for a ban on cosmetics animal testing as proposed in Bill C‑47.
Who We Represent - A Broad Consensus of Industry, Animal Advocates, & Retailers.
The collective of our organizations represents a broad range of stakeholders including the cosmetics industry (150+ companies represented by Cosmetics Alliance Canada), animal protection advocates (Humane Society International/Canada, Animal Alliance Canada, Cruelty Free International) and their retailer partners (Lush Cosmetics, The Body Shop).
Since this issue was first raised in Parliament through a Private Member's Bill in the Senate in 2015, our group of key stakeholder organizations have been working together, and with Health Canada, to advance workable legislation.
The legislative language in Bill C‑47 pertaining to a ban on cosmetics animal testing is consistent with the policy approach that our group has long been advocating for in discussions with Health Canada; that a Canadian ban align with the principles of the E.U. ban and the necessary amendments be drafted by Health Canada to ensure they work within the Canadian regulatory context.
We are thrilled to see this legislation...introduced and look forward to seeing its passage without issue into law.
Of note, Canada will be hosting the 2023 Animal Alternatives World Congress on August 23-27, 2023, in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Government, industry, and other stakeholders will be participating in this important international event. This will be an ideal opportunity to highlight Canada as a leader in the development of animal testing alternatives and the banning of unnecessary animal testing on cosmetic products.
This letter has been signed by representatives of the organizations that I mentioned earlier.
What would this legislation do? This legislation would prohibit testing cosmetics on animals in Canada, selling cosmetics that rely on new animal testing data to establish the products' safety—with some exceptions—and false or misleading labelling pertaining to the testing of cosmetics on animals.
These measures would bring Canada into line with the 43 countries that have already introduced similar bans or restrictions, including the United Kingdom, the European Union, India, South Korea, Taiwan, New Zealand, Australia and many others. In addition, 10 U.S. states have also enacted bans, and further federal measures are in development in the U.S. and elsewhere.
Of course, there is tremendous public support for these measures here in Canada. In 2018, a public petition with over 630,000 Canadian signatures supporting a ban on cosmetics testing on animals was delivered to Parliament Hill.
Polling conducted in 2019 by Insights West found that 87% of Canadians support a ban on animal testing for cosmetic products.
It is important to note that modern non-animal methods are available for testing cosmetic safety issues and have been shown to predict human responses in the real world better than the animal tests they replace, so there is simply no need for animal testing for cosmetics in this day and age.
This legislation—and the history of this campaign—truly shows the great things that can happen when government, political parties across all party lines, industry, the non-profit sector and the public work together to create a better future.
Thank you, again, to the committee and all parliamentarians and senators for coming together on this important issue.