Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to speak to this matter. The member for Souris--Moose Mountain made reference to a pamphlet he received indicating that even Jesus Christ could not possibly support the bill. I think he made reference to Jesus Christ being a veterinarian. I think he meant a vegetarian.
I would like to comment upon three or four parts of the bill. This is certainly a controversial bill, to say the least. My office has received endless streams of letters, faxes and e-mails urging me to support the government's initiative in the area of animal cruelty. While constituents may or may not have a nuanced understanding of the bill, they certainly are adamant that the government move in this area and move effectively.
The first area that received a general consensus is the area of offences. We heard at committee that there was little doubt that the fine and incarceration structure in the criminal code was inadequate for the repugnance people felt on hearing about and seeing the crimes committed against animals. It did not much matter from which side of the debate one spoke, clearly on the issue of penalties there was a general consensus that penalties were inadequate and needed to be addressed. I would like to assure my constituents that this is an area which the government has addressed. I do not think there is much dispute about that point in the House or anywhere else.
My second point has to do with the creation of a new part in the criminal code. This arises by virtue of the fact that the current criminal code merely leaves animals in the property section. On occasion animals are in fact property, but animals are also not property. Animals are also not human beings, but they also are not inanimate objects. It is a bit of a drafting problem to carve out an adequate section. Again I think the government has done it right. It has decided to take animals out of the property sections of the criminal code and put them into their own special section. In doing so it makes a clear statement that regardless of the proprietary status of an animal, one cannot commit a cruel act against that animal.
There is no special exemption by virtue of ownership. People cannot be exempted from the criminal code sections just because they own a particular animal. It does not matter whether it is a domestic animal owned as a pet or an animal being husbanded for industrial or research purposes: A cruel act cannot be committed against that animal. I think that is the government's intention in setting up this special section in the criminal code.
Some may argue that this is simply the beginning of a slippery slope, that in fact animals will be humanized and we will end up with an animal bill of rights that will state somewhere or another that animals will be in the same category as infants and children, and that this section needs to be looked at again. I do not think that is the intention of the drafters of the legislation. I would be extremely surprised if by the wildest interpretations of our most creative and activist judges they could arrive at a human rights agenda on this section of the criminal code.
The third element upon which I want to comment is the issue of whether legitimate defences will be lost by virtue of the creation of a new part in the criminal code, by this redrafting and the reflection it gives of a modernizing tendency.
Witnesses at committee said that by virtue of the creation of this section and putting it in this section of the criminal code, the colour of right defence would be lost along with various other common law defences that have been built up over the course of years. Initially after hearing the evidence I was persuaded that possibly this was in fact right and was an unintentional drafting consequence of enthusiasm on the part of a government official. Therefore I asked the minister specifically when she appeared at committee whether these kinds of defences were going to be lost. She and other witnesses pointed me to subsection 8(3) of the criminal code, which I would like to read to the House:
Every rule and principle of the common law that renders any circumstance a justification or excuse for an act or a defence to a charge continues in force and applies in respect of proceedings for an offence under this Act or any other Act of Parliament except in so far as they are altered by or are inconsistent with this Act or any other Act of Parliament.
I think that is pretty clear. The defences that heretofore have been available will continue to be available.
The fourth point I want to make is with respect to the definition of animal. There has been some comment on whether the definition is in fact appropriate. At this stage in the common law there is no definition of animal, so arguably a judge is left within the parameters of common law traditions to make up a definition as he or she goes along. We are now arriving at a more precise position by actually putting it in a definition in the criminal code, which reads as follows:
...“animal” means a vertebrate, other than a human being, and any other animal that has the capacity to feel pain.
To go back to the previous argument, it is “other than a human being, and any other animal that has the capacity to feel pain”. This means a vertebrate, not a human being, and any other animal that has a capacity to feel pain. I appreciate that there may be some imprecision about the capacity to feel pain, but with I think that with modern science being such as it is there will be opportunities to expand or contract, as the case may be, what constitutes the ability to feel human pain. The definition of vertebrate is pretty easy because it either has a spinal column or it does not.
We have the part, the definition, some clarification as to what will or will not constitute cruelty and we have those who now know whether they are or are not exempt from the bill. This will therefore bring some clarity to the point.
Finally, I would like to comment upon the words “wilfully or recklessly”. The use of the words wilfully or recklessly captures behaviour that is not currently captured in the current criminal code. The argument is that somehow or another we are expanding what this means, but a fair minded reading of the present criminal code shows that there is an offence of “wilful” infliction of unnecessary pain, suffering or injury. Further sections go on to offences of intentional cruelty and other offences of causing unnecessary pain or suffering through wilful neglect. Both of the words wilful and reckless are incorporated into the criminal code. Wilful means wilful behaviour, the deliberate pursuit of an action the consequences of which the act anticipates and intends to cause. Reckless behaviour involves the perception of a risk that certain consequences could flow from a particular action and a conscious decision to proceed with the behaviour and ignore the risk. This is at the beginning of subclause 182.2(1): “Every one commits an offence who, wilfully or recklessly” and it continues.
In conclusion, I think that this kind of section actually gives more precise clarification and that when we add up all of these points we arrive at a bill that is quite acceptable.