Agriculture committee  You are right, by and large, and I should clarify that I'm dealing with my experience here, mostly in Ontario.

Agriculture committee  Yes, I would say that's a fair statement, and I also would agree with Dr. Stark's earlier comment about the CFIA's also needing better resources to enable it to do its job on the enforcement end as well. However, police services certainly are lacking in funding to adequately give us support in rural Canada.

Agriculture committee  There are a number of different ways, certainly. We've talked about the animal codes of practice that are in place, and in a lot of cases, the commodity organizations themselves do inspections and find this, find any wrongdoings. Also, as I mentioned, both nutritionists and veterinarians are frequent on the farm, dealing with livestock, so they have an obligation to deal with these kinds of situations as well.

Agriculture committee  By nature, farming or ranching is a stressful job because of all of the elements that are out of our control. However, when you pile on top of it the opportunity for activists to come on your property without permission to potentially not only endanger your buildings by breaking in but also affect all of your livestock either through bringing in a disease or simply letting them go....

Agriculture committee  In some cases people are in and out quickly and we don't have a chance to apprehend them. Dr. Stark is right that in many cases the authorities simply don't make it a priority to come to the farm, and farmers get frustrated. They get to the point that they throw their hands up and say, “Why bother if nobody is going to come and help protect me?”

Agriculture committee  Well, I'm a little disappointed in hearing those words. That said, veterinarians are certainly people who have a close relationship with our livestock producers. They, along with nutritionists, are a vital part of any operation. I really have a hard time buying into a blank statement saying that farmers abuse their animals, even though it may be unintentional.

Agriculture committee  Many activists use the “ag-gag” law as a defence. The reality is that if there are bad farmers out there, I want you to find them. It's like saying every parent is a bad parent, every pet owner is a bad pet owner. That's just not the case with farmers and their livestock. They truly do the best they can.

Agriculture committee  Thank you for the question. I'm not sure that I would prioritize one over the other, for the following reasons: Biosecurity is incredibly important for the protection of our animals, but the act of trespassing in itself is something that's creating a tremendous amount of stress to our farm families and employers, as I mentioned.

Agriculture committee  Well, certainly I believe it's up to each individual farm operation to make sure they educate their employees on the proper biosecurity protocols that are in place. All livestock commodity organizations that I know of have resources that farmers can access to educate their employees on proper procedures and protocols.

Agriculture committee  Certainly, you're correct, there is a little muddying of the lines, there, but I think provincial and federal rules can complement each other. It would depend on the situation, but there is real potential danger of bringing in infection of some kind, even just by being on the property, without even necessarily getting right onto the barn.

Agriculture committee  Yes. Quite often, you will have people who actually are caught in a facility or caught doing some trespassing on a property and get charged, but lots of times these people have had help in accomplishing their end goal of getting in, doing a sit-in and trespassing on property. Anyone who is known to have aided or abetted these individuals in that act should also be held responsible for being part of the act itself.

Agriculture committee  Well, I think any strengthening of the protection of animals and their handlers, their owners and the employees who work around farms, is good. With respect to the act itself, it may need further wording to enclose things like pasture fields. It may need to include processing facilities and these types of areas where animals do exist and potentially could run into some trespassing as well.

Agriculture committee  I think any piece of legislation could be enforced. It's whether or not there's a willingness to do it in a lot of cases. We have rules. We need to have them enforced.

Agriculture committee  I'm not aware of any organization that has applied for it, but you have to keep in mind that when you enter into this public trust type of campaign on animal husbandry in particular, it quite often becomes a battle on social media. You're dealing with activists who have no idea what they're talking about with respect to animal husbandry.

Agriculture committee  MP Drouin, it's good to see you again as well. If I could just add, one of the things that's occurred in the last 15 months is that people have become more aware of food security and have a better understanding of the need to make sure that we look after the people providing the food.