Agriculture committee  I've been around plenty of farmed animals.

Agriculture committee  Do you mean have I owned farmed animals—

Agriculture committee  —or have I actually farmed them? No. As I've mentioned, I'm a lawyer, not a farmer.

Agriculture committee  The mission of Animal Justice.... I want to be really clear about what I'm here to say to you today. We exist to lead the legal fight for animals. We work to improve the legal protections for animals. As I've mentioned—and I appreciate what you're saying about food safety—unfor

Agriculture committee  Look, we're here today to talk about—

Agriculture committee  —improving the laws protecting animals. It's undeniable that Canada doesn't have any of those laws on the books right now. When you look at—

Agriculture committee  What do you mean, exactly, by “legal standing”?

Agriculture committee  “Legal standing” is a term of art referring to whether someone has the right to go to court to seek a legal remedy if their rights are being violated. Animals don't currently have any rights. What we would say, as I've repeatedly mentioned to this committee, is that animals curr

Agriculture committee  That's not what I'm saying at all—

Agriculture committee  I'm saying that we're in the country—

Agriculture committee  Animal Justice doesn't advocate on-farm trespassing. What we're here today to say is that we have very poor laws protecting animals, and that fact is what's contributing to this very low public trust in agriculture.

Agriculture committee  Well—

Agriculture committee  What concerns me is that there is low public trust in agriculture. You can look at studies from places like the Centre for Food Integrity, which is an industry organization, that show that people are increasingly concerned about animal welfare on farms—

Agriculture committee  Yes, it does. I'm concerned about the welfare of animals and I'm concerned about the welfare of farmers—

Agriculture committee  Look, as I've said, we don't advocate on-farm trespass. I'm here today because what this bill would do is shut off undercover videos from investigations that are employment-based, where people lawfully work on the farm and expose what they see to the world. Oftentimes, unfortunat