“Chicken huggers” hate new “ag gag” law. So what's really in Bill 156?

By Sheila Gunn Reid
|
June 16, 2020

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Ontario’s Bill 156 strikes a balance between an activist’s right to protest while holding unpopular, unscientific and unfounded opinions yet at the same time, respects property rights of farmers, and maintaining biosecurity protocols to protect the Canadian food supply.

Naturally, the radical animal rights movement is enraged that the new law is headed to final reading on June 16.

Bill 156 is dubbed an “ag-gag” law by urban chicken huggers. However, the law aims to protect the safety of these trespassing radicals through steep fines as deterrents to their would-be protests.

It protects the farmers from civil liability when one of these vegan animal liberators encounters farm equipment that doesn’t look like an electric bicycle and said vegan cannot access enough soy caloric reserves to get themselves out of the way of dangerous farm implement.

Look at this claim from some of the bill's critics, Animal Justice:

In addition to covering up cruelty, Bill 156 would make it more difficult to expose poor workplace conditions on farms and in slaughterhouses. With thousands of COVID-19 infections and five deaths amongst vulnerable slaughterhouse workers, slaughterhouses should be more transparent, not less. Factory farms are the perfect breeding grounds for zoonotic viruses and other deadly pathogens that can sicken humans, like bird and swine flu, and may lead to future pandemics. If Bill 156 passes, these dangerous conditions will remain hidden behind closed doors.

Farms aren't the breeding ground for diseases, and that’s because farmers don’t let every malnourished hippy invade their barns and kiss their hogs and stroke their hens. But if we want to talk about wet markets in Asia – and I’d love to have that conversation with these people – they always pick the low hanging, peaceful fruit.

Now really: I’m a food libertarian. I believe you should eat whatever you want. And I’ll eat the way I want.

But leave our farms alone and quit lying about good decent farmers who toil and tend the land and their animals, who are price takers not price setters, who buy at retail and sell at wholesale.

Because one day, farmers might fight back and invade your favourite mocha low fat almond milk frappe dealer.

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