A Liberal MP says he's open to changing the wording of his private member's bill designed to "consolidate and modernize various offences against animals" in the Criminal Code.
This is after it has drawn the ire of Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa MP Robert Sopuck says he's open to changing the wording.
But Sopuck says the wording in Bill C-246 is so vague that it opens the door to judicial interpretation of legitimate animal use, and he says this goes beyond potentially affecting the rural way of life.
"There's a lot of animal uses beyond, you know, hunting, trapping, fishing, and raising livestock... One of the most important ones is medical research," says Sopuck.
He's also not happy with the company the bill keeps.
"Hardcore extremist animal rights groups who want to see the end of all animal use, including medical research, are strong supporters of this particular bill, and that very much causes alarm bells to ring in my mind," says Sopuck.
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, the one who put forward Bill C-246, says in a report the bill aims to target and prevent animal abuse, not legitimate animal use.
He says, legally, he has no concerns with the wording, but politically he recognizes there are issues and he's open to changing it.
"I've reached out to a number of farming industry associations, reached out to the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, reached out to individuals that have been concerned with this and said, 'if you've got specific language you would like in this bill or specific language you'd like out of this bill, let me know and I'm open to change,'" says Erskine-Smith.
Erskine-Smith says dealing with unintended consequences is what committee is for, so he's trying to convince his colleagues to support the bill at second reading, and then have it go to committee.
