Bryan Passifiume
National Post, Mar. 12, 2024
“Over the past few months, we have produced several reports from experts demonstrating that following shechita, animals rapidly transition to immediate and irreversible insensibility and as a result do not experience any pain,” the statement read. “Regrettably, the CFIA has ignored the basic science, relying on inaccurate and flawed, selective literature review.”
Jewish organizations are taking the federal government to court to challenge new rules they fear spell the end of kosher animal production in Canada.
In a statement of claim filed earlier this week in Federal Court, the applicants seek to strike down new Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) rules requiring that non-stunned animals be subjected to cognitive tests to ensure they’re irreversibly unconscious before being processed.
But Jewish groups say the new rules, introduced last summer, “unjustifiably infringe” the rights of Canadian Jews to practice their faith as guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and its guarantee of right to equal treatment of different faiths.
They say the effect of the rules will eventually end kosher slaughter in Canada because the CFIA has drastically slowed down production in kosher slaughter, a method that is already humane. Some slaughterhouses in Canada have already stopped producing kosher meat because it has become uneconomical under the CFIA’s new requirements.
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