An Ontario judge has stripped the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (OSPCA) of its power to enter and search farms.
The Ontario Attorney-General Ministry said the decision is under review. It could appeal.
Justice Timothy Minnema ruled that the police powers the OSPCA uses are unconstitutional because there is no transparency or public oversight similar to provisions for police.
He wrote in a decision released this week that “although charged with law enforcement responsibilities, the OSPCA is opaque, insular, unaccountable, and potentially subject to external influence, and as such Ontarians cannot be confident that the laws it enforces will be fairly and impartially administered.”
He noted that it is not accountable to the Ontario Ombudsman Act, the Public Service Act and the Freedom of Information Act.
The OSPCA responded by promising to continue to protect animals from abuse.
It has, however, served notice to the province that it does not have the resources to police animal abuse related to livestock and poultry farming.
Minnema’s decision came via a challenge filed by Jeffrey Bogaerts, a paralegal and vice-president of the Ontario Landowners Association (OLA).
The OLA was outspoken in defending an Eastern Ontario Holstein breeder accused of animal cruelty related to dry cows that an OSPCA inspector deemed too lean.
Minnema’s decision gives the province a year to rewrite the laws and relationships with the private-sector OSPCA.
