License to Kill: No Justice, No Legal Recourse in Canada’s Ostrich Cull
Guest Column by Human Rights Lawyer Bath-Shéba van den Berg
Lawyer Bath-Shéba van den Berg
British Columbia – Canadian federal government agencies culled hundreds of beautiful healthy ostriches, for ‘regulatory’ reasons.
The Supreme Court of Canada, our highest court, denied the farmers’ application to appeal. No justice, no legal course, no political recourse.
What happens to a people, to a country, when there is nowhere left to turn for help to defend our fundamental rights and freedoms – and all decisions to stamp out our fundamental rights and freedoms are justified under the auspices of regulatory frameworks? When the law is used as a tool to oppress the people instead of to protect the people, we have a problem with our social contract.
“What happens to a people, to a country, when there is nowhere left to turn for help to defend our fundamental rights and freedoms?”
I woke up to CTV News labelling protestors as ideologically motivated and potentially violent, which is mean-spirited name-calling, libellous, and wrong. Love is not ideological; it is human emotion fundamental to our survival. Angie Rasmussen, a virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) at the University of Saskatchewan, is not a lawyer and she is not a politician. Yet, her words carry weight in the public as the CTV chose her to speak above everyone else: Virologist Rasmussen is said to believe that “the amount of politically driven ideologies connected to this conflict could lead to “rational arguments” being nullified.” And that “This is language that does incite violence” (CTV: Cull has Political Implications)
Rasmussen and CTV have tarred and feathered good people standing up for what is right, and what is right is to stand up for our human rights and animal rights. The two are at play here. This case is yet another grotesque example of Canadian federal government overreach and impunity.
What would be a sensationalist heading?
This case is an example of the government of Canada’s license to kill, quite literally this time. Under the invocation of the Emergencies Act in 2022, the federal government gave license to freeze people’s bank accounts, and I called that “extra-judicial financial killing”.
Surprisingly, this CBC news release is an example of somewhat balanced journalism and provides footage of what was done on the farm. (CBC: Shots at BC Ostrich Farm)
Direct from the farmers: Save Our Ostriches
Bath-Shéba van den Berg is a Human Rights Lawyer and the founder of Egronomy Law. She is called to the Bar in both Alberta and Ontario. Her distinguished career began in international criminal law at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), where she contributed to landmark cases arising from the Balkan conflicts.
She has lectured in international law at The Hague University and served as a Rule of Law Advisor to the British Army – providing counsel on laws of war, human rights, and the counter-illegal wildlife trade.
Bath-Shéba has worked extensively across Canada, the United Kingdom, Kenya, Nigeria, Togo, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, and Afghanistan… always advancing the principles of justice, accountability, and the Rule of Law.
Since returning to Canada, she has appeared before the Federal Court, Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Court of King’s Bench of Alberta, Alberta Court of Justice, and the Calgary Indigenous Court.