On this day in vegan history · June 10, 2019
Canada Bans New Whale and Dolphin Captivity
The House of Commons finally shut the door on capturing and breeding whales and dolphins for entertainment, four years after the bill was first introduced and quietly left to die twice.
The facts
- House of Commons passage
- June 10, 2019 (third reading)
- Royal assent
- June 21, 2019
- Bill number
- S-203, introduced by Senator Wilfred Moore in December 2015
- Penalty
- Criminal Code fines up to CA$200,000 for owning or breeding cetaceans
On June 10, 2019, the House of Commons passed third and final reading of Bill S-203, the Ending the Captivity of Whales and Dolphins Act, which had been introduced in the Senate by Senator Wilfred Moore back in December 2015. The Act makes it a Criminal Code offence to own or breed cetaceans in Canada, with fines up to CA$200,000, and it received royal assent on June 21, 2019. It did not free a single animal already in a tank: a grandfather clause let existing captives stay put. Two facilities were affected, Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ontario, and the Vancouver Aquarium, which between them held belugas, dolphins, porpoises, and one orca.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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a watershed moment in the protection of marine animals
Humane Society International/Canada, on the Act's passage
Source: Wikipedia
Why it still matters
No new orca or dolphin can legally be captured or bred into a Canadian tank again, which is a real ceiling on the industry. But the grandfather clause meant the fight wasn't over: Marineland's orca Kiska, held up as the world's loneliest orca, lived out the rest of her life there and died in 2023, a reminder that ending captivity for the next generation is not the same as ending it for this one.
Sources
This history is still being written.
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