On this day in vegan history · June 22, 2023
Canada Closes the Door on Cosmetic Animal Testing
A budget bill in Ottawa did what a decade of campaigning hadn't quite finished: it made it illegal to sell a cosmetic in Canada that leaned on new animal-test data.
The facts
- Royal assent
- June 22, 2023
- Bill
- Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1 (Bill C-47), S.C. 2023, c. 26
- Took effect
- December 22, 2023
- New provisions
- Sections 16.1 and 16.2 of the Food and Drugs Act
On June 22, 2023, the Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1 received royal assent, and buried inside it were new rules that ended cosmetic animal testing in Canada. The bill added sections 16.1 and 16.2 to the Food and Drugs Act: one bars selling a cosmetic unless its safety can be shown without relying on new animal-test data, the other bars conducting that kind of testing on Canadian soil to satisfy a domestic or foreign cosmetics safety rule. The change didn't land immediately. Health Canada gave the industry six months to adjust, so the prohibitions actually took effect on December 22, 2023. Canada joined the European Union, the United Kingdom, and dozens of other countries that had already shut this practice down, while the United States still has no equivalent federal law.
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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No person shall sell a cosmetic unless the person can establish the safety of the cosmetic without relying on data derived from a test conducted on an animal that could cause pain, suffering or injury, whether physical or mental, to the animal.
Section 16.1(1) of the Food and Drugs Act, as added by the Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1
Source: Justice Laws Website, Government of Canada -
With the passage of these historic measures to ban cosmetics animal testing and trade, Canada is getting a cruelty-free makeover.
Michael Bernard, deputy director, Humane Society International/Canada, June 22, 2023
Source: Humane World for Animals
Why it still matters
It closed a loophole that had let animal-tested cosmetics keep reaching Canadian shelves years after other major markets banned the practice, and it did so tucked into budget legislation rather than a standalone bill that industry lobbying could pick apart on its own.
Sources
This history is still being written.
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