Kosher meat production, including veal, should immediately begin to ramp up in Canada after a Federal Court judge ordered the country’s food inspection agency to back off enforcing new ritual slaughter guidelines, issuing a temporary injunction on July 24.
Citing “irreparable harm” that enforcement of these government guidelines could impose on the religious freedom rights of Canadian Jews, Justice Guy Régimbald ordered a halt to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s requirements of three specific biological signs proving that the kosher animals slaughtered without first stunning them are actually unconscious, before the workers can hoist the carcasses and take them away for further processing.
The ruling came sooner than expected, and just two weeks after lawyers for the Jewish Community Council’s MK certification organization joined the Toronto-based Kashruth Council of Canada, along with meat packers Shefa and Mehadrin, and expert witnesses, for two days of legal arguments before the Federal Court judge in Montreal on July 10 and 11.
In his 49-page ruling, the judge granted an injunction ordering the CFIA to allow kosher slaughter of beef animals to proceed using the existing and arguably quicker ritual techniques which the Canadian Jewish community has been permitted to employ for years, until June 2023. That’s when the government’s new guidelines, first publicized in 2019, began to be enforced.
These required all meat packers to use an electric bolt to stun animals unconscious before taking them apart, a method that Jewish kosher agencies do not normally permit. For religious groups, including Jews and Muslim halal butchers, the government allowed a workaround: animals that were to be killed by first slitting their throats to render them unconscious would have to remain in the metal pen and be observed for several minutes, looking for telltale reflexes would have to be checked before the butchers could begin taking the animal apart.
“So the issue was not, ‘Do we continue under less than ideal circumstances?’ It really was a case of, ‘Is there going to be a continuation of shechitah or not?’” said Shimon Koffler Fogel, the CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, welcoming the court decision. CIJA is a government relations advocacy group that has been advising the kosher meat producers in their dispute with the federal regulator.
The conflict came to a head last summer, when the MK and COR and two meat processors, Mehadrin and Shefa, among others, filed an application for judicial review of the CFIA’s 2019 meat slaughtering guidelines. These guidelines were aimed at improving the welfare of animals to avoid unnecessary pain, and were introduced to meat producers as part of the rollout of a revised bill known as the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations, although not enforced until 2023.
Jewish kosher agencies said the new rules forced them to slow down production at the plants, making it unprofitable for meat packers to offer kosher slaughter. They also argued that Canada was using the wrong science to determine when an animal no longer feels pain. Some groups went so far as to accuse the government changes as bordering on antisemitism.
The initial court challenge was withdrawn for several months as the parties, including CIJA, and Anthony Housefather, the Liberal MP for Mount Royal who is now the government’s special advisor on antisemitism, tried to negotiate with the government.
As a stopgap measure, to keep meat production going, the Canadian rabbis decided to comply with the new guidelines. They temporarily permitted slaughterhouses to stun the cows with an electric bolt after shechitah (before would be against Kashruth). But when negotiations with the government agency didn’t succeed, Jewish groups filed a new request for a judicial review in late summer 2023 and asked for an injunction.
For two days this month, the judge heard expert evidence from both the kosher industry and the government on religious and scientific issues.
Animal experts and Jewish leaders explained how the practice of slitting the animals’ throats with a specially sharpened ritual knife is comparable to the government’s updated guidelines aimed at reducing unnecessary suffering for the animals before they are considered unconscious and can be hoisted on a chain and their meat taken off.
The federal guidelines require meat processing plants who chose to carry out kosher slaughter either needed to bolt stun the animals first, or demonstrate the animals were unconscious after their throats are cut by testing for three signs:
- Absence of rhythmic breathing, being two or more regular rib movements in and out
- Absence of palpebral reflex or blinking of the eyes, determined after three consecutive negative results, 20 seconds apart
- Absence of corneal reflex after when the cow’s eyeball is touched, requiring three consecutive negative results, 20 seconds apart
Expert witnesses for the Jewish community argued these three tests are not necessary and slow down the production line—and are also unfair because the three signs affect the wrong part of the animal’s brain.
However, the judge did not rule on the scientific merits of shechitah. He left the issue to be decided by a further legal decision down the road.
Instead, the judge was concerned that the CFIA’s guidelines are “unreasonable” and examined “whether they encroach on the Applicants’ rights to freedom of religion” and the “right to equality” under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“The evidence, as presented, demonstrated a potential for irreparable harm that cannot be adequately compensated with damages,” the judge wrote.
Shortages on the shelves?
The court was told that the supply of Canadian kosher beef has dropped by 55 percent, and the supply of veal has dropped by 90 percent in recent years. The major producer, Montreal-based Mehadrin, routinely imports meat from Mexico and Argentina to be sold in kosher sections and butcher shops in this country.
Only three meat packing plants now handle kosher meat production in Canada, the court was told. They are all based in Quebec, after a steady decline over the last decade that saw plants that produce kosher meat close in Ontario and Western Canada. Since the regulations came into force last year, the major veal producer in Quebec, Montpak, stopped doing kosher slaughter.
The court heard from witnesses upset about how kosher meat prices have risen since the government guidelines were implemented, with some of the witnesses saying this makes it harder for observant Jewish families to access the kosher products they need to practise their faith. One witness said they didn’t trust the quality of the imported meat.
The judge accepted the Jewish community’s arguments that eating meat forms an important part of Jewish ritual meals, especially on the Sabbath and on other Jewish religious festivals.
Government lawyers had argued that the traditions of the Jewish faith don’t specify how much meat or veal is required to be eaten, nor what cuts, nor whether the animals must be from Canada or can be raised abroad.
“While some of the Applicants’ witnesses affirm that they prefer domestically raised kosher beef, this is a consumer preference rather than a belief grounded in religion,” the judge wrote, adding that there has been plenty of imported meat available here even before the new guidelines came into force.
The government also pointed out that the quality shouldn’t be lower since the MK kosher agency regularly sends its own shochetim (ritual slaughterers) abroad to supervise the production of kosher meat, which is then imported into Canada for consumption.
As for high meat prices, the government’s lawyers argued that Mehadrin is to blame for some of the supply problems for Canadian consumers who want to access Canadian kosher meat, since the Montreal-based company chooses to export 30 to 40 percent of its beef to the United States.
While CIJA expects this practice will continue, because there is a larger market in the U.S. for products such as kosher hot dogs, Koffler Fogel is confident the temporary victory for Canada’s kosher industry will translate into savings for Canadian consumers.
“My expectation is that as meat supply increases, prices will normalize, and be reduced,” he told The CJN in an interview Thursday, the day after the decision was released. “And it will certainly be the case that there’ll be more access to domestically processed meat.”
Employment or discrimination?
According to CIJA, an estimated 70 specially trained kosher meat and poultry shochetim are employed in Canada, plus another 20 workers who handle the kosher meat or birds after the ritual cut is made. They are employed under the auspices of the Canadian kosher certification agencies, mainly the MK in Montreal, and travel to wherever they are needed, for several days at a time. (The MK says 10 specifically work only on meat.)
Government lawyers argued the Charter doesn’t guarantee someone a livelihood, or the right to hold a particular job, and said the speed at which an animal passes through kosher production lines is based on biology, not on religion.
However, the judge was particularly concerned that the new government guidelines are hurting these shochetim on religious grounds.
The court heard from Rabbi Abraham Banon, a specially-trained Montreal-based shochet, who revealed that he has seen his work cut in half as a result. Aside from the economic impact, however, the judge wrote that restricting Rabbi Banon’s ability to perform his religious duties as part of his faith, and on behalf of the Jewish community, would indeed violate his rights under the Charter.
“He explains that he has a sincere belief that as a shochet and bodek, he is a religious leader and that every time he performs shechitah, he is not merely practising a profession, but he is practising his religion,” writes the judge. This work includes “performing an instrumental role to the well-being of the Jewish community of Montreal and Canada, in ensuring that Canadian Jews can consume meat that is produced in accordance with the laws of kashrut.”
Appeal or negotiation?
While the judge’s ruling can go into effect immediately, it’s not known what technical aspects need to be carried out at the meat plants in Quebec in order to ramp up kosher meat slaughter, or when it will begin.
Calls to producers Montpak and Mehadrin, as well as the two kashrut agencies, were not returned by deadline.
It’s not yet known if the federal government will appeal the injunction.
“The Government of Canada allows ritual slaughter of animals for food in Canada. All slaughter of food animals continues to remain subject to requirements for the humane treatment of animals in order to be licensed under the Safe Food for Canadians Act,” a spokesperson for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said in a statement to The CJN.
“The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is currently reviewing the court’s decision which is specific to the Guidelines for ritual slaughter of food animals without pre-slaughter stunning and sections 143 and 144 of the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations.”
But Jewish lobbyists weren’t waiting for this week’s unexpectedly early court ruling to try to work out a permanent solution to the shechitah issue. CIJA has been holding high-level meetings with the federal minister responsible for agriculture, Lawrence MacAulay, and with the CFIA, to try to negotiate the next steps.
Koffler Fogel hopes these efforts will prevent the whole case from having to be decided by the courts, with a new judge exploring the scientific merits of ritual shechitah over bolt stunning.
“My goal is to achieve a resolution and to work with CFIA to find a sustainable, permanent solution,” he said.
Both Koffler Fogel and the heads of Canada’s largest kosher agencies felt the judge’s ruling signalled the court’s strong support for the safety of shechitah.
“We are gratified the court validated shechitah as a legitimate and humane approach that takes full account of animal welfare and meets the scientific standards established by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency,” he said.
Richard Rabkin, of the Toronto-based COR, said in a statement that the judgement “should dispel the false perception that shechitah does not abide by the highest standards of animal welfare.”
Rabbi Saul Emanual of the Montreal-based MK agreed.
“We are gratified that the court validated shechitah as a legitimate and humane approach that takes full account of animal welfare and meets the scientific standards established by CFIA.”
MP Anthony Housefather, who had tried to negotiate with the government, also welcomed the ruling saying on X (formerly Twitter), “Jewish Canadians who keep kosher have a right to obtain domestically produced Kosher meat. I have read the Federal Court decision granting the injunction & concur with the reasoning. I call on the CFIA to read the judgment carefully & reconsider the 3 indicators it is using.”