Last week, the Federal Court of Canada sided with Jewish communities in Montreal and Toronto in their dispute with the federal government over new biological guidelines covering how cows are slaughtered. On July 24, the judge granted kosher meat producers a temporary injunction, effectively pausing the enforcement of new guidelines that are aimed at ensuring animals don’t feel undue pain when they’re killed.
Jewish groups such as Montreal Kosher and the Kashruth Council of Canada argued in court that the guidelines not only were bad science, but were not in keeping with ritual practice, and were too costly. Which is why the judge felt he needed to act quickly so as to preserve the religious freedoms enjoyed by Canadian Jews who’ve been legally permitted to use handheld ritual slaughter methods for generations. The judge’s ruling took religion and culture into consideration, including how trained shochetim carry out a vital religious service for the Canadian Jewish community, and also the importance of eating meat on Jewish holidays.
But do Jews really need to eat meat? How many shochet jobs are actually at direct risk? And, perhaps most important to the majority of kosher-keeping Canadians, will the price for kosher meat go down? Rabbi Avi Finegold, host of The CJN’s weekly current affairs podcast Bonjour Chai, joins The CJN Daily to share his insight, and we’ll also hear from Shimon Koffler Fogel, the CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, who were directly involved in the case.
What we talked about:
- Why the Federal Court granted a temporary injunction July 24 allowing shechita to resume without subsequent bolt-stunning, in The CJN
- Hear why MK Kosher and COR went to Federal Court over the CFIA’s new shechita guidelines, on The CJN Daily
- Read more about the science behind kosher animal slaughter and Canada’s new slaughtering guidelines for cattle, on The CJN Daily
Credits
Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner)
Production team: Zachary Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Dov Beck-Levine (music)
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