Animal advocates are celebrating a justice’s decision to strike down the part of an Ontario agricultural law that made it illegal to get a job on a farm under false pretences to expose conditions inside.
Justice Markus Koehnen struck down parts of Bill 156, the Security from Trespass and Protecting Food Safety Act, earlier this month after activists and a journalist launched a Charter challenge in 2021 over the bill.
They argued that a part of the law infringed on their freedom of expression because they could not expose what was happening inside a farm if they gained access to the property through a false pretence.
The act required consent from the owner to be on a property where animals are kept, raised or slaughtered but that consent was voided under the law if someone lied to get on the land.