Hechsherim Sue Canadian Food Inspection Agency Over Meat Slaughter Regulations

The two largest Canadian Hechsherim, the Kashruth Council of Canada (COR) and MK Kosher, along with the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, filed suit against the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) after it made a ruling requiring that non-stunned animals be subjected to cognitive tests to ensure they’re irreversibly unconscious before being processed—which is prohibited by Halacha, which states that the animal must be uninjured when shechted.

The CFIA has given Slaughterhouses an alternative, permitting them to run cognitive tests on animals to make sure that they are unconscious after shechitah (or other slaughtering methods) are performed before proceeding with meat processing.

According to the lawsuit, the number of kosher meat processing plants in Canada has fallen from six to four, halving the weekly yield of domestically produced kosher beef.

“Since these new guidelines have gone into effect, the amount of kosher meat produced in Canada has decreased dramatically,” the Hechsheirim said in a statement earlier this week. “The community has been trying to temporarily supplement this shortfall with imported kosher meat, but this situation is not viable over the long term.”

The lawsuit seeks to have them declared invalid because they infringe upon two sections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and are unreasonable interpretations of Canada’s food safety laws.

“The intention of shechita is to render animals unconscious instantly so as to be humane — and it is a principle that has been in place for hundreds of years with the science to back it up,” Rabbi Saul Emanuel, the director of MK Kosher told The Toronto Star. “CFIA is supposed to be a science-based organization and to date they have ignored the science.”