the Commons yesterday by a 278 to 36 vote passed a farm trespass ban targeting animal rights protesters. “These groups encourage unlawful behaviour,” said Conservative MP John Barlow (Foothills, Alta.), sponsor of the bill.

“I talked to a producer in Saskatchewan and she does not feel safe to send her children out to fix fences by themselves because of the perceived risk from protesters,” Barlow said in Third Reading debate. “These are actual things happening on farms today where in rural Canada our family farms do not feel safe.”

Bill C-275 An Act To Amend The Health Of Animals Act would ban unauthorized entry to “any building or other enclosed place in which animals are kept” under threat of $25,000 fines or three months’ jail. Animal rights groups that “encourage this unlawful behaviour” would be subject to $100,000 fines.