Case information

Administrative law — Agriculture — Animals — Boards and tribunals — Judicial review —Canadian Food Inspection Agency — Canada Agricultural Review Tribunal — Whether Canada Agricultural Review Tribunal misinterpreted Health of Animals Regulations — Whether Canada Agricultural Review Tribunal erred in cancelling administrative monetary penalty imposed on abattoir — Whether Court of Appeal erred in its application of standard of reasonableness — Whether Federal Court of Appeal erred in quashing decision of Canada Agricultural Review Tribunal.

Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch). Please note that summaries are not provided to the Judges of the Court. They are placed on the Court file and website for information purposes only.

Section 6.2 of the Health of Animals Regulations addresses the management of specified risk material linked to risks to animal health and human health in connection with Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy. This provision provides that specified risk material must be removed from cattle. As a result of inspecting the facilities of a local slaughterhouse, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency imposed an administrative monetary penalty on the Zampini abattoir for having not removed specified risk material at the moment of slaughter.

The Canada Agricultural Review Tribunal allowed the abattoir’s request for review. The Tribunal found that the Regulations allow a local slaughterhouse to remove the material at moments other than at slaughter. It therefore cancelled the administrative monetary penalty.

The Federal Court of Appeal allowed the Agency’s application for judicial review. According to the Court of Appeal, the Tribunal’s decision was unreasonable because of two major deficiencies. First, it created separate regimes for the different types of abattoirs, contrary to the principle of universality. Second, its interpretation of the Regulations undermines Parliament’s intention requiring that specified risk material be removed at the slaughtering stage. The Court of Appeal quashed the Tribunal’s decision and referred the matter back to it for redetermination.