Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos was in Toronto this Tuesday to hold a media event with our stakeholder alliance to formally announce the passage by Parliament of amendments to the Food & Drug Act banning cosmetic animal testing in Canada. The wording of specific amendments are spelled out in our June 2 update.
The journey to this legislation has been long and sometimes arduous with CA working to ensure that a ban reflect the operational principles of the ban in the European Union (for which our industry is very familiar), fit within the Canadian regulatory framework, be drafted by Health Canada, and be supported by a broad range of stakeholders including animal advocates, industry, regulators, and both Government and Opposition parties. As Minister Duclos stated in his public comments, “rarely do we see policy changes where everyone is on board. Today is one of those rare days and its worth celebrating.”
Although the reality is that animal testing is virtually no longer used by our industry, it is still important for Canada to join the over 40 countries who have legislated such a ban. It is also notable that Canada included in its modernization of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) – which was approved by Parliament this month – direction that Canadian regulators should be using and advancing non-animal testing methods.
CA’s active engagement in this issue began over eight years ago with the introduction of a private members bill by Conservative Senator Carolyn Stewart-Olsen. The bill, which did not have input from either industry or Health Canada regulators, included significant technical issues and unintended consequences. Although CA was not able to have these concerns addressed in the Senate, the bill eventually died on the order paper in the House of Commons.
During this period, however, CA was approached by Cruelty Free International and their retail partner The Body Shop. This led to the development of a consensus that was soon joined by Humane Society International and their retail partner Lush, and Animal Alliance of Canada. Together, our stakeholder alliance engaged Health Canada to draft the legislative proposal and to make it a government bill.
Although this effort took over two years to get the legislation introduced, its speedy passage without opposition or amendment speaks to the efforts and diligence of our stakeholder alliance. For our industry in Canada, it means that we are now moving from being viewed as an industry using animal testing (even if only in the public’s perception), to a case study or model of how to advance the general cause of animal free toxicity testing in other sectors. This was reflected in much of the media coverage.
Our industry’s commitment to continuing to advance the development of non-animal methods or NAM’s, promoting and facilitating regulatory acceptance, and training the next generation of scientists and regulators is further demonstrated in the recent establishment of the International Collaboration on Cosmetic Safety (ICCS). This unique international collaboration includes industry, our trade associations, ingredient suppliers, and animal advocacy organizations and is sure to become a leading world voice on animal free science in the years ahead. More information on ICCS is available HERE.
For all of these reasons, CA was a key stakeholder in the Minister’s announcement, much media coverage, and celebratory events with other stakeholders.
