Ontario just passed an ag-gag law, #bill156, in the middle of a pandemic through a very opaque process.

This is Canada's second ag-gag law after the Alberta Government passed the first last year. What should we make of this?

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1) The politicians that voted in favour of this ag-gag law represent the agriculture industry and corporations, not citizens.

2) They are willing to trample on our Charter freedoms by silencing whistleblowers and journalists in order to keep animal abuse in the farming sector hidden from the public.

3) They are willing put public health at risk by hiding the unsanitary conditions of millions of farm animals packed together in extreme confinement, living in their own excrement and disease.

4) They are willing to drag this law through costly legal battles only to have it struck down as unconstitutional by the courts, as we have seen again and again in the US, wasting public money.

5) They are willing to erode public trust in the agriculture sector in their desperate attempt to preserve an economic status quo that depends on systematic animal exploitation and abuse.

6) This bill was never about "biosecurity" and "trespass". It is about corporate power, state control, silencing dissent, and repressing activism.

7) Agribusiness supports and elects politicians that will sacrifice citizens' rights for industry profits. We already don't trust these industry groups and corporations. We should never trust the people they help get elected.

8) Ag-gag laws are the last vestige of hope and desperation for the livestock sector. This industry can't keep the horrors of factory farming secret any longer. People know extreme animal abuse is happening behind closed doors. The truth is leaking. It will become a flood.

9) Ag-gag laws make citizens more dedicated in their resolve to show the public the truth about animal agriculture. They will never stop getting the truth to the public. What was once a fringe movement is now an international steamroller.

10) Thank you to all the dedicated people and organizations that showed up to voice their opposition to this ag-gag bill. Keep fighting.