OTTAWA — A law professor at the University of Ottawa says he’d be surprised if the Supreme Court of Canada decides to hear the case of a B.C. farm fighting to save its ostriches from being culled by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Paul Daly says only one of the court’s judges granted an interim stay on the cull order for the flock at Universal Ostrich Farms in order to give all nine members a chance to consider the bid for the stay, pending the farms appeal to the court.
Daly says it’s difficult to be sure if the court will decide to hear a case, but the legal issues at play that have already come before the Federal Court and Federal Court of Appeal are “not particularly novel or complicated.”
He says the court will take a “dispassionate” view, focusing on the merits of the case, and will likely ignore the social media uproar that has raised the farm’s public profile.
Universal Ostrich Farms says in its submissions to the High Court that it’s not asking the judges to “second guess science,” but settle a recurring problem in administrative law where “emergency powers are implemented through general policies while facts evolve.”
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says in its court filings that the farm’s application to the High Court should be dismissed with costs to the government because it “largely repeats or reformulates arguments” that were rejected by the Federal Court of Appeal.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 1, 2025.
The Canadian Press
