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Toronto goes fin free

Toronto became the largest city in Canada to ban the sale and possession of shark fins on Monday with a landslide council vote that supporters say will pave the way for a nationwide prohibition on the controversial fish product. The motion passed by a vote of 38-4, with the mayor and three of his close allies the sole dissenting votes.

The bylaw will come into effect on Sept. 1, 2012, after which anyone owning, selling, or consuming shark fins will be fined $5,000 for a first offence. The fines increase sharply after that, to $25,000 for a second offence and $100,000 for a third.

“This will be a motion that will be heard around the world. I think sharks in every single ocean in the world are clapping right now as we speak,” said Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker, a vocal supporter of the ban who earlier in the day raised the ire of Speaker Frances Nunziata by releasing a shark-shaped balloon in the council chamber. “We did this to make sure that they wouldn’t be wiped off the face of the earth.”

Rob Stewart, the director of the documentary Sharkwater and founder of advocacy group Fin Free Toronto, called the decisive vote “the most heartwarming thing.”

“I have all kinds of good butterflies inside,” Stewart said after the council decision, which also called on the province to enact a similar law. “Everyone can see that in 10 or 20 years there’s going to be a ban on shark fins around the world. You can’t destroy the most important predator the planet has for the sake of soup.”

Mississauga and Oakville have already adopted a ban on shark fins, which are used to make a soup considered a Chinese delicacy, but which critics say are harvested inhumanely from fish who are left to die slow deaths after being de-finned. The federal NDP plans to introduce a bill this fall banning imports of the product, the demand for which contributes to the slaughter of 70 million sharks worldwide each year according to WildAid Canada.

In voting for the shark fin ban, councillors went against the advice of city staff who warned the ban could open the city up to legal challenges that would take untold time and money to sort out.

Councillor Michelle Berardinetti, who also supported the ban, dismissed those concerns as overblown. She says she paid for her own legal opinion from municipal law expert George Rust-D’Eye, which confirmed the bylaw would be upheld by the courts and that the city has the right to regulate environmental issues.

De Baeremaeker said warnings of legal challenges over previous bylaws never came to much.

“I think people need to remember when we passed our recycling bylaws, lawyers were concerned that maybe we couldn’t force people to recycle,” he argued. “They were worried that we couldn’t force people not to smoke in restaurants, they were concerned we couldn’t force people to stop using pesticides on their lawn. So we’ve done a lot of things where the lawyers were worried, but we’re doing the right thing.”

Barbara Chiu, executive director of the Toronto Chinese Business Association, said the bylaw is irresponsible.

“The city solicitor gave strong reasons why this isn’t under municipal jurisdiction and they are taking a risk to be challenged,” she said. “Councillors’ want the city of Toronto to be a leading city, so they want to go for it. This is a political movement.”

Chiu said some business owners she represents have talked about launching a legal challenge against the bylaw, but she couldn’t say whether anyone will follow through.

While there’s still heated debate over what to do for Toronto’s human residents, lately city council appears nearly united over issues of animal welfare. Earlier on Monday, Berardinetti successfully moved a motion to have council debate expediting the transfer of the Toronto Zoo’s three remaining elephants to a sanctuary in California, and last month council passed a motion banning the sale of puppies and kittens in pet stores.

Rob Ford was joined by councillors Giorgio Mammoliti, David Shiner, and Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday in opposing the bylaw.

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