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Weekly Vigil at Toronto Slaughterhouse

Care of Gwen Dunlop

I have been holding a one-woman, Sunday vigil since December 13, 2009, at what I call the Toronto Slaughter House. Its actual name is Toronto Abattoirs Ltd., with "Quality" Meat Packers Ltd. alongside it off Tecumseth St. The shockingly barbaric and primitive holding-compound (as apt a word as I can find) where the pigs are held overnight, is at the end of two driveways off Wellington St. It is at this latter location where I first began this project. 

Let me just say that for me, the French word "abattoire", does not do "justice" to what goes on there, because in my opinion, there is neither justice nor mercy where the animals are concerned. And the word "slaughter" suggests violent killing on a massive scale. Given there are one hundred and sixty-four, three-tiered transport trucks making weekly "deliveries" (taken from the Latin word "deliberare", meaning ironically, to liberate, to set free), the name slaughterhouse calls this very dark and heavily guarded place (with fifteen hundred employees) for what it truly is: a house of killing for which I believe we all are to whatever degree, responsible. 

My vigil takes various forms but mostly it entails meeting the truckers as they arrive, witnessing the unloading of the females of the pig species (called sows by some, who I call my soul friends and my tribe) and then seeing the truckers (who have no option but to pass right by me, my conscience and I hope and I know in some cases, theirs) turn out of the driveway en route to wherever home is, to sometimes far-enough-away parts of Ontario. 

Most of the time, I just stand there, in whatever kind of weather, for as long as I can last, sometimes three hours... more or less, with both hands over my heart. (I used to only use one hand, but Harold Brown, a former beef farmer and founder of Farmkind, and a subject of the documentary film Peaceable Kingdom: The Journey Home, suggested two hands would be more powerful...so that is what I do. I send as much love and compassion as I can muster, amidst the beatings of the sows and their subsequent screams, (which I never think can get worse but do), and the shouting of some of the truckers... as in: "Move, you stupid f'ing bitch(es)" (similar language with accompanying rage that at times gets sent my way as well), with only a fine but critical legal line of fear of consequences, separating the treatment of the pigs and the treatment of me, a line that has all too often gotten blurred throughout human history, resulting in genocide and atrocities of one kind or another.

That we seem to think we human animals are special in some way and will therefore be spared the brutality we have not spared others of our species and certainly not these remarkably intelligent, non-human animals, is in my experience a form of insanity. And criminals, at least some, however hardened we judge them or ourselves to be, are sometimes offered, on the eve of their executions or we in our final moments, last rites and perhaps even a special, last meal. But these sows, representing the female principle of life, have never had any rights...first or last or in-between or maybe just the barest minimum of rights with no or next to no, enforcement of those rights. They have been deprived of everything that might reflect on them as being the species they are, even to the point of their conception ("con" meaning "with") achieved today through "artificial insemination" which without consent, is merely technical language for licensed rape.                 

But I have digressed. I don't always or only stand in the same place. I have had deeply meaningful if not at times intense interaction with the truckers, "super" visors, security, police, City of Toronto public workers (who share the same driveway), residents from the area, one of the care-takers of the numerous feral cats having sought refuge nearby, passers-by and even on one occasion, a waiter from a nearby restaurant. I've heard personal stories and extended hugs to someone who came across me and was moved to tears by what I was doing, but moreover through hearing the cries of pain and terror, of the animals themselves. I have had a slaughterhouse worker scream at me: “Who are you…some stupid, f’ing, psycho bitch?” only to very quietly say moments later: “I have nightmares you know…we all do”.  

I have seen the inside of the holding area, the ugly red welts and deep gashes near sensitive parts of the animals’ bodies, their precious behinds fire-engine red and sore. I have seen the pile-up of bodies of those who didn't survive in transport, who I originally hoped might have found some modicum of comfort with each other until the realization set in that they were dead. I've run up one of the ladders attached to the holding compound and with my head stuck in a truck, screamed for leniency regarding the severity of the beatings. On at least a few occasions, I've lost my composure and done my own fair share of screaming, (I am no saint) raising my voice not in anger but as an appeal for humanity, theirs, and mine. 

I've planted a lot of seeds (maybe I too, am becoming one such seed). As long as I continue to get feedback, sometimes only in the most elusive of ways, and sometimes directly in the form of overt rage or an unexpected kindness (that has told me there is some understanding on the part of a few, what my purpose for being there is), I am committed to showing up, opening my heart more fully, fine-tuning my responses, trusting that this kind of change I am aiming for, beginning with myself, then through example and conscious presence, affecting outside change, one person at a time, within one system of exploitation and fear at a time, perhaps saving one animal at a time, will take just that...time. The Berlin Wall after all, finally did come down and when it did, it happened virtually, overnight.   

There is so much more I could say but I would like to finish with why I started this project in the first place. It is a critical piece of the whole. Please stay with me for just a little more...if you can. 

In 2005, I survived a plane crash. As I believed myself to be seconds away from death, my life flashed before me with waves of resultant feelings. I recalled the cruelty and violence and abuse of my childhood and how hard it was, the struggle to overcome its effects. I felt a deep sadness about this but I also felt enormous appreciation for the pinpoints of quality and light in my life that I had been able to experience and actively create, much of it through the gift of life-long therapy of one kind or another. But what I thought would be my last thoughts, were thoughts about the animals and feelings of profound loss that my life was ending without having done enough on their behalf. Compared to them I had had so much. 

Some of what happened during my childhood, took place on a relative's farm where there were domestic animals, farm animals and two long-houses filled with caged mink. The brutality I witnessed, perpetrated on all the animals and that was held over my head as a threat to remain silent about what was being done to me, left me in a state of devastation. I did what I could to try to speak for them at that time, but it was a lose/lose proposition, alone with no support or protection for myself as well. 

Many years later the despair of my childhood inevitably came to a head. At forty years of age, suicide had been a long time coming, albeit unsuccessful. But at least I had been able to say: "enough", to psychological pain that despite my best efforts to assuage, had become unbearable. That afternoon on the plane, a decade later, at the age of fifty, I felt for all the animals, who were never able to say and still cannot say: "enough", who had no recourse then and all these years later, continue to have no recourse whatsoever in ending their own suffering. Having survived also the plane crash, something tipped the scales. The terror of getting directly and deeply involved with anything that might touch upon that same degree of devastation and loss of faith in humanity and myself ever again, weighed in as less significant than my deepest longing for the urgent alleviation of animals' suffering. Whereas before, my question had been: "Why me?” it became: "Why not me?" and then, "Who better than me?"  Thus began my journey with pigs and the beginning of my true sanity and the making of amends for the gift of life I have that billions of them have yet to know.                             

Want more stories of animal advocacy? Julie O'Neil's work with Animal Aid

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Touring Ontario's Factory Farms: Sam

Submitted Anonymously

Many vegetarians know about the abhorrent treatment of animals on factory farms. In fact, the treatment of farm animals is so bad that it is the reason many of us adopt vegetarian and vegan diets in the first place. Because we are so horrified by what we hear and read about factory farms, most of us would rather avoid them. Not Sam.  

In order to learn about the treatment of farm animals firsthand, Sam has been visiting animal farms in Canada so that he can observe how they operate. This is difficult emotionally because Sam’s interest in animal advocacy arises out of empathy for all sentient beings, so it is challenging for him to witness animal suffering. Also, the trips are taxing physically because of how cold the farms are in the dead of winter – on many a night, he shivered to sleep in rooms with no heating. 

Sam has visited 12 animal farms since he began investigating, half of which were factory farms; the rest were small farms. “These visits have strengthened my resolve to advocate for animals,” he says.

What was most surprising to him in all his trips? “The farmers are wonderful people who welcomed me into their homes and went out of their way to help me.” But then why are they cruel to animals? “For them, factory farming is simply a job like any other. They think of animals as production machines and compartmentalize, separating their work from their personal life.” 

In addition to farms, Sam summoned the courage to visit a slaughter plant. Standing with their feet soaked in blood, the cows and sheep knew they were going to die and trembled with fear. Their desperate attempts to hide and escape were of no avail, as their throats were slit one after the other. Sam said, “Death is always violent because we take from them what they want most: their life. It is worse because workers are completely desensitized and careless in their handling of animals, referring to and treating living beings as ‘things.’”  

Sam plans to continue his hands-on research on the treatment of farm animals. With his newfound knowledge, Sam will enlighten vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike about how animals are treated. His firsthand farm experience makes him a more convincing advocate for animals, and he is optimistic about a more humane future. 

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Ducklover Bonnie (aka Bonnie Shulman)

Care of Nelson Carvalho

Bonnie Shulman is a member of the TVA, former eLifelines columnist (Animal Profile of the Month) and a colleague of mine at the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB). You can easily tell that she’s a vegan by the massive number of Farm Sanctuary posters on her cubicle walls. She's a frequent donor to that organization and to many other organizations that promote veganism.  

Bonnie is well known here in the Communications Division for her veganism and love of animals, particularly ducks. In fact, she tells me that it was after making her first duck friend that she went vegan.  

She’s written two books about the ducks she’s befriended and who have helped her see animals in a whole new light.  

In the winter, Bonnie makes sure that the ducks survive the cold by feeding them duck food that she drives all the way out into the countryside to get. She brings home several 50-lb bags of Mazuri Waterfowl Maintenance at a time and keeps them in her condo. Only a real ducklover would go to such lengths.  

I am not a vegetarian but thanks to Bonnie’s gentle inspiration, I think more deeply about the food choices I make, and the way the world treats and abuses farm animals.                         

Want to see photos of the ducks Bonnie watches over in High Park? Bonnie's Flickr Page

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Toronto Pig Save: Giving Slaughterhouses Windows

Care of Anita Kranjc

Nobel laureate John Coetzee has his protagonist in the self-titled novel, Elizabeth Costello, give a university lecture on “The Philosophers and the Animals.” She tells her audience: 

"'I was taken on a drive around Waltham this morning. It seems a pleasant enough town. I saw no horrors, no drug-testing laboratories, no factory farms, no abattoirs. Yet I am sure they are here. They must be. They simply do not advertise themselves. They are all around us as I speak, only we do not, in a certain sense, know about them."

The slaughterhouses are here in Toronto, too – downtown and in the outskirts.

Quality Meat Packers (QMP) is located in the downtown core, off King and Bathurst, at 2 Tecumseh. You get a good panoramic view of the colossal QMP industrial complex if you stand on the hills of Fort York and direct your gaze across the railway lines. Walking with my dog on Lakeshore, I usually spot several transport trucks at any given hour packed with scared and sad-looking pigs heading towards QMP, which has a capacity to kill up to 6,000 pigs a day. You can hear the pigs scream in terror and agony as the truck drivers poke the pigs with electric prods to unload them into the holding area at 677 Wellington Street West.

Besides QMP, there are four other federally registered slaughterhouses in Toronto: the huge St. Helen’s slaughterhouse on 1 Glen Scarlett Road, northwest of Weston Road and St. Clair Avenue, which slaughters cows, calves, sheep, lambs and goats, and other animals; across the street, at 70 Glen Scarlett Road, there is the Ryding-Regency Meat Packers, which also slaughters the same variety of animals; a few blocks further on 100 Ethel Avenue, there’s an enormous Maple Leaf Poultry slaughterhouse; and southwest of Lakeshore and Carlaw avenue, there’s Chai Kosher Poultry on 115 Saulter Street South. Take a physical or a virtual tour using Google maps, and it soon becomes evident that these slaughterhouses are abutted by a series of meat processing, refrigeration, and wholesale companies.

Outside of Toronto, there are hundreds of slaughterhouses of various sizes. For example, a pig slaughterhouse, even larger than QMP, is located at 821 Appleby Line in Burlington. For a list of provincially inspected slaughterhouses visit: http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/food/inspection/meatinsp/licenced_operators_list.htm and for the federal database, see: http://active.inspection.gc.ca/scripts/meavia/reglist/reglist.asp?lang=e

Traveling Art Show

Toronto Pig Save formed to actuate Paul McCartney’s famous precept, “If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian.”

The group began by assembling mainly art and photos of pigs from local and international artists as one way to meet this challenge. Our aim i to, on the one hand, popularize highly relevant images and footage of factory farms, transport trucks, and slaughter and, at the same time, juxtapose pigs and other animals in farm sanctuaries, where they can live their lives fully in a safe, loving, and natural forever home. After posting these works on our website (www.torontopigsave.wordpress.com), we decided to launch a travelling art show. 

Our first art show, entitled “Art to help save pigs,” was launched at Brock University’s ‘Thinking About Animals’ conference in late March. In June, we will be participating in TVA’s Compassion Café during Compassion Week, with artworks on display at T.A.N. Coffee on 37 Baldwin Street. We have also submitted applications to hold month-long exhibits in Toronto’s public libraries and plan to apply for arts grant in order to hold an art gallery exhibition next year.

Vegan Challenge for Earth Week

Beyond shining a spotlight on slaughterhouses, we decided to take a very proactive and constructive solutions-oriented approach by promoting the Vegan Challenge for Earth Week, in concert with the TVA and the media group rabble.ca. More than 400 people signed up on rabble.ca’s Facebook site: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=196812497019632&ref=ts

Following Oprah’s example in February 2011, when Oprah not only took the VC herself but invited her staff at Harpo and viewers to take the challenge along with her, we encouraged participants to organize a Vegan Challenge at their workplace. Nimisha Raja wrote about her pioneering experiences from 2010 (prior to Oprah!) on the rabble.ca blog: http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/anita-krajnc/2011/04/taking-vegan-challenge-work and Marco Pagliarulo took the Vegan Challenge to his workplace at the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. 

Grassroots Art and Multimedia Training Project

Our future campaign brings us back to the idea of “Making slaughterhouses have windows". We plan on developing a collective approach to bearing witness at Toronto’s slaughterhouses by holding vigils and ghost tours as well as taking footage of transport trucks and abattoir buildings.

We are looking for artists, photographers, videographers to do skills training for our volunteers. We’d like to use an approach where we have all our members mapping, documenting, and drawing a picture of the abattoirs in our midst. Everyone can play a role in erecting glass walls on slaughterhouses and sharing their pictures with their friends and communities. We are all artists and citizen journalists, refusing to be blind and deaf to the cries of farm animals slaughtered in and around Toronto.

Romain Rolland, another vegetarian, Nobel laureate, wrote in his novel Jean-Christophe:

“He could not bear to see the most ordinary sights that he had seen hundreds of times – a calf crying in a wicker pen, with its big protruding eyes, with their bluish whites and pink lids, and white lashes, its curly white tufts on its forehead, its purple snout, its knock-kneed legs: – a lamb being carried by a peasant with its four legs tied together, hanging head down, trying to hold its head up, moaning like a child, bleating and lolling its gray tongue: – fowls huddled together in a basket: the distant squeals of a pig being bled to death:- a fish being cleaned on the kitchen table …

The nameless tortures which men inflict on such innocent creatures made his heart ache. Grant animals a ray of reason, imagine what a frightful nightmare the world is to them: a dream of cold-blooded men, blind and deaf, cutting their throats, slitting them open, gutting them, cutting them into pieces, cooking them alive, sometimes laughing at them as they writhe in agony….If there exists a good God, then even the most humble of living things must be saved.”

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Smooth Sailing into Veganism

Care of Julia Strub

My name is Julia and I’ve been eating a vegan diet since April 4th 2010. Being vegetarian has always appealed to me and I had even made an attempt at lacto-ovo vegetarianism in 2002. Back then I didn’t have the information or support to maintain a vegetarian diet and so I fell back into my old beliefs about how humans needed meat, eggs, and milk to thrive.  

Several months before switching to veganism in 2010 those beliefs were challenged by a wonderful vegan friend. I was lucky enough to be directed to fantastic books like The China Study, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, and Becoming Vegan. These were life altering books that I highly recommend to any curious omnivore. They gave me an incredible sense of relief knowing that not only was living without animal products possible, but it was IDEAL for human health. Imagine, by simply changing the way you eat you can save animals from suffering and death, AND save yourself from all the diseases of affluence like diabetes, cancer and heart disease! I was ready to ease myself into this new way of life and hopefully transition my husband and 2 kids (then 9 and 7) along with me.  

April 4th 2010 was Easter Sunday. I was cutting back on my meat consumption and only had half a chicken breast that day at my in-laws. At the end of a good visit we were packing up to go home and my daughter asked to stay overnight with Grandma and Grandpa. My husband, son and I headed home. Later that night, my daughter called. Grandpa was having chest pains and they were driving into town to the hospital. My daughter rode in the back seat while Grandma drove. Grandpa made it to the hospital-- he had had a heart attack and a stent was put in the next day. My daughter was awake for most of the night, upset. It WAS upsetting. My father-in-law was only in his late 50s, wasn’t fat or sedentary or anything close to the stereotypical steak and butter eating glutton that’s associated with heart attacks. All of the information I’d read in those books really hit home and I made a decision to go cold turkey with animal products. I wanted to be around for a long time for my family.  

This was undoubtedly the most difficult time in my vegan journey. I hadn’t completely brought my husband and kids up to speed with everything I’d read and they were left wondering “Where’s the Beef?”. Thankfully they happen to be pretty smart people who were open minded enough to consider the information I was bringing to them. With my kids, I simply talked to them in little spurts, here and there so they had time to take it in. We talked everyday about it and I answered all of their questions and soon they understood the reasons for all the changes. My husband took longer to convince only because he was the type of person who needed to see the proof. Once he’d read the same things I’d read then we were all finally on track.  

Eating vegan was only difficult for a month or two at the beginning. Initially it was all about finding meat substitutes that could stand in where that hunk of meat had previously been. It took time to try out different brands of fake meats and soy milks until we found our favourites and for a good price. I got cookbooks like La Dolce Vegan, How It All Vegan, Veganomicon, and even dessert books like Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World and Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. One of my favourite websites is fatfreevegan.com.

Soon meals became less about substituting meat with fake meat, and more about discovering all new foods and new and exciting ways of cooking. Keeping a little cookbook of my own, full of successful vegan recipes was helpful for those days when I couldn’t think of what to make for supper. One year later, eating and cooking vegan is effortless. I know exactly where to get all my favourite ingredients and I’ve built up a repertoire of easy and special occasion recipes. It’s become second nature to us.  

Our health has benefitted too. I once had a chronically swollen left foot that has now resolved itself. I’ve lost 30 lbs in the past year and my husband is at an ideal weight. My husband, a hard working construction man, had previously brought his lunch down to a pitiful 4 items just to maintain his weight but can now fill up with twice that amount of food for lunch and his weight is stable. My daughter, whom I’d worried was putting on a bit of a tummy, soon slimmed down and grew 2 inches taller! As well, this is my first winter in as long as I can remember where I didn’t have plugged sinuses. Overall we were far less ill. My husband especially noticed how he hadn’t picked up all those pesky little colds throughout the winter.  

Something I never expected to feel with this new way of life was a little bit of joy at each meal. It’s a joy I feel when I can sit down with my family and know that this meal did no harm. Not a single animal was exploited and killed for my dining pleasure. I didn’t take part in the warehousing and killing of billions of sentient creatures each year. I didn’t contribute to the tons and tons of carbon emissions involved in meat/dairy/egg production or the pollution of our waterways with an unfathomable amount of animal waste. With each meal I am able to reconnect with that empathy for my fellow creatures and have the peace of mind that I’m making a real difference in the future of our planet. 

I would encourage any curious omnivore to read The China Study, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, and Becoming Vegan. If you ever have questions please ask! Anyone who has ever transitioned to veganism is more than happy to answer questions about what they eat, how they eat, and why. We love to share our knowledge with anyone who would like to learn! And lastly I would say that easing into veganism at a rate you’re comfortable with is important and every little change is worth celebrating! My hope for everyone is that one day we can all share food with friends and family and feel that joy, relief and peace.

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Take a Photographic Journey with Jo-Anne McArthur

Care of Dylan Powell

I can’t remember the first time I consciously gazed upon a photograph taken by Jo-Anne McArthur, I had unknowingly seen her work for years, but I do remember the first time we met. It was almost a year ago at the Farm Sanctuary Hoe Down in Watkins Glen, New York and Jo-Anne greeted me as if we had been old friends. Her friendliness and openess are two things which you recognize immediately upon meeting her. 

Jo-Anne’s photographic work has taken her around the globe, working tirelessly for grassroots organizations all the way up to large international organizations. Her work with the project, We Animals, is her attempt to use those skills to bring our relationships with animals to light. To be frank, her work is a nightmare that very few could endure. It regularly includes investigations and forces her to be present in the face of extreme desecration and brutality. For this reason alone, Jo-Anne is a inspiration to me.

Back to our first meeting. A highlight of the Hoe Down weekend is the Dance on Saturday night. The People Barn is loaded full of vegans from across North America and Gene Baur, Farm Sanctuary co-founder, leads the night with his non-stop love of dancing. This year, he was not to be outdone by Jo-Anne, as the two regularly danced off and shared in an ecstatic joy of like minded people who have found, at least momentary, refuge. I was in awe of this person who carried such a weight, but who still was able to connect with others in joy. 

As the year has wore on, I have developed a friendship with Jo-Anne to the point that I know more of the toll her work takes on her. A rescuer of animals and member of the vibrant Toronto Community, Jo-Anne is constantly torn between work that is gruelling, but yet vital, and home time, which always seems to be fleeting. She has opened up her work to me and offered her services to help me in my activism and only ever asked for hugs in return. As a friend, mentor and inspiration, I can’t think of a person more deserving of a profile, or of work more vital. I hope this opens up others to be touched by Jo-Anne’s work and creates a (momentary) space of joy for everyone else who is present in the face of the unthinkable.

Click here to visit Jo-Anne McArthur's website and see examples of her work.

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Interview with Animal Activist: Camille Labchuk

Care of Shannon Kornelson and Anna Pippus

We know you were a vegetarian before you became vegan. Can you tell us about how you made the leap and why? Is there anything about being vegan that surprised you, either negatively or positively? 

I became a vegetarian when I was 12, but it wasn’t until years later that I began to hear about veganism and consider the ethical implications of eggs and dairy. I knew I would eventually become a vegan, and I tried it out a few times, but somehow I always lapsed back into old habits. What finally did it for me was travelling to Atlantic Canada to document the commercial seal hunt with an international animal protection organization. Being surrounded for weeks with so many vegan animal activists gave me the push I needed to finally kick bad habits to the curb, and I’ve never looked back.  I’ve never been able to find anything negative about going vegan, but I’ve been surprised by the warmth and generosity of the amazingly supportive vegan community in every city where I’ve ever lived. 

What is one thing you wish people knew about veganism? 

I wish more people knew how easy it is to eat vegan, and how absolutely delicious and vibrant the food can be! One of the biggest misconceptions about veganism is that the food is second-rate and that it’s hard to stick with it. I eat way more exciting and flavourful food now, as a vegan, than I did as an omnivore or even a vegetarian. Vegan options are available at virtually every restaurant these days, and it’s never been easier to eat a plant-based diet. 

You have been involved with the Green Party of Canada for some time. Are there any overlaps between GPC policies and veganism?  

There is a strong contingent of vegan or vegetarian Greens (including leader Elizabeth May and deputy leader Georges Laraque), and I’m pleased that many Green policies reflect the growing movement within the party toward plant-based living. The Greens are the only party with detailed animal protection policies (visit this site for a glimpse: http://greenparty.ca/policy/documents/animal_protection). The Greens are committed to building a world where animals are protected, and are not seen merely as units of economic production, but as sentient beings who are capable of experiencing pain and suffering. I think it’s essential that vegans and those who care about animals get political, which is one reason why I’m passionate about working within the political process to get better policies for animals, human health and the environment. We’ll never get the laws we want if we don’t fight for them. 

As someone quite familiar with the Canadian political arena, do you see increasing awareness at the legislative level of the connection between animal agriculture and the environment? If so, why, and if not, why not? 

It would be hard not to make the connection, given the attention to these issues by major documentaries and the mainstream media. But unfortunately, if there is any growing awareness, it is not translating into better policies. I think this relates to the greater crisis in democracy in our country, where the political process is ruled by powerful elites who have ceased listening to the public. More and more people are demanding action on the environment and animal protection issues, yet the political class has ignored our voices. Part of the problem is our broken first-past-the-post voting system, which often rewards one party with all of the power despite most Canadians voting against them – a false majority government. We desperately need proportional representation so Canadians get a government they actually voted for. 

You recently completed your second year of law school. (Congratulations!!) How did your veganism relate to your decision to go to law school? What role do you see law playing in the animal protection movement? 

Veganism had everything to do with my decision to go to law school! I had been working in politics and the animal protection movement for several years when I began to realize that becoming a lawyer would help me do an even a better job of advocating on behalf of animals and the environment. Animal law is relatively new to Canada but it’s growing quickly, and I think Canada needs a national animal law organization that launches strategic litigation to defend animals’ interests, and lobbies for better animal protection laws at all levels of government. This is what I plan to work on with some fellow lawyers when I finish my studies.  

What is your favourite food? Your favourite Toronto-based restaurant? Your favourite vegetable? 

I think raw vegan desserts are my favourite food. They’re so easy to make, and it’s fun to shock omnivores (in a good way) when I explain my raw cheesecakes are made from cashews and other natural ingredients. I remain convinced that vegan desserts are one of the best ways to show people how delicious vegan food is! I love so many restaurants in this city and it’s nearly impossible to choose just one, so it’s a tie: Fresh, and Live Organic Food Bar. It helps that I live near both of them.  As for vegetables, that one’s easy. I’m a kale junky – my garden is full of it right now, and it’s fabulous. I eat it every day. 

Do you know any good vegan jokes?

Here's one to get you started: - knock knock. - who's there? - vegan. - vegan who? - vegan eat vat ve vant, ve just don't vant to. I can’t take credit for this one, but I think it’s funny!  Q: Why do vegans wear snow camo? A: So they can blend in while hijacking the So Delicious ice cream truck! 

Thanks for indulging us Camille! We love you!