Canada Agricultural Review Tribunal

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The Canada Agricultural Review Tribunal is a Canadian regulatory appellate tribunal, which reviews administrative monetary penalty cases relating to agriculture and agri-food. [1]

Tribunal person or institution with the authority to judge, adjudicate or determine claims or disputes

A tribunal, generally, is any person or institution with authority to judge, adjudicate on, or determine claims or disputes—whether or not it is called a tribunal in its title. For example, an advocate who appears before a court with a single judge could describe that judge as 'their tribunal'. Many governmental bodies that are titled 'tribunals' are so described to emphasize that they are not courts of normal jurisdiction. For example, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is a body specially constituted under international law; in Great Britain, employment tribunals are bodies set up to hear specific employment disputes. In many cases, the word tribunal implies a judicial body with a lesser degree of formality than a court, to which the normal rules of evidence and procedure may not apply, and whose presiding officers are frequently neither judges nor magistrates. Private judicial bodies are also often styled 'tribunals'. However, the word tribunal is not conclusive of a body's function–for example, in Great Britain, the Employment Appeal Tribunal is a superior court of record.

Agriculture Cultivation of plants and animals to provide useful products

Agriculture is the science and art of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to live in cities. The history of agriculture began thousands of years ago. After gathering wild grains beginning at least 105,000 years ago, nascent farmers began to plant them around 11,500 years ago. Pigs, sheep and cattle were domesticated over 10,000 years ago. Plants were independently cultivated in at least 11 regions of the world. Industrial agriculture based on large-scale monoculture in the twentieth century came to dominate agricultural output, though about 2 billion people still depended on subsistence agriculture into the twenty-first.

Contents

History

The Canada Agricultural Review Tribunal is an independent, quasi-judicial regulatory appellate tribunal, established in 1983 by the Parliament of Canada, through section 4.1 of the Canada Agricultural Products Act. The tribunal acts to "balance the rights of Canadians with the protection of health and well-being of Canadian consumers and the economic vibrancy of Canadian agriculture and agri-food industries." [2] It provides oversight of federal agencies' use of penalties set out in the Agriculture and Agri-food Administrative Monetary Penalties Act. Members of the public may seek a review of certain Agriculture and Agri-food violations before the Tribunal.

The tribunal has the jurisdiction to hear, either orally or by written submissions only, cases involving agriculture, food and animal handling and transportation. It hears cases brought by persons who have been issued notices of violation for bringing animal or plant products into the country without permission or where a producer, transporter or handler of animals or plants in Canada fails to meet set standards for transport, including animal welfare, animal identification and disease prevention. [3] [4] Tribunal decisions have been cited and commented on by various Canadian animal welfare organizations throughout Canada, [5] [6] as well as in legal commentary. [7]

Upon receipt of a request for review by an alleged violator, with reasons specified, the tribunal currently reviews notices of violation issued by the Canada Border Services Agency, Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the Pest Management Regulatory Agency. It also reviews certain decisions of the Minister of Health and the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food. The tribunal offices are located in Ottawa, Canada. However, there are currently 96 locations in which tribunal hearings are authorized to take place across Canada. There is at least one location in each province and territory of Canada.

Canada Border Services Agency

The Canada Border Services Agency is a federal agency that is responsible for border protection and surveillance, immigration enforcement and customs services in Canada. The CBSA is accountable to Parliament through the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is a regulatory agency that is dedicated to the safeguarding of food, animals, and plants, which enhance the health and well-being of Canada's people, environment and economy. The agency was created in April 1997 by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency Act for the purpose of combining and integrating the related inspection services of three separate federal government departments: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and Health Canada. The establishment of the CFIA consolidated the delivery of all federal food safety, animal health, and plant health regulatory programs.

The Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) is the Canadian government agency responsible for the regulation of pest control products in Canada under the federal authority of the Pest Control Products Act and Regulations. The agency is a branch that reports to Parliament through Health Canada. The PMRA is responsible for providing access to pest management tools while minimizing the risks to human health and the environment by “using modern evidence-based scientific approaches to pesticide regulation, in an open and transparent manner”. Their main activity areas include: new product evaluation, post market review and compliance and enforcement.

Decisions of the Canada Agricultural Review Tribunal are reviewable by the Federal Court of Appeal.

The Federal Court of Appeal is a Canadian appellate court that hears cases concerning federal matters.

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