Irving Forestry Company Challenges Federal Bird Protection Laws in N.B. Court

By THE CANADIAN PRESS

BURTON, N.B. – New Brunswick forestry giant J.D. Irving Ltd. is challenging Canada’s laws protecting migratory birds at a time when experts warn that some bird populations are in free fall.

Arguments are underway in New Brunswick provincial court on an application by the Irving company to have Canada’s Migratory Birds Convention Act declared unconstitutional.

The company filed the application after it was charged under the federal act as a result of the destruction of several great blue heron nests during a logging operation in Cambridge Narrows, N.B., in 2006.

The Irving company has pleaded not guilty to the charge, but in advance of the trial, it introduced a motion challenging the constitutionality of the federal act, which has been on the books since 1917.

Prosecution witness Stephen Wendt, a former director with the Canadian Wildlife Service, says protection of migratory birds is just as important now as it was 90 years ago, when the federal law helped stop hunting that led to the extinction of passenger pigeons.

Wendt says a number of migratory birds, including the common nighthawk and the swallow, are disappearing from Canadian forests, making the protection of habitat critical.