Parti Québécois agriculture critic André Simard raised questions again Friday about the “ritual” killing of animals to produce halal and kosher meat, prompting Agriculture Minister Pierre Corbeil to remind Simard, a veterinarian, that he once worked as a provincial slaughterhouse inspector and should know better.
Defending himself, Simard said he was not trying to whip up anti-Muslim or extremist sentiment with his accusations that Quebecers may unwittingly be eating halal meat and may be paying more for that meat because Muslim prayers were said before the animal was killed
“Religious ritual slaughter, whether it is kosher or halal, is an exception to the law, not the general rule,” he said.
Simard said halal slaughter requires that the animal be conscious when its throat is cut and it is hung up to bleed.
Last week, Simard made the same assertions, after Mario Dumont, the former leader of Action démocratique du Québec, alleged on his television program, that the entire output of the Olymel LP chicken slaughterhouse in St. Damage was halal.
Simard said, “as a veterinarian,” this did not correspond to “Quebec values.”
But Olymel said only chickens ordered by halal stores were halal and that all chickens in the St. Damage facility were killed in the same way - stunned with an electrical charge, to render them unconscious, before they are killed.
Mohammed Ghalem, the imam who oversees the halal certification of the St. Damage slaughterhouse, confirmed this was so, comparing the prayers he says to grace said by Christians to bless their food before eating.
Corbeil told Simard only two per cent of the beef produced in Quebec-inspected slaughterhouses is halal, and there are no exceptions. The slaughterhouses must comply with Quebec law.
Jews and Muslims do not eat pork, the minister reminded Simard, and all Quebec slaughterhouses killing chickens and other fowl are federally inspected.
Lisa Gauthier of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in Ottawa said all federally regulated slaughterhouses must follow the same animal cruelty and food safety regulations, including those following religious rituals.
Gauthier also said that veterinarians are always on duty at federal slaughterhouses. Corbeil noted that Quebec slaughterhouses also have veterinarians on duty.
“All kosher products are very well identified and the same is true for halal,” Corbeil said, rejecting Simard’s suggestion that Quebecers are eating unlabelled halal meat.
And he dismissed the notion Quebecers are paying more for meat that is halal, explaining only people who want halal meat pay the cost of having halal meat blessed.