CANADA POTENTIALLY TO JOIN CRULTY-FREE COSMETICS MARKET

Good news come from Canada this summer: after a third reading on The Cruelty-Free Cosmetics Act (Bill S-214), the Senate decided to pass it and the country is halfway through its journey to a cruelty-free cosmetics market. The last step will be taken in the beginning of the next legislative session in September, when the bill will be presented to the House of Commons and voted one last time. If it passes, Canada will officially ban animal testing for cosmetics, joining the other 37 countries – including the world’s largest beauty markets – that have already gone cruelty-free for cosmetics, and contributing to the worldwide ban that has been called for by the European Union MEPs in March 2018 (https://www.oipa.org/international/global-ban-animal-testing-cosmetics).

Canada’s journey to a cruelty-free cosmetics industry has started in 2015, when Senator Carolyn Stewart Olsen introduced the bill in partnership with Humane Society International and Animal Alliance of Canada. Senator Olsen expressed her sincerest hope for the act to be passed by the Parliament and this way “bring Canada into the 21st century”.

Major animal welfare groups, including Humane Society International and Animal Alliance, have extensively promoted the act, joined by socially responsible brands like LUSH Cosmetics. Together, they launched the #BeCrueltyFree Canada campaign and expressed their gratitude to the Senate for allowing Canada to achieve such an important milestone for animal welfare. Moreover, The Body Shop and Cruelty Free International had launched the Forever Against Animal Testing campaign that collected 6.5 million signatures, and a petition to the Canadian Parliament that became the largest petition to be delivered in over 70 years, with over 630 000 Canadian signatures.

If passed, the new legislation will prohibit any form of domestic animal testing for cosmetics, as well as the sale of cosmetic products that have undergone any form of animal testing. Let us keep our fingers crossed for Canada to become yet another cruelty-free country, and hopefully more good news await in September!

 

Sources:

http://www.hsi.org/world/canada/news/releases/2018/06/cruelty-free-cosmetics-act-062018.html

https://vegnews.com/2018/6/canadas-senate-passes-cruelty-free-cosmetics-act