Judge rules in favour of Vancouver aquarium

Vancouver’s park board did not have the authority to ban whales, dolphins and porpoises at the city’s aquarium, a British Columbia judge has ruled.

The B.C. Supreme Court decision released Friday follows the Vancouver Aquarium’s announcement last month that it will end the practice of displaying cetaceans in captivity.

The Ocean Wise Conservation Association, a non-profit society that runs the aquarium, filed an application for judicial review last year challenging a bylaw amendment passed by the park board prohibiting the keeping of cetaceans in parks.

The aquarium has a licensing agreement with the park board that allows it to operate in Stanley Park, and it was renewed in 1999 to include “non-interference” provisions.

Justice Andrew Mayer said in his ruling the agreement states the board will not interfere with the day-to-day administration of the aquarium, and as a result the bylaw amendment is unenforceable.

“When an administrative body begins to trench into areas of ethics, morality and perhaps even animal rights, it may overstep its bounds if it adopts a political position which conflicts with its core mandates,” he said in his written ruling.

The board approved the aquarium’s $100-million expansion plan in 1996 and made several other agreements in subsequent years that didn’t remove the non-interference provisions, Mayer said.

The aquarium planned to create larger outdoor pools for beluga whales, sea lions and dolphins, and upgrade its building. The judge said the bylaw “effectively undoes the park board’s approval of the expansion project” because the aquarium would be prohibited from using the expanded facilities for its intended purposes.