Park board to appeal decision over ban on cetacean displays
Supreme Court ruling called a ‘challenge’ to the panel’s authority
The Vancouver park board plans to appeal a B.C. Supreme Court decision earlier this month that set aside the board’s bylaw that banned keeping whales and dolphins in captivity at Stanley Park, although the Vancouver Aquarium has agreed to give up its cetacean displays.
On Jan. 18 the aquarium announced it would abide by the park-board ban as it swayed to public opinion and financial pressure from losing “a couple of ” major donors.
However, the judicial review that the aquarium sought to query the legality of the park-board bylaw was already underway and on Feb. 9 Justice Andrew Mayer ruled that the park board’s contract with the aquarium restricted the board’s ability to regulate aquarium activities. That, park board chairman Stuart Mackinnon said, could have far-reaching impacts on the board’s legislative authority under the Vancouver Charter.
“We believe that the B.C. Supreme Court ruling of Feb. 9 poses a real and substantial challenge to the legal power and authority of our elected board,” Mackinnon said in a statement. “Our board has decided we must appeal this decision.”
The board is now seeking leave to appeal the decision to “affirm that the bylaw restricting cetaceans in Vancouver parks applies to the aquarium.”
Park board media-relations official Margo Harper said that on legal advice the board will not be offering further comment on the matter while it’s before the courts.
The Ocean Wise Conservation Association, which runs the aquarium, filed legal action challenging the ban last spring, but abandoned its plans because the controversy over the ban left the organization feeling “in limbo,” according to its chief operating officer, Clint Wright.
“We’re taking back control and we’re moving forward,” Wright said at the time of the announcement.