Calgary mayoral candidate is constitutionally challenging city ban on urban chickens

Photograph by: Brett Gundlock/National Post, NP

“I am 111 per cent guilty of possession of chickens”

By Daryl Slade
Calgary Herald
September 16, 2010

Excerpt:

Mayoral candidate and urban chicken advocate Paul Hughes has officially made his constitutional challenge to the city’s bylaw banning backyard egg-laying hens.

Hughes filed his document, under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, following a pre-trial conference at provincial court on Wednesday.

“The city does not have the jurisdiction to regulate activity pertaining to household food security, in this case exemplified by backyard chickens,” Hughes wrote as his primary ground for the challenge.

He also says the city and country are bound by the United Nations declaration of human rights/universal declaration of human rights, which addresses an individual’s or family’s right to food.

Hughes, a Killarney resident who was charged last year under the city’s bylaw preventing anyone from having chickens, faces a trial on Dec. 23. But it will basically entail only the contitutional argument, he told court.

“I am 111 per cent guilty of possession of chickens,” Hughes told Judge Jim Ogle, in an at-times lighthearted banter.

“I have no intention of calling any witnesses. I may have and exhibit, which is an egg.”

“Make sure it’s a fresh one,” replied Ogle. “I’ll see if I can get it through security,” Hughes added. “I’ll bring a chicken and an egg.”

A city council committee voted 5-2 in June against allowing residential chicken coops, with members expressing concerns about everything from chicken-feline conflicts to livestock-borne disease.

Read the complete article here.