The Boxer Club of Canada Inc.
Minutes of the General Meeting held on Monday December 7, 2015
The meeting was called to order at approx. 8:02 p.m. - on-line Moderator/Chair. – President: Dave Gilmour
Attendance (16 members): Anne McDougall, Cindy Thomas, Dave & Patti Gilmour, Mary Curl, Francine Gillanders, Doris Avery, Lee Nowak, Sandra Beck, Marta Nettelfield, Irene & Len Waddel, Karen Knox, Mellisa & Mike Mathers, Tammy Ranta
Reminder: A quick reminder that there is a prize at the end of the year for everyone that has attended a meeting, served on the exec or a committee. You get one entry for every meeting attended, committee served on or exec position. They go into a hat at the end of the year and a name is drawn.
Minutes:
Dave: I would like to call the meeting to order and start with everyone listing their name for attendance (see above).
Everybody should of had lots of time to read last month minutes. Is the re any errors or omissions?
Dave: I move the minutes be accepted as written. Cindy seconded.
Business Arising From the Minutes – None
Programme: Lillian:
Send after meeting: was not able to sign on..
Treasurer’s Report – Kim Long
Mary: Kim sent me her report as she cannot attend tonight
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Show Committee
Publicity: Rich Tarrington (not in attendance) No report
Trophy Committee: Anne McDougall
Awards Committee: No report
Membership: Doris Avery
Discipline Committee:
Obedience Committee: Marta Nettelfield - No report
Fund Raising Committee:
Reading of General Correspondence: Cindy Thomas
Good & Welfare: Lillian Wainright
Old Business:
New Business: None
Meeting Schedules:
Exec meetings: Dec 30 2015
Regular meetings: Next meeting January 4th 2016
BC CROPPING COALITION
IN OPPOSITION TO BYLAW 231 OF THE CVBC
November 4, 2015
Dear Madame/Sir,
Re: Request for Club Support in Funding Litigation against BC Veterinarians over Ear Cropping Ban and Assistance with Communication with your Club Membership
We are an all breed coalition of like minded breeders of cropped dogs that have joined together and retained legal counsel in an attempt to reverse recently passed Bylaw 231 of the College of Veterinarians of British Columbia (“CVBC”) which reads as follows:
Cosmetic Ear Cropping of Dogs
231(1) For the purposes of this section, “ear cropping” means the removal of part or all of the pinnae or auricles of the ear of a dog.
(2) A registrant must not perform ear cropping for any reason, other than to treat an injury or a disease of the pinnae.
This ban is contained within their Ethics & Standards Bylaws, a breach of which could lead to a complaint being made against them and subsequent discipline being administered by the CVBC. They are a self governing profession, the same as doctors or lawyers, and discipline can range from financial penalties all the way to revocation of their license. The ban came into effect in late October 2015. While the CVBC is not the first veterinary association in Canada to enact such a ban on ear cropping, BC is easily the largest province impacted up till now. The populations and breeders affected in previous jurisdictions were too small to mount an effective defence. That is not the case in BC and added to that is the threat that both the Ontario and Quebec Veterinary Colleges are apparently considering similar legislation in their Bylaws in the near future, so what happens here in BC could directly impact what happens in those Provinces. We are also concerned that while the current prohibition is against ear cropping only, that this is the “thin edge of the wedge” and that tail docking and dew claws are next, which impacts over 60 breeds of dogs recognized by the CKC and AKC. There is a concern that the American Veterinary Association is watching what is happening in Canada as well, such that the argument that ‘you can get your dogs cropped in the US so why do I care’ may not be open to you in the not so distant future, if they too decide to follow this route.
We have retained counsel at Borden Ladner Gervais, LLP (“BLG”) in Vancouver, BC. You can see the firm at www.blg.com . We will be joined as a co-applicant in this lawsuit by Dr. William Zwamborn, a BC veterinarian who crops dogs the Lower Mainland. This will not be a trial, but rather a lengthy Chambers application. We will not be asking the court to decide whether or not cropping is acceptable, but rather, whether or not the CVBC is entitled to pass and enforce a bylaw in this form and manner. Our retainer of the Firm will be a two stage process. The first will be to obtain a legal opinion, which we will authorize as soon as we have raised the necessary $10,000 retainer. We will not proceed with the main lawsuit until after we have the results of the legal opinion and we have raised all of the necessary funds to pay for the lawsuit – an estimated minimum of $40,000.
We are asking for two things from the Breed Clubs of the various cropped breeds. The first is an immediate monetary contribution to the Coalition in the form of a cheque, payable to: Borden Ladner Gervais “In Trust”’ with the words: CVBC Cropping Litigation on the Re: line. The monies received from the Clubs will allow us to confirm our retainer of BLG immediately and see them commence work on the legal opinion forthwith. That is why we are approaching the clubs immediately, so that this step can commence without delay as soon as we raise the $10,000 retainer.
We will then progress with raising the additional funds from individuals and clubs, as described below. You will note that the funds are being paid “in trust” to the law firm (“BLG”). All monies raised in this matter will be held in a trust account and a complete accounting of same will be available to any contributor who inquires. We are undertaking to refund all monies collected which prove unnecessary for the litigation, should that happy situation occur, if said refund is in excess of $50 per person or Club (as the cost to process the refund will be prohibitive once it is smaller than that). Any refunds less than $50 we will donate as seed money to the next jurisdiction facing this type of legal challenge.
It is our full intention to be responsible guardians of your money, but as you well know, litigation is expensive and we mean to do this in a “go big or go home” manner. We view this as the line in the sand in Canada. If we cannot stop them here we will have likely given up the right to crop and dock our dogs in Canada going forward, and that is an unacceptable result.
The second request that we have of the Breed Clubs is access to your Membership mail out lists. By this we mean that we want to give you a prepared letter, substantially the same as this one, but aimed at your individual members and Chapter Clubs, that will contain links to an Invitation to join our private Facebook page and a link to our website, both of which will be up and running when this next letter goes out through the Clubs. If all of the Breed Clubs we are writing to send this letter out, using their Club emailing lists, it will give us contact with countless breeders across both Canada and the USA and they will hopefully forward it to their puppy people and fellow breeders who may not be Club members but who may be sympathetic to our cause. There will be a PayPal link on the website and the Facebook page for people to make direct contributions to the Coalition (said contributions will be transferred immediately to the legal trust account). There will also be instructions on where to send a cheque, if preferred.
We have listed out below the P.O. Box mailing address for the Coalition which is where we are asking cheques to be mailed, plus the names and email address of several of our members who are able to answer your questions. We would ask that you advise one of our members by email when your Club sends a cheque so that we know to look for it please. We would also ask that you advise us at your early convenience as to your willingness to allow us to use your Club email lists to send out our Information Letter regarding the litigation planned by the Coalition and we will make arrangements to forward same to you as soon as our online presence is ready to go.
Thank you for your assistance with this matter. We look forward to your early reply.
Yours truly,
BC CROPPING COALITION
Mailing address:
BC Cropping Coalition
P.O. Box 98006
Sunshine Village
Delta, BC, V4E 3M9
Email: info@bccroppingcoalition.com
Contacts:
Janine Starink
Email: janine@bccroppingcoalition.com
Catherine Eiswerth
Email: catherine@bccroppingcoalition.com
Sheila Verhulst
Email: sheila@bccroppingcoalition.com