‘Say neigh to live horse export’: Why Jann Arden is busking in Vancouver this week
A Canadian icon is busking on the streets of Vancouver to protest live horse exports from Canada to foreign countries.
Musician, actor, author and activist Jann Arden launched her musical awareness campaign on Sunday with a pop-up performance at Lonsdale Quay in North Vancouver, and plans to continue in the downtown core on Monday, according to her social media posts.
“I want to thank everyone in North Vancouver for coming to hear me busking down at the Quay,” Arden wrote on Twitter Monday.
Her efforts on the North Shore managed to raise more than $400 for the campaign “Horsesh*t.”
The goal, according to initiative’s website, is to “end legislation allowing Canada to export live horses under conditions of duress for human consumption.”
In December 2021, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a mandate to ban this practice to the agriculture minister, which has yet to be fulfilled.
The latest data by Statistics Canada suggests more than 2,000 horses have been shipped from Canada to Japan, where raw horse meat is a delicacy, since 2021.
That same year, Toronto MP Nathanial Erskine-Smith and Arden launched a petition calling for the end of live horse exports, which amassed 36,715 signatures by the time it closed this past February.
“Horses have shaped this country. They have carried us on their backs and plowed our fields. Like dogs and cats, they are our companions. We don’t need to treat them this way,” Arden wrote on her campaign’s website.
She says many of the horses that are exported out of Canada die before reaching the location where their destined to be slaughtered, after being crammed into wooden crates and deprived of food and water for up to 28 hours.
Arden plans to campaign in Vancouver until June 7.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'Anything to win': Trudeau says as Poilievre defends meeting protesters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
'My stomach dropped': Winnipeg man speaks out after being criminally harassed following single online date
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
'One of the single most terrifying things ever': Ontario couple among passengers on sinking tour boat in Dominican Republic
A Toronto couple are speaking out about their 'extremely dangerous' experience on board a sinking tour boat in the Dominican Republic last week.
7 surveillance videos linked to extortions of South Asian home builders in Edmonton released
The Edmonton Police Service has released a number of surveillance videos related to a series of extortion cases in the city now dubbed 'Project Gaslight.'
Ukraine uses long-range missiles secretly provided by U.S. to hit Russian-held areas, officials say
Ukraine for the first time has begun using long-range ballistic missiles provided secretly by the United States, bombing a Russian military airfield in Crimea last week and Russian forces in another occupied area overnight, American officials said Wednesday.
Pilot reported fire onboard plane carrying fuel, attempted to return to Fairbanks just before crash
One of the two pilots aboard an airplane carrying fuel reported there was a fire on the airplane shortly before it crashed and burned outside Fairbanks, killing both people on board, a federal aviation official said Wednesday.
Manitoba government tables bill to end ban on homegrown recreational cannabis
Manitoba is planning to lift its ban on the home growing of recreational cannabis.
All Alberta wildfires to date in 2024 believed to be human-caused: province
There are 63 wildfires burning in Alberta's forest protection area as of Wednesday morning and seven mutual aid fires, including one in the Municipal District of Peace.