Passed into law in 2019, the Act bans the capture and keeping in captivity of cetaceans (the biological taxon comprising whales, dolphins, and porpoises).
[1] The Canada's Accredited Zoos and Aquariums (CAZA) association issued an open letter asking the Senators to reject the bill.
[2] The Vancouver Aquarium opposed the bill on the grounds it would impede their research and not allow them to put on display any animals under rescue or it felt were not releasable to the wild.
Burns appeared at a House Fisheries Committee meeting in March 2019, to propose an amendment regarding future beluga births at Marineland, claiming the new law is unconstitutional.
In the opinion of Sinclair and May, Burns was only intending to delay the bill, so that it could not be passed before the end of the current session of the Parliament of Canada.
[8] Faced with a backlog of bills prior to the conclusion of the session of Parliament before the 2019 election, the Trudeau government extended the hours that the Commons would sit.
Additionally, section 58.3 of that Act operates as a grandfather clause to the prohibition against breeding (and possessing reproductive materials), in respect of a cetacean that is gestating on the day the legislation entered into force.
The Canadian branch of Humane Society International called the Act a "landmark victory" and "a watershed moment in the protection of marine animals".