By Sean Willett
Last week, the City of Calgary voted 13–2 in favour of banning shark fin soup from being served within city limits. The new law will take effect in October 2012. This decision followed a quick debate in city council, not even offering affected Calgary residents and business owners time to hold town hall meetings to discuss the issue. In essence, the council members voted on behalf of their constituents without their constituents’ approval.
The shark fin issue was brought to the busy-body council after a petition to ban the product reached city hall. It’s unlikely that there would be much to debate regarding this inhumane and unsustainable food product. However, council members should have waited to discuss the issue with their constituents before deciding a dictatorial, outright ban of what citizens can eat and what restaurant owners can serve. Cutting the fins off live sharks is a terrible practice, but a municipal decision banning the sale of shark fin soup is a government intervention gone too far.
City of Calgary officials should not be worried about what restaurants serve or what patrons order. There are far more important issues for these officials to debate (see southeast LRT line, taxes, budgets, etc.). Burdening an already strained police service with shark fin soup raids and crack downs on restaurant ingredients is redundant and does not serve the immediate interests of the majority of Calgarians. Most citizens would prefer affirmative action to ease their morning commute rather than banning unsustainable food.
Shark fin soup is most commonly served at traditional Chinese weddings. The practice is dying out due to environmentalist efforts, and most weddings only continue to offer it to appease older generations. Still, our municipal government took it upon themselves to intervene in the private lives of a portion of its citizens and waste tax dollars and effort to support this law. Social conventions are subverting the purchasing of this product, so why was government intervention even needed?
There are only four restaurants in Calgary offering shark fin soup on the menu. If the ban was put in effect in Vancouver or Halifax, where seafood dishes are more common, perhaps this decision would make more of an impact. But in landlocked Calgary, there are more important and less invasive decisions on council’s radar that need attention.