PETA Should be Labelled Terrorist Group, Says MP

A Liberal Member of Parliament from Canada's Newfoundland and Labrador is calling for Ottawa to examine if People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) should be labeled as a terrorist group in light of a recent pie attack on a federal minister.

Gerry Byrne, MP for Humber-St. Barbe-Baie Verte, made his comments this week after a PETA activist hurled a tofu cream pie into the face of Federal Fisheries Minister Gail Shea at a public event on Monday. Shea was speaking in support of the Canadian seal hunt, which takes place mainly in Newfoundland, and which PETA opposes on the grounds of its supposed cruelty. "There has to be a review whether or not PETA has crossed the line now by attacking a federal minister of the Crown for the purpose of public intimidation of an office-holder," Byrne told the CBC. Byrne said Ottawa should use Monday's action as a test-case to determine whether PETA constitutes a terrorist organisation, which is defined under the Criminal Code as any group that disrupts lawful activities to commit an act for political, religious or ideological purposes and that causes the public to be intimidated, according to the CBC. "It would be illegal to make funds, to contribute funds, to what is termed a terrorist organization," Byrne said. "It would also severely restrict the movements between borders, between Canada and the U.S., of PETA members, especially their executive, and it would cause a matter of surveillance to occur of PETA members who would be labelled as members of a terrorist organization." According to Treehugger.com, the USDA has already classified PETA as a terrorist threat. In related news, the Guardian reported this week that the British Ministry of Justice has added environmental activists to its list of "domestic extremists" in internal documents.