E-7020: Petition to the Minister of the Environment, Climate Change and Nature — Canadian Petition Tracker
Track petition E-7020 — "Petition to the Minister of the Environment, Climate Change and Nature" sponsored by Mel Arnold. 5,241 signatures and counting. See signature growth trends and provincial breakdown on PetitionTracker.ca.
Canonical URL: https://petitiontracker.ca/petition/e-7020
Petition Details
- Status: Closed
- Closing date: April 28, 2026
- Sponsor: Mel Arnold (Kamloops—Shuswap—Central Rockies)
- Category: Environment
Signature Statistics
- Total signatures: 5,241
- Daily increase: +37 in the last 24 hours
- Seven-day increase: +225 over the last 7 days
- Growth velocity: ~32 new signatures per day (7-day average)
- Tracking started: March 25, 2026 — 341 data points recorded
Provincial Distribution
- Ontario: 2,164 signatures
- British Columbia: 1,349 signatures
- Quebec: 701 signatures
- Alberta: 470 signatures
- Manitoba: 210 signatures
- Nova Scotia: 98 signatures
- New Brunswick: 67 signatures
- Saskatchewan: 67 signatures
- Newfoundland and Labrador: 23 signatures
- Prince Edward Island: 14 signatures
- Yukon: 9 signatures
- Northwest Territories: 3 signatures
- Nunavut: 1 signatures
Historical Signature Growth
| Date | Signatures |
|---|
| March 25, 2026 | 2,897 |
| March 25, 2026 | 3,008 |
| March 27, 2026 | 3,054 |
| March 30, 2026 | 3,084 |
| April 5, 2026 | 3,148 |
| April 8, 2026 | 3,192 |
| April 10, 2026 | 4,078 |
| April 11, 2026 | 4,282 |
| April 12, 2026 | 4,354 |
| April 13, 2026 | 4,431 |
| April 15, 2026 | 4,476 |
| April 17, 2026 | 4,777 |
| April 26, 2026 | 5,196 |
| April 28, 2026 | 5,241 |
Petition Text
Petition to the Minister of the Environment, Climate Change and Nature
Whereas:
• Long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis), the most heavily traded primate for experimentation, were uplisted to “Endangered” by the IUCN in 2022, a status reaffirmed in October 2025;
• Cambodia is Canada’s primary source of imported long-tailed macaques;
• A five-year U.S. federal investigation found Cambodia’s supply chain laundered wild-caught macaques as captive-bred;
• Despite this and the species’ endangered status, Canada allowed the import of over 10,000 macaques from Cambodia between 2023 and 2025;
• Trafficking has continued, with Thai authorities uncovering ongoing smuggling of wild macaques destined for Cambodia in November 2025;
• Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) stated in response to e-petition e-6537 that it has “not seen evidence” of falsified Cambodian permits, yet appears to have conducted no independent verification;
• ECCC has authority to investigate wildlife-trade violations and verify permit authenticity;
• Listing the species in Schedule II of Wild Animal and Plant Trade Regulations (WAPTR) would require domestic import permits, enabling legality and traceability checks—an approach ECCC used in restricting salamander imports in 2017/2018; and
• Canada has a responsibility to apply the precautionary principle to avoid enabling illegal trade or contributing to the decline of an endangered species.
We, the undersigned, citizens and residents of Canada call upon the Minister of the Environment, Climate Change and Nature to:
1. Launch an investigation into the legality, traceability, and authenticity of CITES permits used for the import of Cambodian long-tailed macaques into Canada under the Wild Animal and Plant Protection and Regulation of International and Interprovincial Trade Act; and
2. Add long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) to Schedule II of WAPTR to enable the Ministry to require and assess its own import permits.
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