High Court Refuses Canada Goose’s Bid to Restrict Protesters at London Store

For Immediate Release:

6 November 2019

Contact:

Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327, ext 222; [email protected]

HIGH COURT REFUSES CANADA GOOSE’S BID TO RESTRICT PROTESTERS AT LONDON STORE

Effort to Block Activists From Protesting Fur and Down Sales Falls Flat

London – From its opening in 2017, Canada Goose’s European flagship store in London has been a focus of demonstrations. In an attempt to quash the right of activists, including PETA’s, to protest outside the Regent Street premises, the company obtained an interim injunction against “persons unknown” – defined as anyone protesting against the sale of clothing containing animal-derived materials, including fur and feathers, at the store – in December 2017, which restricted the number of protestors outside the store to 12. In early 2019, the company sought a summary judgment to make the interim injunction a final order. However, now, in a major blow to Canada Goose, the High Court has refused the company’s application for summary judgment and, pending an appeal, discharged the existing interim injunction.

The court found that an individual’s right to protest is a deeply embedded legal right, and the judge refused to restrict it when the court could not be satisfied that the protesters had committed a civil wrong. The judge considered that the definition of “persons unknown” in this case did not capture a homogeneous class of persons and, importantly, pointed out that there was nothing in the definition of “protester” which assumes wrong-doing. Therefore, “the restrictions placed on demonstrations in the injunction are neither necessary nor proportionate”.

“The fact that Canada Goose tried to take such drastic and erroneous measures to silence legitimate protests shows that we’re winning,” says PETA Director Elisa Allen. “If the company wants to stop protests, it can join the vast majority of the fashion industry and the British public in ditching cruelly obtained fur and embracing warm, stylish, and modern vegan materials.”

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – has led eye-catching protests against Canada Goose around the world. Coyotes trapped for Canada Goose’s fur trim can legally suffer with a broken leg, lacerations, or haemorrhages for up to 72 hours before trappers return – and this practice is consistent with the company’s trapping standards.

PETA points out that trapped coyote mothers desperate to get back to their starving pups have tried to chew off their own legs to escape, and many trapped animals succumb to the elements, blood loss, infection, or attacks by predators before trappers return to kill them. Ducks and geese used for down are shipped in all weather extremes to abattoirs, where their throats are cut and their bodies dunked into defeathering tanks.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk. Photos of PETA protests outside Canada Goose’s London store can be found

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