There are 30 remaining belugas at Marineland park in Niagara Falls, Ont., which has not opened to the public since the end of summer in 2024.Chris Young/The Canadian Press

Angela Fernandez is a professor of law and history and the director of the Animal Law Program at the Jackman Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto.

Both the Ontario government and the now-shuttered Marineland park in Niagara Falls, Ont., are pointing fingers at Ottawa for denying permits to export Marineland’s 30 belugas to the Chimelong Ocean Kingdom in China. Marineland is claiming there are no other options for the whales, and last week – to the shock and horror of many – threatened to kill them unless the federal government provided funding for their upkeep.

The federal government rightly said no to this........

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