{"id":149438,"date":"2026-07-30T10:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T10:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/149438\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T10:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T10:41:08","slug":"aeroports-de-montreal-charged-with-violating-birds-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/149438\/","title":{"rendered":"A\u00e9roports de Montr\u00e9al charged with violating birds act"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\u00e9roports de Montr\u00e9al has been charged with violating federal migratory bird regulations and faces up to a $4-million fine in connection with an alleged incident that occurred more than four years ago.<\/p>\n

The Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC) alleges \u201cthe Montreal airport cut back tall grass, thickets and shrubs in an area where migratory bird nests were located\u201d in June 2022. ADM is denying the allegations and says it has not broken any law.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to our case-management system, this case violating the migratory birds act against the Montreal airport is a first,\u201d a PPSC spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday to The Gazette.<\/p>\n

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) \u2014 which is responsible for the administration of federal migratory bird regulations \u2014 confirmed its \u201cenforcement officials laid a charge\u201d against ADM in December 2025 for what it described as \u201ca violation of the Migratory Birds Regulations, 2022, under the (Migratory Birds Convention Act).\u201d<\/p>\n

ADM is alleged to have \u201cdamaged, destroyed or disturbed a migratory bird nest\u201d in violation of the 2022 regulations, according to the official summons. The notice also states the airport authority thereby allegedly committed a summary offence under the Migratory Birds Convention Act. The fine for a first offence ranges from $100,000 to $4 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe charge has been laid in court and has not yet been proven,\u201d the ECCC said in a statement. <\/p>\n

\u201cUnder Canadian law, any accused person, company or corporation is presumed innocent until proven guilty. ECCC will make no further comment at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the ECCC declined to provide more details about the alleged crime that prompted legal action and referred The Gazette to the Montreal courthouse.<\/p>\n

Airport authority says it \u2018has not violated any law\u2019<\/p>\n

ADM confirmed the PPSC filed a summons against the airport authority over an \u201calleged event\u201d that occurred in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur organization denies the allegations and intends to defend itself to demonstrate that it has not violated any law,\u201d ADM said in a statement to The Gazette.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the case is under legal proceedings, no further comments can be made regarding this case, other than to state that ADM has always conducted its site maintenance activities in full compliance with all applicable regulations, including the Migratory Birds Regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked why the charge was filed last December \u2014 more than three years after the alleged incident took place \u2014 a spokesperson for the PPSC said Wednesday that since the lead prosecutor handling the case is currently away, they \u201ccannot verify at this time why the charges were filed\u201d late last year.<\/p>\n

\"Freshly-mowedA section of the freshly mowed Monarch Fields on A\u00e9roports de Montr\u00e9al land in Dorval is shown on July 4, 2022. John Mahoney \/ Montreal Gazette<\/p>\n

ADM has been criticized by environmental groups for razing a meadow last year<\/a> \u2014 the airport authority said a contractor was responsible \u2014 and mowing the so-called Monarch Fields<\/a> northwest of Trudeau airport in 2022. It\u2019s not clear if the current legal proceedings are linked to the Monarch Fields incident.<\/p>\n

The initial hearing in the case took place on Feb. 23, according to the PPSC. The next court date is set for October.<\/p>\n

klaframboise@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s Picks\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A\u00e9roports de Montr\u00e9al has been charged with violating federal migratory bird regulations and faces up to a $4-million…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[716,1113,50,10481],"class_list":["post-149438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-crime-and-law","tag-environment-canada","tag-montreal","tag-montreal-pierre-elliott-trudeau-airport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}