Canadian Olympian - Fur Trapper's Daughter
Megan Imrie tells the story of her biggest influence - the person who shaped, motivated, supported and helped her along his path to the 2010 Olympics.
[ Watch the Video ]
Management And International Trade Of Polar Bear From Canada
Convention On International Trade In Endangered Species Of Wild Fauna And Flora
The intent of this document is to provide CITES Parties with the current facts on international trade of polar bear from Canada:
[ View PDF Document ]
Countries Urged to Reject U.S. Ban on Polar Bear Trade
Signatories to endangered species convention to vote on proposal in March
A U.S. proposal to ban the international trade of polar bear products should be rejected, according to the secretariat of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
The secretariat is recommending that the 175 countries that have signed CITES vote against the U.S. proposal, which calls for polar bears to be reclassified as a species threatened with extinction.
If the polar bear is reclassified under CITES, it would effectively ban all commercial sale of products derived from the animals, such as hides.
"There has to be a marked decrease in the population, and we don't believe that the evidence is compelling in that regard," Stephen Nash, the secretariat's chair of capacity building, told CBC News Thursday from Geneva.
[ Read More ]
POLAR BEARS
"In Canada, the management responsibility for the establishment and allocation of harvest quotas for polar bear lies with the provincial and territorial governments. Canada's quota system is robust and designed to be reactive to the full suite of threats to polar bear. For the most part, actions have been taken to ensure the harvest within all Canadian polar bear subpopulations is sustainable, taking into account current information on subpopulation status. However, the best available scientific information indicates that the Baffin Bay subpopulation is declining and the current harvest quota is too high. As such, Canada has determined that international export of polar bear is considered non-detrimental with no export of polar bear taken from the Baffin Bay."
[ Read More ]
The Fur Council of Canada supports the
Universal Declaration of the Ethical Harvest of Seals
[www.sealsonline.org]
PRESS RELEASE: From the Honourable Céline Hervieux-Payette, PC Senator
OTTAWA, the 21st of January 2010 – “The Universal Declaration on the Ethical Harvest of Seals is gaining in popularity and I am delighted that the Fur Council of Canada is supporting this declaration along with the Canadian fur industry”, said Senator Céline Hervieux-Payette. The Fur Council of Canada is a national, non-profit federation representing people working in every sector of the Canadian fur trade. This includes fur producers, auction houses, processors, designers, craftspeople and retail furriers.
“The Universal Declaration on the Ethical Harvest of Seals which you have sponsored is therefore an extremely important initiative, and the Fur Council of Canada is pleased to support it” wrote Alan Herscovici, the Executive Vice-President, on behalf of the Board of Directors. “We look forward to working with you and your team to promote better public understanding and appreciation of this remarkable Canadian heritage industry”, he added.
The Fur Council of Canada has recently launched a massive campaign to raise awareness about fur as a natural resource that is both recyclable and sustainable. (www.furisgreen.com) “The support of the Fur Council of Canada to the principles outlined in the Universal Declaration is great news: this demonstrates that the industry along with scientists and governments in our country care deeply about animal welfare along with that of human communities and ecosystems” concluded Senator Hervieux-Payette.
The Declaration has also received the support of the governments of Newfoundland and Labrador and Québec along with the international organization for animal conservation IWMC World Conservation Trust based in Switzerland.
Senator Céline Hervieux-Payette urges all governments and concerned organizations to promote and study the application of the Universal Declaration on the Ethical Harvest of Seals written by a panel of experts (www.sealsonline.org).
Maximilien Depontailler
Policy Advisor
Office of the Honourable Céline Hervieux-Payette, P.C.
613-947-8008 – deponm@sen.parl.gc.ca
(French version available)
They Eat Horses In Europe, Don't They?
PUBLICATION: The Chronicle-Herald
DATE: 2010.01.19
SECTION: Opinion
PAGE: A7
BYLINE: Paul Schneidereit
I WONDER how much time the average European spends thinking about how the delicious horse meat on the plate before them came to be there.
I admit, I am only assuming horse meat is delicious. I have never had any. Horse meat is not exactly a common item on the menu, or in supermarkets, in these parts.
In Europe, however, where public concern over the welfare of seals off Canada's east coast has led to a EU-wide ban on the sale of imported seal products, horse meat is quite popular in many countries, including Belgium, France, Germany, Austria, Holland, Poland, Sweden … well, you get the picture.
Italy alone slaughters more than 200,000 horses a year for human consumption.
How are the horses killed? Well, since this is the EU, where horror over the methods of the Canadian seal hunter led to a ban to stop that "cruelty," surely the butchery is humane.
The graphic answer, according to online sources, is that the horses are stunned by a captive bolt gun - a device which smashes the animal's head, sometimes more than once, to render it unconscious - then hoisted upside down to have their jugulars cut so they bleed to death.
In comparison, Canadian seal hunters, usually with a rifle but at times with a club or hakapik, strike the sea animal's head to render the seal unconscious, then cut arteries near the front flippers so they bleed to death.
If the two methods sound similar, it's because they are. Yet one is labelled inhumane.
Hypocrisy knows no borders, of course, but the Europeans are masters of the game. They are fine with force-feeding ducks and geese to produce tasty foie gras from their fattened livers, produce most animal skins - from some 6,000 fur farms - sold in the world fur market, and, as seen, slaughter vast numbers of horses every year for humans to eat, and yet still react with outrage, some of it politically-calculated, at the deaths of abundant seals.
Well, the Inuit are calling them on it.
[ Read More ]
Canada To Sign Polar Bear Protection Treaty
By Mike De Souza, Canwest News Service
OTTAWA — Canada will sign a new agreement on Friday with the governments of Greenland and Nunavut to protect polar-bear populations in their overlapping regions.
Environment Minister Jim Prentice is travelling to Greenland for the day to participate in the signing ceremony, the government said in an advisory released Thursday.
Conservation groups have said they expect the agreement to be similar to other bilateral deals, such as one signed last year between Canada and the U.S., as well as a separate agreement between Alaska and Russia.
"That shared population (between Canada and Greenland) is probably the most endangered population of polar bears in the Arctic," said Craig Stewart, director of the Arctic program at WWF-Canada. "This agreement would provide the structure between the two countries to collaborate on stabilizing it."
Previous bilateral agreements have set a framework for collaboration on scientific research and monitoring of population levels, and could also include specific provisions to address or restrict hunting.
"This is sort of the missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle," said Stewart.
[ Read More ]
Inuit Groups Launch Lawsuit Over EU Seal Ban
"It is important for Inuit across the Davis Strait to unite and fight."
www.NunatsiaqOnline.ca
CHRIS WINDEYER
Groups representing Inuit in Canada and Greenland filed a lawsuit Wednesday that seeks to overturn the European Union’s ban on importing seal products.
Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and the Inuit Circumpolar Council (Greenland) filed the suit in the European Union’s General Court.
“It is important for Inuit across the Davis Strait to unite and fight this unethical legislation,” said Aqqaluk Lynge, president of ICC (Greenland) in a news release.
“On top of the climate change issue, we must contend with animal rights extremists who fundamentally do not respect our way of life, and who use disinformation to further their cause at our expense.”
ITK president Mary Simon said the European ban smacks of racism and hypocracy.
“It is bitterly ironic that the EU, which seems entirely at home with promoting massive levels of agri-business and the raising and slaughtering of animals in highly industrialized conditions, seeks to preach some kind of selective elevated morality to Inuit,” she said.
The ban passed overwhelmingly in the European Parliament this past May, despite the opposition of a handful of conservative politicians, including Peter Stasny, the former Quebec Nordique hockey player.
While the bill contained an exemption for seals hunted by Inuit, but Canada has rejected that clause because the ban still dried up demand for seal pelts and caused prices to plummet.
“The EU has demonstrated more interest in keeping non-Inuit out of the market than finding ways of including Inuit,” said Duane Smith, president of ICC (Canada). “As such, it is hard to support such an unclear, flawed, and unfair regulation. They left us with no alternative but to sue.”
The federal government is already challenging the ban at the World Trade Organization, a move ITK supports.
The lawsuit also comes as Gail Shea, the federal fisheries minister, is in China, in part to drum up interest for Canadian seal products.
With a market of 1.3 billion people and little in the way of an animal rights movement, the world’s most populous country is seen as a possible saviour for the Canadian seal trade.
A federal news release calls China the world’s largest consumer of fish and seafood.
“Sealing is about more than fur,” Shea said in the release. “The trade of other seal products such as oils and meat represents a growing share of what is already a multi-million dollar business.”
Please read and contribute to the comments on the source page.
SEALSKIN BAN: Nunavut "Keep on Going"
MONTREAL (November 11, 2009)
Nunavut Premier Eva Aariak says she felt proud when she watched her daughter Karliin and classmates collect awards this week at the Montreal fur show for their original sealskin fashion designs. But apprehension was mixed with this pride. That´s because, even as the model strutted down the runway ... [READ MORE about the Sealskin Ban]
Opinion Polls Suggest Canadian Public Support For Governor General’s Praise Of Seal Meat, While Casting Doubt On Claims Of Animal Rights Groups (June 5, 2009)
OTTAWA – According to the Seals and Sealing Network (SSN), a stakeholder group operating under the Fur Institute of Canada (FIC) that monitors public media about seal hunting, Governor General Michaëlle Jean’s recent public tasting of seal meat in Rankin Inlet resonated well to further Canadian public understanding of sealing.
The SSN looked at six online opinion polls regarding the GG's actions. Questions asked ranged from those seeking reactions to Jean's participation in the Inuit ceremony, to those seeking a broader response to Canadian sealing. “The majority of support was sympathetic to seal hunting, both Inuit and non-Inuit, consistently gaining between two-thirds and three-quarters of the votes,” says Rob Cahill, Executive Director of the FIC. “Clearly, public opinion on this issue is not representative of ‘an overwhelming majority of Canadians against seal hunting’, as many animalist propaganda groups have been known to claim.”
Cahill commends the Governor General for the significance of her public display of cultural acceptance. “In our experience, the anti-sealing movement tends to exploit attitudes of intolerance towards culturally distinct communities, but Ms. Jean’s simple gesture does a considerable amount to bring the world of rural, coastal and northern living into the homes of urban Canada.”
Meanwhile, with a European Union ban on trade in commercial seal products set to be passed into law in the coming months, the SSN is happy to have the Governor General’s help in highlighting true Inuit concerns over the action. “Early on in their lobby against commercial seal products, animal-rights groups exploited political sympathies for indigenous cultures by favouring a so-called Inuit exemption to a trade ban.” According to the FIC, this allowed Members of the European Parliament to avoid political fallout for their actions, while quietly creating a double standard based on culture, not practice.
Yet, recent attention paid to the North proves that Inuit concerns over the irrelevance of EU exemption have been largely ignored, if not simply dwarfed by the divisive rhetoric of the anti-sealing lobby. “The way Inuit have been attacked over the Governor General’s participation in their ceremony really shows the true face of the anti-sealing lobby,” notes Cahill.
The Seal Showdown Begins As MPs Vote To
Promote
Hunt's Spoils At The Games (May 7, 2009)
Canadian Olympic team refuses to protest seal ban
By Rod Mickleburgh, The Globe and Mail
570 News
Clubbing seals on ice floes is not a Winter Olympics sport, but Canadian parliamentarians have nonetheless voted to spit in the eye of their European counterparts by asking for seal products from the controversial annual hunt to be included on the uniforms of this country's athletes at the 2010 Games here.
A motion to use the Games to promote seal products passed unanimously in the House of Commons yesterday, as MPs responded to this week's lopsided vote by the European Parliament to ban the import of seal products.
In particular, the motion put forward by Bloc Québécois member Raynald Blais, who represents the Magdalen Islands where many residents participate in the hunt, calls for seal skin to be part of the official uniforms worn by Canada's Olympians.
"I would imagine the Olympic clothing is all designed and probably made by now,'' Shea said.
"But I think it's a good symbolic suggestion - to add something to the outfit of our athletes. I think it would be a good statement for the Canadian sealing industry, and Canada's support of it.''
The proposal was quickly shot down by the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC), which reminded MPs that the Olympics are not to be used as a platform for special causes. Besides, Canada's official uniforms for the Olympics have already been designed, approved by the International Olympic Committee and are currently in production, their look and style a closely guarded secret.
But one of the hunt's most implacable foes, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), welcomed the MPs' motion with open arms.
"We feel it's perfect because it shows how completely out of touch the Canadian government is with the rest of the world," said PETA spokeswoman Kristie Phelps. "It would be extremely appropriate for Canada's Olympic uniform to wear the country's heartlessness right on its sleeve."
PETA, meanwhile, is planning its own use of the Winter Games as a staging ground, vowing to protest the bloody harvest of seals at every stop along the cross-country Olympic torch relay.
"All eyes are on Canada as they prepare to host the Olympics, and we hope to use this extra attention to put an end to the slaughter," Ms. Phelps said.
"Canada is not popular around the world because of it, and we are going to make the country and the Olympics a target."
COC boss Chris Rudge said he wasn't surprised by the House of Commons motion to promote seal products at the 2010 Olympics.
Trying to co-opt the Games for social and political purposes has a long history, he said, but the Olympic Charter prohibits national committees from speaking out on such issues during the Olympics.
"If we agreed [to the motion], we would be in violation of that rule, and we won't be doing that," he said. "We will not be putting skin or other seal products on our uniforms."
Rudge said that over the coming year he expects to field a variety of requests similar to the one made Wednesday, and said his answer won't change.
"Oh, certainly there will be many - there's no doubt about it. That goes with the turf,'' Rudge said.
"People are concerned about these, and they're important things to be concerned about. I'm certainly not diminishing them. But we couldn't begin to speak out about them, even if it was appropriate. There are many things in society that are worthy of social engagement.''
Canada's seal hunt has long been unpopular in Europe. Photos and videos of young seals being clubbed and skinned on the blood-spattered ice are a staple of the ongoing campaign there to end the annual harvest, the largest of its kind in the world. Russia recently halted its killing of harp seals, after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called the hunt a "bloody industry."
The EU ban, if approved as expected by member countries, would apply to all seal products and processed goods, including skins for fur coats, meat, oil blubber, organs and Omega 3 pills.
Canada has strongly condemned the move, arguing that the seal hunt is humane and poses no danger to the seal population. The federal government says it intends to challenge the restriction at the World Trade Organization.
Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe said the Canadian government was outmanoeuvred on the public-relations front and that it should have been more aggressive defending the seal hunt.
Duceppe singled out one country that had no business lecturing Canada on animal rights: Spain, where provoking fights with bulls and then repeatedly stabbing them to death in front of cheering spectators is considered a national sport.
"I find it completely abnormal to see protests (against the seal hunt) in Spain - the country that holds the bullfights,'' Duceppe said.
"We need a campaign. Our adversaries conducted one heck of a campaign, and Canada did not conduct a major one on the promotional level. ...
"The Olympics aren't a trivial thing. We could use this event to shed light on this, but we need to use other events, too.''
Duceppe shot back at one questioner who asked whether Olympic athletes might bristle at the idea of being forced to wear animal pelts to make a political statement.
"I don't know what my shoes are made of - but if they're not made out of plastic, they're not made out of straw, they come from an animal.''
With files from The Canadian Press
EU Passes Ban on Seal Products (May 5, 2009)
European Union Take Aim At Canada, Bans Seal Products
By Constant Brand, Associated Press
STRASBOURG, France -- The European Parliament voted to ban imports of seal products today, trying to force Canada to end its annual seal hunt, which animal rights groups have criticized as barbaric.
The EU assembly overwhelmingly endorsed a bill that said commercial seal hunting, notably in Canada, is "inherently inhumane." The bill still needs the backing of EU governments, but officials called that a formality since national envoys already had endorsed the bill.
Canada's East Coast seal hunt is the largest of its kind in the world, killing an average of 300,000 harp seals annually. Canada exported around $5.5 million U.S. dollars worth of seal products such as pelts, meat and oils to the EU in 2006.
The lawmakers faced heavy lobbying from both animal rights groups and authorities from Canada and Greenland. Curbing the hunt of seals in Canada has been the focus of the bill because of the size of its annual cull and the way seals are killed.
The bill is expected to become law in a matter of weeks.
EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas welcomed the vote and said it addressed "EU citizens' concerns with regard to the cruel hunting methods of seals."
Still, today's vote is sure to pose problems in EU-Canada ties and comes on the eve of a key summit between the two in Prague where they are supposed to launch negotiations on a wide-ranging free trade pact.
Canada and Norway already had warned they would take the 27-nation bloc to the World Trade Organization if it moved to ban seal product imports.
The EU ban will apply to all products and processed goods derived from seals including their skins, which are used to make fur coats, meat, oil blubber, organs and even omega 3 pills.
Animal rights groups believe the hunt is cruel, poorly monitored and provides little economic benefit once costs associated with policing and supporting the hunt are factored in. However, sealers and Canadian authorities say it is sustainable, humane and provides income for isolated fishing communities.
The new EU rule will offer narrow exemptions to Inuit communities from Canada and Greenland and elsewhere to continue their traditional hunts but bars them from large-scale trading of their pelts and other seal goods in Europe.
Another exemption will permit noncommercial, "small-scale" hunts to manage seal populations, but seal products from those hunts will not be allowed to enter the EU.
Inuit groups say such restrictions will spell disaster for their communities, which rely heavily on seal hunts for jobs and income.
The ban "is definitely going to impact the lives of the Inuit in the very near future," Joshua Kango, head of the Iqaluit, Nunavut-based Amarok hunters and trappers association, told The Associated Press. "We don't have any other way to survive economically."
Kango and a group of Newfoundland sealers were in Strasbourg in a last-ditch attempt to thwart a ban.
Arlene McCarthy, who chairs the European Parliament's internal market and consumer protection committee, said Canada and others cannot ignore the fact that a majority of Europeans are against the hunt and wanted it banned.
For EU lawmakers, she said, those concerns took precedence over the wishes of sealers, fishermen and Inuit groups.
"While we of course have sympathy for those particular groups of people, the reality is that we sit here in the European Parliament and that millions of our citizens would like us to do the right thing and ban the cruel trade," she said. "They do not want to buy these products."
Seals are also hunted in Norway, Namibia, Sweden, Finland, Britain and Russia.
Fur is Green
Read Fur is Green to see why the sustainable use of wildlife is supported by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and other environmental authorities.
Seal Hunt and Efforts to Fight Illegal Fishing Dominate NAFMC Meeting
MAY 29, 2008
Ottawa, ON – The Honourable Loyola Hearn, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, today issued the following statement after the conclusion of the 13th North Atlantic Fisheries Ministers Conference (NAFMC) held in Malta.
"Last week’s NAFMC was another opportunity for Canada to successfully advance its interests on the world stage, while playing a leadership role within the international community. "
"A hot topic of discussion was the proposed European Union ban on seal products. Canada’s view continues to be that this action is motivated by inaccurate information fuelled by radical anti-sealing organizations. I voiced Canadian concerns directly to my European counterparts, and was pleased to have had very vocal support from Norway, Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland and the Russian Federation. "
"Our government continues to call upon European Union countries to consider their action carefully. If extreme animal rights groups are seen to be successful, Europeans should be prepared for these groups to make their next target industries within Europe. Their vote will give credibility to organizations that are seeking to shut down all forms of animal harvesting. Canada is supportive of wild hunts that are humane, regulated and responsible."
"The Ministers also discussed at length ways to get even tougher on those who engage in illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing."
"Last year saw serious infractions in the NAFO Regulatory Area at a historic low thanks to tough new rules brought in under our government. This success has continued in 2008, with inspections not detecting any serious infractions thus far this year."
"We agreed to work together to strengthen existing rules, while determining what stronger actions can be taken by flag and port states to punish vessels and crews that choose to ignore the rules."
"Our government has made the fight against overfishing a priority, and I am heartened to work with a group of Ministers who share Canada’s commitment to bring an end to illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing activities."
Habitat Protection - Saving Critical Habitats
Please read our article on Habitat Protection.
Statement by the Honourable Stéphane Dion,
Leader of the Official Opposition, on the Seal Hunt
April 18, 2008
On behalf of the Liberal Party of Canada and our Parliamentary caucus, I would like to take this opportunity to reaffirm our support for a sustainable seal hunt.
Canada’s sealing industry is tightly regulated to be sustainable, humane and commercially viable and to protect the traditional way of life for people in Canada’s coastal communities. It is a time-honoured tradition and an important industry for thousands of Canadians throughout the North, Atlantic Canada and Quebec. Seals have been harvested for food, fuel, shelter and other materials for hundreds of years. The subsistence hunt is a valuable link to Canadian cultural heritage.
Under a Liberal Government the seal harvest was always and will continue to be supported as a responsible practice. I wish all sealers currently out at harvest a safe passage.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper
Defends Canada's Annual Seal Hunt
In New York on September 25, 2007, Prime Minister Stephen Harper defended the annual seal hunt, saying it is "dedicated today to humane and regulated practices."
"The seal population is exploding in Canada - it's not an endangered species by any means," he said after a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations.
Mr. Harper called the hunt "a small industry of animal husbandry."
"There is no reason to discriminate against it any more than any other industry of animal husbandry," he said. "We will not be bullied or blackmailed into forcing people out of that industry who depend on the livelihood based on things that are simply on stories and on allegations that are simply not true."
For more information visit: Commission throws out complaint against seal hunt from The Globe and Mail
Prime Minister Stephen Harper went onto say that "Canada has not harvested Baby seal pups for 20 years."
FurCanada recognises that many animal rights groups use pictures of white seal pups for their own propaganda use, which implies that Canada still harvests them. This is simply not true.
CANADIAN WILDLIFE UPDATE - September 2007
We at Furcanada take wildlife sustainability very seriously. As conservationists, environmentalists, sportsman, and outdoor enthusiast we cherish the abundance of wildlife in our country and worldwide. We make business and environmental decisions based upon sound Canadian wildlife biologists' studies on wildlife management. We do not make business or environmental decisions based upon hysterical emotional reactions.
If we feel that one species is being singled out and over harvested, we would be the first ones to drop the product line from our list of species. Polar Bears are one item that we are watching very closely. We understand that their population is under considerable scrutiny. Currently the population numbers are on the increase in Canada. However, Polar Bear populations may be decreasing in other Polar Arctic Regions such as Russia, Norway and Greenland. Polar Bears are regulated by an International Agreement called CITES. If CITES decides to upgrade the level of protection from Appendix II to Appendix I we would re-evaluate its status in our product line. Nobody wants to see the Polar Bear population decimated. But at the same time, Canada should not be the only country to take full responsibility for Species protection.
Global Warming is a very serious threat. Global Warming is due to the burning of fossil fuels. Currently the biggest contributor of CO2 emissions is the USA, with China, Asia, and the European Union following. Citizens of these regions need to re-evaluate how they live. We ask you to please consider where your power comes from when you turn on that light switch or when you forget to turn it off. Does it come from coal fired power plants? If so, ask why? How much time do you spend on your computer, video games, television? Ask yourself where does the power come from to power these devices you use? Do you use a vehicle? If so, is that vehicle fuel efficient? If not, why not? Are you using public transit? If not, why not? These contributors of CO2 emissions do more damage and harm to the Arctic Region than any other factor with regards to sea ice melting and loss of habitat for our Canadian Polar Bear Populations.
Wildlife Sustainability
The following resources help to demonstrate the sustainability of wildlife in Canada. Wildlife management is key to the survival of all Wildlife in our fragile ecosystem. Wildlife requires vast tracks of land and water for it's habitat. Within that habitat is a limited supply of food within the food-chain. If for example Polar Bears, White Foxes, Arctic Wolves, Seals, Muskox, etc., become over populated, then the species succumbs to starvation or disease The population is then decimated to a low level, for which it can take decades to recover. Within this sustainability plan is man, we are at the top of the food chain. The Inuit people of Arctic Canada have inhabited the north for thousands of years. Their survival depends on the animals. The Inuit harvest these species for their own use, in clothing, food, carvings, and sell the excess skins, bones, skulls, ivory to Trading Companies such as Furcanada, the Co-op, The North West Company, tourists, southern residents etc.
The biggest threat to the survival of any species in the Arctic or anywhere in Canada is not from hunting, or trapping. It is from the Pollution of the factories in southern Canada, Coal Fired power plants that generate power for Southern Canada and the USA. Automobiles that belch out carbon monoxide to create greenhouse gases. Automobiles that kill millions of birds and wildlife annually on the highways and by-ways of North America Urban sprawl that decimates hundreds of hectares of habitat for wildlife. Raw Human sewage from the City of Victoria, British Columbia being pumped into the Harbour. These are just a few issues of today that confront society in Canada.
The Subsistence Economy (By Larry Simpson)
"Picture an Inuit hunter on the land or sea ice observing a caribou herd or a seal at a breathing hole. The hunter naturally relates their well-being to his own, both in the short term and in the longer term. Now picture a white-shirted man watching the big board at a stock exchange, forever aware of the impacts of such things as currency devaluations or commodity market fluctuations on the other side of the world, and the impact of these on his own fortunes. Are these realities opposites? Perhaps not. Can one participate in both worlds? Ideally, yes. The wired world is here to stay, but, hopefully, so too is the direct and sustainable relationship between Inuit and the natural world." [ Read More ]
Sealing in Nunavut: A Profile
"For thousands of years, seals have been a vital resource for survival in a very demanding environment. The seal is used for food, clothing, fuel, and arts and crafts. Very little is wasted. Seal harvesting has always been a central foundation of Inuit culture as it sustains traditional sharing customs, a special knowledge of the seal resource and its ecosystem, and the passing on of skills and values from elders to youth." [ Read More ]
Nunavut Premier Defends Seal Hunt As Way Of Life (CTV / Associated Press)
"A top Canadian Inuit official defended his country's seal hunt Monday, saying it was vital to the survival of aboriginal peoples in the Arctic and provided an economic lifeline for an area desperate for jobs and growth. Paul Okalik, premier of Canada's northern Nunavut territory, said the majority of the 30,000 people in his region were dependent on seals and other native species like polar bear and fish for their everyday food. 'This is our daily basic diet -- we can't grow potatoes.... It's something we require to continue to survive and its far more nutritious than what is imported from southern Canada,' Okalik told reporters." [ Read More ]
Nunavut Wary of Anti-Sealing
"People are
ignorant about the fact that the seal hunt is a way of life for northern
Canadians and is a part of their culture. All parts of the seal are used –
the fat, the meat, the bones, the skin. The way the seal are hunted and
used is not consistent across Canada. Many people don’t realize that the
ban not only affects the East coast seal hunters, but it will affect an
economy that sustains a way of life for many northern Canadians." [ Read More ]
Atlantic Canada Seal Hunt - Myths and Realities
" Myth #1: The Canadian government allows sealers to kill whitecoat seals.
Reality: The image of the whitecoat harp seal is used prominently
by seal hunt opponents. This image gives the false impression that
vulnerable seal pups are targeted by sealers during the commercial hunt. The hunting of harp seal pups (whitecoats) and hooded seal pups (bluebacks)
is illegal – and has been since 1987. Marine Mammal Regulations prohibit the trade, sale or barter of the fur of these pups. The seals that
are hunted are self-reliant, independent animals." [ Read More ]
Nunavut Joins Battle To Support Seal Hunt (CBC News)
"Nunavut has joined forces with Newfoundland and Labrador to fight those opposed to the seal hunt in Canada, following a meeting between government leaders in Iqaluit on Monday. Up until now, Nunavut has tried to maintain a distance between the Inuit traditional harvest of seals for food and the controversial commercial seal hunt on the East Coast. Nunavut Premier Paul Okalik says a proposed European seal ban affects the Inuit, who rely on the hunt to sustain and provide food for their families." [ Read More ]
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