Canadian delegation asks EU to drop proposed seal product ban
Last Updated: Wednesday, January 21, 2009 | 8:25 PM ET
CBC News
Canadian officials are in Brussels this week to ask the European Union not to pass proposed legislation that would ban the import of seal products.
The European visit by the Canadian delegation, which includes officials from Newfoundland and Labrador and Nunavut, was organized by the federal Fisheries and Oceans Department as Canada's latest attempt to sway European politicians on the proposed seal ban, which is before an EU committee.
Under the proposal, seal products from countries that "practise hunting methods that involve unnecessary pain," also referred to as "cruel hunting," would not be allowed into the 27-nation bloc.
Animal rights activists in Europe have characterized Canada's seal hunt as "cruel."
The 16 Canadian officials in Brussels say they are educating European parliamentarians on the humane way the annual seal hunt is carried out in Canada.
"If this passed and made its way through, they [the European Union] would be telling us how to do things in Canada, telling us how to conduct the hunt," Senator Fabian Manning of Newfoundland and Labrador told CBC News on Tuesday.
"There is a concern here that would not be the route to take."
Effective lobbying
While Manning said many EU politicians are willing to listen to the Canadian delegation, he also acknowledged that animal rights activists have been effective and consistent in their lobbying.
"The animal rights people put forward time and time again, videos that are seen throughout the world — especially in the European Union — that show a bright blue sky and white ice and red blood," he said.
"You know, trying to compete with that in any way, shape or form is not easy."
Simon Awa, Nunavut's deputy environment minister, told CBC News that the group has met with only a few of the nearly 800 parliamentarians in the 27-nation European Union, making the task of spreading Canada's message a challenge.
Speaking in Inuktitut, Awa said one politician told him it's important to continue lobbying constantly if Canada wants its voice to be heard in the EU. However, Awa said there is not a lot of time or money available to do that.
Manning said the sealing issue is not really on the EU's priority list right now, since it has elections coming up in June and other issues to consider.
It is unclear when a vote on the proposed seal product ban would take place, but Manning said he suspects it could come as early as this spring.
Nunavut seal skins fail at auction
Canadian fur officials are blaming the European Union's proposed ban, as well as a waning global economy, on a poor showing for Nunavut seal skins so far this year.
None of the 10,000 Nunavut seal pelts that went up for auction this month had sold at the first auction of this year at Fur Harvesters Auction Inc.'s auction house in North Bay, Ont.,
"The entire collection remains unsold," said Fur Harvesters Auction CEO Mark Downey, adding that the auction house will have to slash prices on the seal skins.
"We're looking at probably a 50 per cent price reduction to get the thing started again," he said. "The whole thing's got to be revitalized."
Nunavut government officials say they are exploring other options for selling the furs, such as marketing them within the North.
"We have a number of local people who are taking seals," said Wayne Lynch, director of fisheries and sealing with the Nunavut government.
"As well, we have interest in northern Quebec .… There's many different areas that have contacted us for a hundred here or a thousand there."
Northern buyers bought almost 2,000 seal skins in 2008, accounting for about 25 per cent of total sales. Lynch said more marketing and promotion could boost those numbers, and help Nunavut's hunters avoid a complete collapse in the seal skin market.
Nunavut hunters have generally been paid an average of $50 per pelt. Unless buyers come forward, Lynch said that price could drop.
