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Green Party candidate: Inuit seal products fine with us
by Scott Gilbreath ~ October 10th, 2008
Peter Ittinuar, Green Party candidate for Nunavut, says the party’s anti-seal hunt position does not include Inuit-harvested seal products. He says the party will take steps to protect Inuit seal products from international boycotts.
I thought the anti-sealing stance was based on perceived animal cruelty. How does the ethnic origin of the seal hunter change that?
The Green Party’s candidate in Nunavut says his party’s position against Canada’s sealing industry does not include Inuit sealers, adding that his party would create a certification program for Inuit-harvested seal products.
Peter Ittinuar said such certification would exempt Inuit seal products from international bans on Canadian seal exports.
Mr Ittinuar claims that Green Party leader Elizabeth May also supports continuation of the Inuit seal harvest, but there is no evidence of that in the Green Party of Canada’s platform. This is the complete text regarding the seal hunt.
8. Commercial seal hunt
The seal hunt is viewed by many people in Canada and abroad as an inhumane activity that is not ecologically sound nor sustainable. This is particularly true now that climate change has increased pup mortality in spring due to a lack of, and [sic] thin ice.
The annual seal hunt is the largest killing of marine mammals anywhere on the planet. Its enormity threatens Canada’s overseas reputation for little local value.
Our Vision
The Green Party does not support a commercial seal hunt in Canada. We are not opposed to subsistence hunting by aboriginal peoples and local communities. However, we consider seal hunting, like whaling, to be a threat to the marine ecosystem. The loss of ice due to climate change threatens seal populations and exacerbates what many believe is an already unsustainable level of hunting:
Green Solutions
Green Party MPs will:
- End federal assistance to the commercial seal hunt and support an end to the seal hunt.
- Work with other levels of government to find sustainable economic alternatives for sealers and their communities and provide full compensation to sealers for lost income.
The only allusion to the Inuit seal hunt is the lack of opposition to subsistence hunting, which would include only what is needed to support one’s family and friends. The party platform clearly opposes all other seal hunting and, therewith, international exports of Canadian seal products.
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October 10th, 2008 at 09:49 PM
My old friend Peter (former Liberal MP for Nunatiasuk) is doing the same spin job that Farley Mowat did after he published his book against whaling. The Inuit of the Keewatin wouldn’t let him get of a plane for a visit for fear he would cause a stop to subsistence hunting of Hudson Bay Beluga.
There is no Inuit equivalent to the seal ‘hunt’. The population density and climate differences don’t create the same conditions. Inuit usually shoot seals, often with a small caliber rifle and hopefully through the head to minimize damage to the pelt and prevent a wounded seal from diving.
Thats a darn site neater way than being killed by a polar bear.
October 11th, 2008 at 10:20 AM
“Work with other levels of government to find sustainable economic alternatives for sealers and their communities and provide full compensation to sealers for lost income.”
What do you plan to do for the many other other people involved that are not sealers? Like truck drivers, students who earn money for university from sealing seal meat, and the many other spinoff jobs that are created from the seal hunt…….
October 11th, 2008 at 07:54 PM
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