oh good grief! now stephen harper is eating seal meat to prove a point!

Harper attacks seal hunt critics
'No reason the seal industry should be singled out,' PM says in Iqaluit
Last Updated: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 | 1:46 PM CT Comments364Recommend102
CBC News
Speaking to reporters Tuesday in Iqaluit, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Canada's seal hunting industry is subject to high standards. (CBC)
Prime Minister Stephen Harper had fighting words on Tuesday for critics of Canada's seal hunt, accusing European countries and others of unfairly discriminating against the industry.

Speaking to reporters in Iqaluit on Tuesday, Harper defended the seal hunt, which recently became the subject of a trade ban by the European Union.

Late last month, the EU banned the import of seal products from Canada and other sealing nations. The ban is expected to take effect in all 27 EU member countries in October.

EU officials have said the ban was the result of public pressure to stop the hunt.

Animal rights groups argue the hunt is inhumane, but Harper told reporters on Tuesday morning he disagrees.

"This industry, you know, has tight standards, the tightest in the world. The standards of this industry, quite frankly, are better than many other industries that deal with animal products," Harper said.

"There is no reason the seal industry should be singled out for discriminatory treatment by Europeans or any other nation."

Shortly after the EU ban was approved, Trade Minister Stockwell Day vowed to challenge it before the World Trade Organization, calling it an unfair trade restriction.

Canada's East Coast seal hunt is the largest of its kind in the world, with an average annual kill of about 300,000 harp seals. Canada exported about $2.5 million worth of seal products to EU countries in 2008.

Canada's Inuit also have a traditional sealing industry in Nunavut. Sealers in that territory harvest about 35,000 seals annually, up to 11,000 of which are sold on the open market.

Seals are also an essential source of food and clothing for Inuit in remote Nunavut communities.

The EU trade ban does provide a limited exemption for seal products derived from traditional Inuit hunts, but sealers say the exemption comes with a number of restrictions.

As well, they've argued that a trade ban would hurt the entire sealing industry regardless of whether exemptions exist for certain sectors.

Raw, cooked seal on lunch menu

Harper is meeting Tuesday afternoon with his inner circle of cabinet ministers, including Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and Defence Minister Peter MacKay, to discuss the government's strategy for the fall parliamentary session.

But before the priority and planning committee begins meeting, they are eating seal for lunch, courtesy of Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq, who is also the Conservative MP for Nunavut.

"Minister Aglukkaq has generously arranged for her colleagues in cabinet to have a lunch of seal," said Andrew MacDougall, Harper's press secretary.

"I understand there will be both raw and cooked seal available, and I know a lot of her colleagues, including the prime minister, were anxious for that."

The priority and planning committee's top priority this fall is to move Canada's economy back on track, MacDougall said.