End The Seal Hunt

2006/2008 News Items Below Include
* The Millions Ottawa spends subsidizing the Seal Hunt
* Ottawa lowers quota for seal hunt
* Rock Music Menu: Musicians sing songs of ‘hunt’ protest
* Ottawa refuses $16M offer to end seal hunt
* Pamela Anderson Steps Up The Seal Hunt Protest
* Anti-sealing group heading to court
* Seal hunt haul 1,000 over quota
* Williams takes aim at Costco over seal-oil fuss
* Ottawa Barring Seal Hunt Observers
* Activists protesting Canada seal hunt arrested
* Bad tempers, violent acts mark seal hunt opening
* Tempers Flare as Seal Hunt Opens
* Seal hunt protesters say opposition growing
* Bardot protests seal hunt, disappointed by PM
* Senator bites back-Rips anti-hunt family in U.S.
* Protesters, celebrities, fishermen ready for seal hunt
* McCartney stages anti-sealing protest on ice floe  
* Activists release seal-hunt footage
* The cruellest in the world'
* Seal Hunt Boycott of Canada May Fail Due to Greed

By Murray Teitel
Whether you think killing seals is a bad thing or a good thing, whether you think it barbaric or humane, you should oppose Canada’s annual seal hunt.
According to Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) the justification for the hunt is to provide economic opportunities for Canada’s coastal communities. Last year, according to its Web site, this entire economic opportunity amounted to $12-million, the value of all seal pelts landed. They fetched on average $52 a pelt. According to evidence given to Parliament’s standing committee on fisheries and oceans on Nov. 6, 2006, half of that is eaten up by expenses, so we are talking, at most, $6-million that flowed to the sealers themselves: one-tenth of 1% of Newfoundland’s GDP. (This year it will be even less, because pelts of three to four week old “beaters” that make up 95% of the catch are selling for between $6 and $33.)
This $6-million costs Canadians at least 10 times as much and does so year after year. First of all, there is the cost of deploying the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) to the seal hunt for seven weeks each year. Last year it involved 10 vessels, many of them icebreakers, helicopters and patrol planes. Nobody in government knows, even less wants to know, what this costs. DFO claims it costs nothing because the boats and aircraft are owned and the crews are on salary. Does it cost nothing to put out fires in Toronto because it owns the trucks and firefighters aren’t on piecework? Toronto hires firefighters and buys trucks based on the anticipated number and severity of fires. A significant part of what CCG does is rescue sealers. Some 24% of its 2003 fishing vessel rescues derived from this hunt. Without it, CCG’s annual budget could be significantly reduced. One hunt-deployed icebreaker, the Amundsen, costs $50,000 per day to operate in winter. Given DFO’s lack of transparency, one can only estimate the annual CCG cost attributable to the hunt at $5-million.
Secondly, every year some disaster occurs. Last year, it was heavy ice that trapped sealers for days on end. Some even ran out of cigarettes! DFO calculated the extra CCG costs due to heavy ice at $3.41-million. It also paid $7.9-million to owners of boats damaged by ice. This year, it is the drowning of four sealers and the near drowning of two while being rescued by CCG. This resulted in the cost of an unsuccessful week-long 2,800 nautical square mile search for one of the drowned and his boat involving patrol planes, helicopters and three icebreakers. The inevitable lawsuits and legal bills will easily cost more than $6-million.
Thirdly, millions are spent every year trying to counter bans on the importation of seal products. Our NAFTA partners and four European countries have imposed bans. Four countries have announced intentions to do so. Italy and Luxembourg have suspended imports. The European Parliament resolved to impose an EU-wide ban. The Council of Europe has called on its 46 members to do so.
Canada has taken Holland and Belgium to the World Trade Organization in Geneva. Aside form being terribly expensive, it jeopardizes a relationship with two countries with which Canada has a trade surplus. $5.2-million of raw seal products constitutes less than 1/1,000 of what we export to Europe.
The DFO, since at least 2003, has been flying high-level delegations to Europe to argue against the bans. Last year, there were at least six such junkets. For example, on March 27, 2007, a 17-person delegation was dispatched to the British Parliament for a meeting attended by only five British MPs. Last month, seven Canadians, including Loyola Sullivan, ambassador for fisheries conservation, the Premier of Nunavut and a Newfoundland Cabinet minister flew to four European capitals for a week.
Unfortunately, they seem to use a travel agent who excels at finding the most expensive fares available. When Mr. Sullivan flew on seal business to five European capitals this January, the airfare alone was $10,270.80. The DFO’s Kevin Stringer flew to Paris for $4,459.65 on Sept. 5, 2007. Of course, this is nothing compared with the $16,025.25 spent on airfare to Australia and New Zealand by the DFO’s director general of economic analysis whom I wish would do an economic analysis of his own expense accounts. With hotels, wines, meals and support staff, this adds up.
They have as much chance of stemming this tide as Germany did of stopping the Allies after D Day. The battle is lost. But because of ideological fanaticism they keep fighting, secure in the delusion that the Canadian taxpayer, like the cod, is an inexhaustible resource that will forever fund this foolishness that only benefits the high-end European tourism industry.
Fourthly, there is the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) led boycott that is largely responsible for the inflation adjusted $465-million drop in the value of Canadian exports of snow crabs — the main seafood export to the United States from Canada’s sealing provinces — since April, 2005. The value of 2007 snow crab exports is 44% lower than it was in 2004, the year prior to the boycott.
HSUS has to date persuaded almost 3,600 U.S. businesses to participate, including heavy hitters Publix (annual sales $24-billion), Whole Foods ($7-billion), WinCo Foods, Lowe’s Foods, Harris Teeter ($3-billion each) and smaller, seafood-driven ones like Legal Sea Foods ($400-million). Sealing creates less than 1% of the value of the sealing provinces’ fishery. Sacrifice 99% for the sake of 1%. Now there’s a business plan!
Finally, there is the cost of the DFO seal-hunt bureaucracy, which alone has to cost more than the sealers earn: license issuers, accountants, typists, file clerks, inspectors, quota setters, regulation drafters, “scientists,” “statisticians,” “economic analysts,” speech writers, media relations officers, anti-boycott propagandists, writers of replies to angry letters, arrangers of tours of European journalists (when the seal hunt is not taking place), all in the service of what DFO says is 5,000 to 6,000 (more like 2,000, I believe) people averaging $1,000 a year from killing 275,000 seals. There is a conflict of interest in the DFO having jurisdiction over the Coast Guard. If it were controlled by the Minister of Defence, he’d immediately see that for what he is spending on the seal hunt, he could outfit an artillery regiment.
Enough already. This is a colossal waste of taxpayers’ money. And the sealers? Sealers should prefer these monies be used to train them for jobs in the 21st-century economy, rather than to preserve them as relics of a hunter/gatherer one.

Financial Post
Murray Teitel is a Toronto lawyer and journalist.

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Seal hunt activist: Group run off road
13/04/2006
Animal-rights activists said their vehicle carrying foreign journalists was run off the road today as they were making their way to their helicopter to document the country’s contentious seal hunt.

They were then trapped as an angry mob surrounded their hotel.

Members of the Humane Society of the United States said about 60 supporters of the seal hunt, which has moved to the ice floes off the north-eastern coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, surrounded their hotel in Blanc-Sablon, Quebec, a small town near the Labrador border.

Rebecca Aldworth, a spokeswoman for the Humane Society of the United States, was reached inside the motel and said the situation was tense around noon.

“There’s only two police officers out there,” she said.

“They could get us out of here if they wanted to, but they’re refusing to take us in their police vans.”

Aldworth said the police were serving as mediators between the angry fishermen - whose livelihoods are supplemented by sales of the pelts and blubber – and the Humane Society, which calls the hunt barbaric and wants it halted.

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Gory last phase of seal hunt opens
234,000 seal pups likely to be slaughtered in cull off coast of Newfoundland

April 12, 2006

ST. JOHN'S, Newfoundland - The final leg of Canada's contentious seal hunt moved to the ice floes off northeastern Newfoundland and Labrador on Wednesday, with sealers expected to slaughter 234,000 more harp seal pups in just one day.

International animal-rights activists were to be present to document the final phase of the annual cull, which the Canadian government insists is humane and sustainable, with a healthy population of more than 6 million harp seals.

One of the most prominent animal-rights activists, Rebecca Aldworth of the Humane Society of the United States, was not on the ice, however, as the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans has accused her of disturbing the hunt and declined to issue her an observation permit.

"It's unthinkable that so many animals will die a horrific death in such a short space of time," Aldworth said in a news release.

She and two other HSUS observers were accused last month of coming within a 10-meter (33-foot) buffer zone between their inflatable boat and a sealing vessel, a claim she denies.

Hunters already have taken their quota of 91,000 seals in the Gulf of St. Lawrence hunt, which ended last week.

"People were apprehensive about the ice in the gulf, but it was a very good year and the quotas were caught very fast," said Roger Simon, spokesman for the federal Fisheries Department.

Fisheries officials said between 200 and 300 fishing boats had set sail from northeastern Newfoundland and Labrador for the last installment of the hunt.

The hunters will kill and skin as many of the marine mammals as they can Wednesday. There will be no hunting Thursday, while fisheries officials count the pelts to see if the quota has been met. The hunt will resume Friday if the quota has not been reached.

Protesters with the International Fund for Animal Welfare said they would photograph the slaughter from a helicopter, using scenes of carnage to promote a ban on Canadian seal products.

"If we can stop the markets for seal products, hopefully, we can reduce the number of seals being killed," said Sheryl Fink, a spokeswoman for the IFAW.

Canada's biggest market for seal pelts always has been, and remains, Norway.

The commercial seal hunt in Atlantic Canada in 2005 created more than C$16.5 million (US$14.4 million; euro11.9 million) for the isolated fishing communities in the Canadian Maritimes.

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Rock Music Menu: Musicians sing songs of ‘hunt’ protest
04/09/2006


By MICHAEL CHRISTOPHER rockmusicmenu@hotmail.com Canada’s annual seal hunt got under way on March 25, and many celebrities and musicians have added their voice to stop the slaying of the animals. Most notable is Paul McCartney, who along with his wife Heather, has spearheaded the charge to convince the Canadian government to stop the slaughter, aligning themselves with The Humane Society.

McCartney visited the ice floes in the country in early March, and appeared on nationally broadcast talk shows to discuss the then upcoming display in animal cruelty in an attempt to prevent it from happening this year.

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Now that the hunt has begun, with almost 40,000 seals killed so far, and 95 percent of them under the age of three months (according to The Humane Society), the McCartneys have turned their focus to getting consumers to take action.Their strategy to end the hunt is closing down the global markets for seal products and convincing other countries to follow Greenland, Mexico, and Italy in taking steps to ban the import of sealskins.Basically, it’s an encouragement for all other nations and their citizens to boycott Canadian seafood.

Pamela Anderson hosted the Juno Awards (the Canadian equivalent to the Grammys) last weekend, and used the spotlight to speak out against the injustice she believes the government is encouraging in the seal hunt.

Some in the audience were quick to jeer Anderson’s choice to use a music awards show as a platform for her activist leanings; and sighed at her poor attempts at humor during the event (sample: "One of my favorite artists couldn’t be here tonight --- Seal ..he was afraid he might get clubbed to death.").

And even though she admitted during the ceremony to being surprised to find out Coldplay singer Chris Martin was Canadian (he’s not), at least her heart was in the right place.

One artist, former Smiths frontman and successful solo artist Morrissey, is taking a drastic step by refusing to perform on Canadian soil until a ban is enacted.

"I fully realize that the absence of any Morrissey concerts in Canada is unlikely to bring the Canadian economy to its knees, but it is our small protest against this horrific slaughter," the singer said in a statement.

Unsettling shots

He’s not a baby seal, but the hunting of Poison’s Bret Michaels is just as much of a tragedy (kind of).

Rock Music Menu has taken aim recently at the singer’s poor choice to cover "We’re An American Band" on the hair band favorites new best of collection, but that’s no reason to go attempting to take him out.

Last week, while arriving at a radio station appearance in Los Angeles to promote both the greatest hits package and Poison’s upcoming 20th anniversary tour, someone took a shot at Michaels’ car, shattering a window.

Just before a solo-date in Chicopee, Mass. this past November, rounds were fired at the tour bus carrying the singer, who suffered minor cuts from broken glass.

With the deranged fans responsible for the shooting deaths of musicians from John Lennon to Dimebag Darrell, it’s not a far fetched notion that someone may actually be out to get the glam metal turned country star.

A Gnarls Barkley summer

Not since Outkast’s "Hey Ya!" in 2003 will a song be more overplayed than "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley this summer.

With its loose and bouncy bass line, harmonious string section and soulful crooning, it is destined to rise to the top of the charts, which is just what the track did last week, shattering records in the UK.

The union is the product of DJ Danger Mouse, who gained notoriety after mashing together Jay Z’s "Black Album" with The Beatles "White Album" to create "The Grey Album," and Cee-Lo Green, who provided a singing voice to Southern rappers Goodie Mob.The hype is sure to build here before its album is released in the States in May.

In England, "Crazy" become the first song eligible to chart after being released only as a downloadable song, and it blew away the competition, outselling every other song on the chart -- combined.Sales of singles until last week had been tallied by adding the physical number sold in stores along with those from download services, which is what makes this achievement so amazing; the hard copy of the track wasn’t available until this week (when the feat is projected to repeat).

If this is all sounding a bit unfamiliar, rest assured within the coming weeks, "Crazy" will be driving you nuts -- it’ll be imbedded into your consciousness.


©The Daily Times 2006

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Ottawa refuses $16M offer to end seal hunt
globalnational.com
Thursday, April 06, 2006

OTTAWA -- Ottawa has turned down a U.S. businesswoman's offer of $16-million US to immediately end the controversial east coast seal hunt.

Cathy Kangas, CEO of PRAI Beauty, a U.S.-based beauty products firm, wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper Wednesday, outlining her multi-million dollar offer.

"Your government has repeatedly stated that the $16 million US realized from the slaughter of Canadian baby seals is vital to the fishing communities of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and Newfoundland," Kangas wrote.

"If you stop this year's hunt immediately, we will provide you with this US$16 million to be distributed at your discretion."

But Steven Outhouse, a spokesman for Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn, said the federal government would not be taking Kangas up on her offer.

"Besides the fact that most within the industry say it's worth more than $16 million . . . and notwithstanding the fact that this is an annual income, I don't know whether she was planning to offer $16 million a year for the next decade or if this was a one-time deal or what have you," he said. "It's our position that this is a legal, regulated hunt. . . . From our perspective, it is a sustainable use of a resource and that's where we stand."

"The short answer is no."

Kangas, an animal rights activist, also offered to work with Canada to institute a buy-back program for existing hunting licences, and to launch a eco-tourism program.

She said she's even willing to travel to Atlantic Canada to meet with fishermen to detail her offer, as she believes they've been misled by Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams, who recently defended the centuries-old hunt during a televised debate with former Beatle and animal rights activist Paul McCartney.

"I'd like to meet the fishermen and say, `I know you believe your politicians and Danny Williams but what they're telling you is just not true,' " she said.

"We want to say, `Here we are. Here's a paycheque. Join the other side.' "

The businesswoman is a member of the International Fund for Animal Welfare and an adviser to the Humane Society of the United States. Both organizations are opposed to the seal hunt.

The hunt in the southern gulf ended last week when hunters took just under 20,000 animals.

The second phase of the hunt, in the northern Gulf, starts later this week. The catch limit there is about 70,000 seals.

The largest hunt starts April 12 off northeastern Newfoundland, an area know as the Front. That hunt is expected to land about 230,000 animals - the vast majority of them harp seals.

This year's hunt has drawn criticism from high-profile celebrities like McCartney, Brigitte Bardot and Pamela Anderson.

Meanwhile, three seal hunters missing since Thursday off Quebec's north shore, have been found in good shape.

Lieut. Sonia Connock of the Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Halifax said the men were hunting in the Ile de Petit Mecatina area and were unaware a search was underway.

Connock said they had a small radio but were out of range and could not be contacted.

"They didn't know that anyone was looking for them," said Connock.

"They could be seen from the shore last night and appeared to be stuck on the ice."

They men were picked up by the Coast Guard vessel Pierre Radisson which was taking them home to Tete a la Baleine, Que.

The Canadian Coast Guard, meanwhile, was monitoring nine sealing vessels stuck in the ice off southern Labrador.

The coast guard said the boats were not in any danger, but an icebreaker will keep watch.

The sealers were off L'Anse-au-Loup in the Strait of Belle Isle.
© National Post 2006

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Pamela Anderson Steps Up The Seal Hunt Protest
Filed in in Celebrity Astronime Domini

To most people, a pen pal is an awkward 14-year-old French boy with a bumfluff moustache and a disturbing obsession with Pat Benatar. To Pamela Anderson, though, a pen pal is Steven Harper.

Pamela Anderson already wrote to Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper asking to meet him in order to discuss the controversial Canadian seal hunt. But Harper wasn't interested - we hear he was always much more of a Gina Lee Nolan fan - and now Pamela Anderson is angry. Crazy angry. How angry is Pamela Anderson? Angry enough to write a strongly-worded letter, that's how flipping angry.

At the weekend, Pamela Anderson hosted the Juno Awards - like the Brits, but for Canadian bands. And afterwards, Pamela Anderson was furious. That's understandable, you're thinking - anybody forced to admit that Nickelback make the best music in their country is bound to be a bit peeved - but that wasn't what was on Pamela's mind.

Pamela Anderson was actually more annoyed that she had been stood up. She wanted to meet Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper after the Juno Awards to try and get the controversial Canadian seal hunt banned. But Harper wasn't buying, and so Pamela Anderson went on a terrifying rampage. OK, that's a lie: she made a weak quip and then wrote another letter. Speaking to reporters after the Juno Awards, Pamela Anderson said:

"When people think of Canadian Club, they should think of a good whisky, not jerks beating pups on the ice."

Pamela Anderson shouldn't take the Steven Harper snub too personally, though. Harper has already decided against meeting fellow seal hunt protesters Paul McCartney and Brigitte Bardot, who have already been to Canada to protest against the hunting of seal cubs. Now, though, Pamela Anderson is getting serious. In her second letter to Steven Harper, she apparently promised that she, along with animal rights groups, would intensify their efforts to stop the seal hunt.

That's enough to send chills down our spine, and we urge Steven Harper to reconsider his decision. After all, it's only a matter of time before a horrific Pamela Anderson/Paul McCartney charity single duet remake of Hey Jude gets released. And we're not sure that the world deserves that level of punishment.

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The power of Pam
Press balks at celeb activism, but still puts star stunts on page one
By PAUL WATSON posted at NowToronto

Once again a celebrity has sided with the seals. Pamela Anderson delivered a carefully crafted outburst at the Junos in Halifax on Sunday, April 2.

But this now-familiar use of fame in defence of animals doesn't sit well with the Canadian media. In fact, they're having conniptions and hissy fits over the use of star power.

In the wake of Brigitte Bardot's visit to Ottawa to meet with the prime minister and Paul McCartney's trip to the ice to have his picture taken with a seal, editors and pundits are squawking that celebrities have no right to speak against the hunt.

But despite their indignation, the pictures appeared on the front pages of newspapers and led the evening TV news.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper refused to meet with Bardot. (He hasn't responded yet, at least not publicly, to Anderson's request for a tête-à- tête.) Yet even his refusal to meet Bardot made the news. And beside those pix were images of the seals being killed. Score one for us.

That's the thing with celebrities: the media can't ignore them. So despite all the whining and pontificating about celebrities with opinions, their opinions are news.

In a world where celebrities make headlines for getting drunk, tripping on a rug or kissing their spouses or anyone else – especially someone else – in public, is it any wonder that just showing up somewhere with an idea will sell ads, too?

Come on, you scribblers and talking heads, stop acting like you don't know what's going on. The media make the rules. You're not interested in experts, and you're certainly not interested in real activists.

I've been fighting the slaughter of seals for three decades, and there is no way short of ramming a ship, getting tossed in jail or getting killed by a sealer that I can command the same attention as an actor or musician.

Canadian anti-sealing activists like Rebecca Aldworth and I know the facts and are willing to debate the issue, but Harper ignores us. He had to hold a media conference to announce that he'd refused to meet with Brigitte Bardot.

Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams won't debate us, but he was willing to argue with the McCartneys on Larry King Live.

When I walked into the Ottawa media conference with Bardot on March 22, I wasn't surprised by the number of journalists from all over the world. The room erupted in camera strobe bursts for a solid five minutes.

Why? Because she's a film icon in a media culture, though she hasn't acted in three decades.

When I hear so-called professional journalists ask why we have celebrities speak for us and for the animals, the environment or social causes, I marvel at their denial of the rules of their own trade.

They are there, good reporters, because you listen to them.

The fault is yours, not ours. So get with the program, because we will be bringing lots more celebrities to the ice – and guess what? You'll listen to them and take their pictures.
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U.S. anti-sealing group heading to court

The Humane Society's Canadian wildlife issues director Rebecca Aldworth talks about issues regarding the seal hunt at a press conference in Toronto on Monday. (CP PHOTO/Nathan Denette)
* *

Lauren La Rose, Canadian Press
Published: April 4, 2006

TORONTO -- Claims that observers interfered with the East Coast seal hunt are a "setup" by Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn and his ministry to protect the practice and the industry from public scrutiny, a leading U.S. animal-rights group charged Monday.

The Humane Society of the United States held a news conference to denounce the treatment of its personnel by department officials while they were observing the seal hunt on the Gulf of St. Lawrence two weeks ago.

Rebecca Aldworth, the group's Canadian wildlife issues director, accused Hearn and the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans of waging a campaign to discredit their efforts.

"The Department of Fisheries and Oceans and Loyola Hearn is trying to hide the cruelty that they know goes on in this slaughter every single year," Aldworth said.

"The only disruption that occurs to the commercial seal hunt is when images of it are broadcast around the world and the global markets for seal products close, and that is why Loyola Hearn wants to bar observation of this hunt."

Three of the group's members, including Aldworth, were among five observers banned from the hunt early last week after they were arrested March 26 when their inflatable boat apparently got too close to a sealing vessel in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

It's believed to be the first time a fisheries minister has exercised that authority.

On Monday, the society learned that its applications for renewed permits to observe the second phase of the hunt, expected to get underway next week off the north shores of Newfoundland and Labrador, had been denied.

Aldworth said the society will seek an injunction to allow it to continue watching the hunt.

"All this does is essentially remove our most experienced people from the operation and I think that puts our observers at risk," she said.

"I think that's reckless on the part of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans."

Department spokesman Phil Jenkins denied that the U.S. Humane Society was being targeted, insisting that officials apply equal standards to observers and sealers to ensure they adhere to the law.

"Our enforcement is there to make sure that the hunt is carried on orderly and safely and within the regulations, and it makes no distinction between who might be violating or allegedly violating a regulation," Jenkins said.

"These regulations apply evenly to observers and to sealers."

Jenkins refused to talk about the ongoing investigation, which is being led by the RCMP and Fisheries Department officials.

Steve Outhouse, a spokesman for Hearn, said last week that as long as the five observers, including two foreign journalists, are under investigation, the permits they hold will not be renewed.

If those arrested are charged and convicted, they would be banned from the ice for five years, he added.
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Seal hunt haul 1,000 over quota
Last Updated Mon, 03 Apr 2006 15:45:56 EDT
CBC News

Sealers got more than their quota in the smaller of Canada's two annual seal hunts, in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Amid poor ice condition, most seals were taken in the water this year

The quota of 18,500 seals was surpassed by about 1,000 animals before the Department of Fisheries and Oceans called a halt last week, a DFO official said.

"It's pretty hard to manage that very, very precise because you have 40 vessels sealing at once, so we closed the fishery Thursday at one o'clock," Roger Simone said.

Sealers are forbidden to kill baby seals, called whitecoats, before they shed the white fur.

Seven arrests were made during the southern gulf hunt after a group of animal-rights activists, including members of the Humane Society of the United States, were accused of steering their boat too close to a sealing vessel. No one has been charged, Simone said.


The humane society threatened on Monday to take legal action against the federal government. Three of its members are among observers banned from the hunt by Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn.

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* Costco seems to have dumped Seal products, yet the gutless Canadian Government wants to bully them into selling them. Why does the Canadian Government continue to support a seal industry that produces little revenue and terrible public harm? This month the Government of Ontario wasted 25 million dollars on flu drugs that will never be used. The Feds easily have the 14 million required to end the Seal Hunt. What they don't have is common sense.

Williams takes aim at Costco over seal-oil fuss

* Note - The first CBC news item below is written like a propaganda piece for the Canadian Government. It fails to mention that the sealers are approaching the observers with offensive tactics and then the pro seal hunt Canadian Authorities charge seal hunt opponents.

Ottawa won't bar all seal-hunt observers
Last Updated Fri, 31 Mar 2006
CBC News

The federal government will continue to issue observer permits for the Atlantic seal hunt, but Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn said they will go only to people who keep their distance from the sealers.

British rocker Paul McCartney and his wife, Heather Mills McCartney, visited seals on the ice floes off Prince Edward Island earlier this month. (File photo)

Speaking in St. John's, Hearn stopped short of imposing a ban on all observers, saying the annual hunt, which is now underway, must remain open to public scrutiny.

However, he said the permits will not be given to anyone who goes on the ice with the stated intention of disrupting the hunt.

Hearn also promised tough action against any observer who tries to confront the sealers.

"If you step over that line and try to interfere in any way with the hunt, then you can be arrested and charged," he said.

"These people will not be going back to the hunt," Hearn said. "If, up front, you say, 'I'm going to the hunt, but I'm going out there to interfere,' we will not grant you a permit."

A spokesman for Hearn later said five of the seven people arrested off Quebec's Magdalene Islands last weekend will no longer be given permits to observe future hunts.

On Sunday, Department of Fisheries and Oceans officials arrested the seven observers after their Zodiac watercraft approached sealing boats.

The annual seal hunt began last weekend amid criticism from animal rights activists, including former Beatle Paul McCartney and actress Pamela Anderson.

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Activists protesting Canada seal hunt arrested
Sun Mar 26, 2006
By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA (Reuters) - A group of animal rights activists observing Canada's annual harp seal hunt were arrested on Sunday for getting too close to hunters killing the animals off the eastern coast, officials said.

The six activists belong to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), which says the hunt is cruel and should be scrapped. This year, some 325,000 young seals will be shot and clubbed to death on ice floes, mainly for their pelts.

In addition to six activists, a freelance cameraman working for Reuters Television was detained. They were on board a small craft near the Magdalen Islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and they broke the law by coming within 10 meters (30 feet) of the hunters, officials said. They were later all released.

"We'll investigate, get statements and then decide whether to charge them," said Roger Simon of the federal fisheries and oceans ministry, which is overseeing a hunt which started on Saturday.

Unseasonably warm weather means the ice is much more broken up than usual, forcing hunters to shoot seals one by one rather than clubbing them en masse on the floes.

Earlier in the day, the activists said a sealing boat had deliberately rammed one of their small craft, damaging the propeller.

Rebecca Aldworth of the HSUS told Reuters by satellite phone that angry hunters had also thrown seal flippers and carcasses at the activists. She said she would ask Canadian police to charge those responsible.

The first part of the hunt, which takes place near the Magdalen Islands, usually takes about 10 to 12 days to complete. This year's quota is just over 90,000 seals.

"So far the hunters have taken 3,000 to 4,000 seals. That's not ridiculously slow, but it's not fast either. It's the lower edge of the norm," Simon told Reuters.

Celebrities such as former French film star Brigitte Bardot and ex-Beatle Paul McCartney last week pleaded with Ottawa to end the hunt.

Canadian officials deny the hunt is inhumane and say it provides a boost to the local economy.

The second and larger stage of the hunt, off the coast of Newfoundland, starts on April 4.


© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
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Bad tempers, violent acts mark seal hunt opening
* *

Canadian Press
Published: Sunday, March 26, 2006

CHARLOTTETOWN -- The opening days of Canada's East Coast seal hunt were fraught with frustration, bad tempers and violent acts on the rapidly thinning ice of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Hunt protesters with the Humane Society of the United States said they were shaken up on Sunday when a sealing boat rammed their small, inflatable Zodiac, damaging the boat's propeller.

"We're in Canadian waters and Canadian laws still apply here," said humane society spokeswoman Rebecca Aldworth, who was on the Zodiac when it was rammed.

"The hunters may be frustrated and I know they don't want us documenting their activities, but that doesn't give them the right to risk peoples' lives."

No one was hurt in the incident, but Aldworth said people would have only a few moments of survival time if they tumbled into the frigid waters of the Gulf.

On Saturday, the opening day of the hunt, protesters and news reporters observing the slaughter had to dodge seal guts hurled into their Zodiac by swearing sealers.

On both Saturday and Sunday, sealing vessels swerved close to observer vessels on several occasions.

The protesters have been following a small number of sealing boats in the Cabot Strait off northern Nova Scotia, documenting the hunt with video cameras.

"We're here legally," Aldworth said, adding her group has permits from the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans to observe the hunt.

"We're maintaining a safe distance from the hunters. They're trying to get us out. They don't want us documenting what is happening out here because they know markets for seal products are closing around the world."

Sealers were frustrated by poor hunting conditions on the weekend.

Fisheries spokesman Marcel Boudreau said just more than 3,000 seals were taken on Saturday, a small number for opening day. A good day of hunting will land more than 5,000 seals.

Boudreau said 47 sealing boats were on the water, the majority of them from the Iles de la Madeleine.

He said most of the killing is being done with rifles because it is not safe for hunters to walk on the thawing ice to club the seals. Gulf hunters generally prefer to use spiked clubs called hakapiks to crush the seals' skulls.

Much of the ice in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence has broken up into small ice pans and chunks that are drifting out to sea.

"It will be a very slow hunt this spring," Boudreau said.

Veteran sealer Jean-Claude LaPierre, spokesman for the sealers' association on the Iles de la Madeleine, said he and several other sealers have decided to tie up their boats for a few days.

He said he killed only 60 seals on opening day. He said many of the seals are too young to be killed and have not completely shed their fluffy white coats.

There is little market demand for the so-called "ragged jacket" seals. Hunters are looking for "beaters," older pups that have shed their baby coats and are weaned, but still can't swim............................................

© Canadian Press 2006

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Tempers flare as seal hunt opens

Canadian Press

Charlottetown — Protesters had to dodge flying seal guts pitched at them by angry hunters Saturday as tempers flared on the first day of Canada's East Coast seal slaughter.

News reporters and animal rights activists tried to get as close as permitted to the hunt on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but their presence infuriated sealers as they hunted for scarce animals on small, drifting ice pans.

At one point, a sealing vessel charged up to a small Zodiac inflatable boat carrying reporters and protesters, and a sealer flung seal intestines into the midst of the observers.

A second sealing boat swerved close to the Zodiac and the sealers swore at the protesters.

Hunters in the Gulf typically use spiked clubs called hakapiks, but scarce ice conditions in southern areas have meant many are using rifles because they cannot get close enough to the seals.

There is still ice in northern areas of the Gulf, where hunters traditionally use hakapiks to crush the seals' skulls.

Observers said that in the Cabot Strait off Cape Breton, seals and ice were scarce. Most of the ice pans were tiny and could hold only one seal.

A number of the pans drifting on the calm, quiet waters of the Gulf were empty and stained with blood.

"We should be seeing literally tens of thousands of seal pups out here, and at best, we've seen maybe a couple of hundred," Rebecca Aldworth of the Humane Society of the United States said in an interview from one of the Zodiacs.

"The seals simply aren't out here."

Hunt protesters said the Canadian government is not factoring high natural mortality due to global warming into calculations for the hunt.

Temperatures in the Cabot Strait soared into the high teens on Saturday afternoon, making the slaughter a hot and bloody exercise for hunters.

Sealers in the Gulf of St. Lawrence can take 91,000 animals this year.

A second, much larger hunt off the northern coast of Newfoundland and Labrador will take place later in April. Hunters in that slaughter can kill 234,000 seals.

Most of the seals killed are between two weeks and three months of age.

The pups cannot swim in their early weeks, so if the ice melts under them, they slip into the water and drown.

"Canada is being irresponsible by allowing so many seals to be killed," Ms. Aldworth said.

Officials with the federal Fisheries Department said they have not witnessed high mortality in the harp seal herds this year due to poor ice conditions.

"The ice was actually fairly good for the critical period of pupping and nursing," Fisheries spokesman Roger Simon said in an interview.

"There will always be some mortality and some drowning. There doesn't seem to be any concern this year, because we haven't found dead pups floating and beached. That doesn't mean we won't in coming weeks, but there doesn't seem to be anything to be concerned about at this time."

Mr. Simon added that while the ice is quickly vanishing in the southern Gulf, there is plenty in the northern Gulf.

He said the Fisheries Department is considering global warming and climate change in its quota allocations.

Mr. Simon said that from now on, quotas will be set annually for the herds, taking into account weather conditions and natural losses.

This year's hunt has attracted considerable international interest, thanks largely to high-profile pitches to stop the slaughter by celebrities like ex-Beatle Sir Paul McCartney and former French actress Brigitte Bardot.

However, the Fisheries Department said it has received only 73 requests for observer permits this year, compared to more than 100 last year.

Fisheries spokesman Marcel Boudreau said that last year, there were quite a few observers from Belgium and the Netherlands. This year, he said, there are more observers from Germany and the United Kingdom.

"It will be a very slow harvest this year," Boudreau said. "Most of the hunting will be with rifles, and that means a much slower rate."

Ms. Aldworth said protesters have seen several seals being shot and left on the ice to die.

"They're shooting moving seals on moving ice from moving boats at a great distance," she said.

There is debate about whether it is better to shoot or club the seals.

Hunt opponents have focused on reports of seals being skinned when they were still alive, and on horrific images of dying animals suffering while they waited to be finished off.

More and more of the hunting is being done with rifles, but the preferred killing tool in the Gulf remains the hakapik.

The Gulf hunt will continue until the quota of 91,000 seals is taken.
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Canadian seal hunt begins despite international campaign
By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
Published: 26 March 2006

The gruesome and gory Canadian seal hunt started yesterday with a claim from the country's prime minister that celebrity opponents such as Paul McCartney and Bridget Bardot were part of an international "propaganda campaign".

As hunters armed with hooked clubs took to the ice floes of the Gulf of St Lawrence in eastern Canada, Stephen Harper defended the hunt, saying: "Unfortunately, we're to some degree the victim of a bit of an international propaganda campaign. We believe the country is acting responsibly and we'll make sure all rules are enforced."

As always, the hunt has been the focus of widespread international condemnation. Paul and Heather McCartney are among the opponents of the hunt, and in a video message released on Friday night they said they were amazed the Canadian government had ignored the protests.

"We actually pleaded to the Canadian government to stop the seal hunt, but they have refused," said Mrs McCartney, who visited the floes earlier this month with the former Beatle. "We're devastated to learn that 325,000 of these harp seals, almost all of them defenseless babies, will be clubbed and shot to death."

Robbie Marsland, director of International Fund for Animal Welfare UK, who flew over the ice yesterday, said: "Just days ago I was on the ice watching healthy young seal pups, which had not yet learnt to swim. These pups had survived despite Canada's warmest winter on record and a lack of ice causing many newborn pups to die. "But sadly, I have just witnessed the start of this year's hunt. Seals as young as 12 days old are now being clubbed, or shot from boats as sealers race to fill their quota.

"At Chevrey in Quebec, at the top of the Gulf of St Lawrence, we came across around 10,000 seals. I witnessed men getting off boats and running across the ice, clubbing and shooting the seals, hooking them and dragging them back to the boats with their hakapiks.
"These seals were not all dead. When the hunters we were watching got back in their boats, we saw one seal pup which had been left behind on the ice. It was clearly wounded, and left bleeding to death.

"After first witnessing one of nature's most amazing spectacles, then seeing at first hand this cruel and unnecessary slaughter which leaves trails of blood on the ice, I urge the Canadian government to stop this hunt. Canada is better than this. It needs to end the hunt now."
Canadian seal hunters are usually fishermen who see the spring hunt as a way of providing vital income in an economically depressed region. They say the harp seal population stands at a healthy six million, and dismiss claims that hunting seals is any more cruel than sending animals to an abattoir for slaughter.

In the past few years the Canadian government has permitted the hunting of around one million seals. This year's quota of 325,000 animals is divided between the Gulf of St Lawrence and the hunt in Newfoundland, which takes place next month.
The re-emergence of the hunt has been fuelled largely by increased demand for pelts from eastern Europe and Russia. The US banned Canadian seal products in 1972, while the EU has banned the white pelts previously taken from unweaned seal pups, though not skins from slightly older seals.

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Temperatures and tempers soar as seal hunt starts on East Coast
CBC News 2006

Angry sealers hurled bloody seal guts at animal rights activists as tempers flared on the first day of the seal hunt Saturday.

Protesters charged the sealers with their inflatable Zodiac motorboats and the sealers returned in kind, hurling seal intestines and curses whenever the activists got too close.


Tempers were particularly bad given the unusually warm weather in the Gulf of St. Lawrence this year, the thin ice and the scarcity of seals.

Temperatures soared to 15 C in the Cabot Straight off Nova Scotia, making the conditions hot, dangerous and difficult for the sealers, while seals were hard to find.

The hunters were forced to use rifles to kill the seals instead of the traditional spiked club, or hakapik.

They are allowed to kill 91,000 animals in the southern gulf this year, if they can find them.

"We should be seeing literally tens of thousands of seal pups out here, and at best, we've seen maybe a couple of hundred," said Rebecca Aldworth of the Humane Society of the United States, which opposes the hunt. "The seals simply aren't out here," she told Canadian Press.

Nobody knows where the seals have gone, but some locals said they may have drowned. Baby seals cannot swim in the first few weeks, so if the ice melts under them, they slip into the water and die.

Fisheries department spokesman Roger Simon doubted that thin ice was the problem.

"The ice was actually fairly good for the critical period of pupping and nursing," he told Canadian Press. "There will always be some mortality and some drowning. There doesn't seem to be any concern this year, because we haven't found dead pups floating and beached. That doesn't mean we won't in coming weeks, but there doesn't seem to be anything to be concerned about at this time."
Bloody seal guts are seen on an ice floe off the coast of Nova Scotia on Saturday.

Simon added that while the ice is quickly vanishing in the southern gulf, there is plenty in the northern gulf, where sealers are allowed to take 234,000 pelts. That hunt starts April 4.

The federal government says the country's seal population is thriving at nearly six million, nearly triple the population of the 1970s. Earlier in the week, Brigitte Bardot, an actress and animal activist, returned to Canada for the first time in almost three decades to reiterate the plea she made in the 1970s to stop killing seals.

Meanwhile, former Beatle Paul McCartney and his wife Heather Mills threatened a world boycott of Canadian sea-food products if the hunt is allowed to continue.

On Friday, the Humane Society of the United States posted a statement from McCartney on its website to step up the pressure on Canada.

"Heather and I chose to come out to the ice floes before the hunt because it would break our hearts to have to see the cruelty of the hunt, but we are absolutely committed to making sure that this is the last slaughter of baby seals in Canada anyone will ever have to witness."
Protesters in an inflatable motorboat charge sealers seen at a distance off the coast of Nova Scotia on Saturday.

Canadian officials scoffed at the boycott, saying Canada was exporting more fish, crabs and lobster than ever before.

In Washington, a coalition of restaurants and food companies agreed that the boycott is not working.

A survey by the U.S-based Center for Consumer Freedom said only 21 per cent of the restaurants and seafood companies that the Humane Society of the United States claims are boycotting Canadian seafood are doing that.

"Thirty-one per cent of the restaurants on their list are presently serving Canadian seafood as we speak," spokesman David Martosko told CBC Radio.

The consumer group also found more than 45 per cent of the restaurants on the society's list have never served Canadian products.
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Seal hunt protesters say opposition growing
Canadian Press
Published: March 24, 2006

CHARLOTTETOWN -- Canada's East Coast seal hunt will be under a global microscope when sealers take to the ice Saturday to begin the annual hunt in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The federal Fisheries Department announced Thursday that the Gulf hunt, which has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years, will begin at 6 a.m. Saturday, allowing sealers from Atlantic Canada and Quebec to begin taking 91,000 harp seals.

A much larger hunt off the northern coast of Newfoundland, where hunters can take 234,000 seals, is expected to begin early next month.

Rebecca Aldworth of the Humane Society of the United States, one of several animal rights groups opposed to the hunt, said protesters believe international momentum is building for their cause.

Aldworth said the anti-hunt movement was a victim of its own success when, in 1983, the European Economic Community banned the importation of the distinctive white fur pelts of newborn harp seals.

She said many people thought that was the end of the hunt and did not realize Canada continued to allow the yearly slaughter even though markets had largely collapsed and the killing of whitecoats was banned in 1987.

Between 1983 and 1995, the industry took about 52,000 seals annually - a fraction of the number killed during the 1950s and 1960s when the hunt first attracted the attention of conservation groups.

"Our challenge has never been convincing the world that it is wrong to kill baby seals for their skins; the challenge has been telling the world that the hunt goes on," Aldworth said in an interview.

According to study by the Canadian Institute for Business and the Environment, the commercial sealing industry surged back to life in 1996 as demand for seal skin increased and the federal government started subsidizing the sale of seal meat - a practice that ended in 1999.

Between 1996 and 2002, an average of 240,000 seals were taken every year, but that number jumped to over 300,000 when the federal government announced in 2003 a three-year total allowable catch of 975,000 animals.

That's when the protesters started to regroup.

"Most people out there believed the hunt ended in the 1980s," said Aldworth. "When the Canadian government subsidized the hunt's return in the 1990s, it was very difficult to educate the world to the fact the hunt was back. But now, the world is aware."

Aldworth said the visit to the ice floes by megastar Paul McCartney earlier this month focused international attention on the hunt once again.

As well, 71-year-old actress Brigitte Bardot - the French film star whose visit to the floes in 1972 marked a turning point for the anti-hunt movement - visited Ottawa earlier this week to plead for an end to the harvest.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper was asked about some grisly videotapes of the hunt aired by Bardot.

========================

Bardot protests seal hunt, disappointed by PM

Last Updated Wed, 22 Mar 2006 19:43:26 EST

CBC News

Legendary French actress and animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot returned to Canada for the first time in 29 years on Wednesday to protest the commercial harp seal hunt. Bardot's appearance comes just before the federal government announces a date for the start of the spring hunt in eastern Canada. It's not known when that announcement will take place.

The last time the 71-year-old former movie star was in Canada, which was the late seventies, her protest caused a major reduction in the cost of seal pelts, affecting the livelihoods of people in fishing communities in Atlantic Canada and in the Arctic.

During a news conference at a downtown Ottawa hotel, Bardot said she's disappointed Prime Minister Stephen Harper wouldn't meet with her, or even engage in a five-minute phone call.

"I was very disappointed. I wanted to speak with him to try to explain to him why he has the power to stop [the seal hunt] and why he didn't do it."

Paul Watson, one of the co-founders of Greenpeace, helped organize the first campaign to protect East Coast seals in 1976. Thirty years later he's sending a petition with 25,000 signatures to the Canadian government asking it to stop the commercial seal hunt.

"The only reason it exists is because of a stubbornness of the people who are running the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. And we've got to have a fisheries minister who is not from Newfoundland, who can take an objective look at this," said Watson.

Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn also refused to meet with Bardot.

Quebec Senator Celine Hervieux-Payette wonders what qualifies Bardot to question Canada's fisheries policies.

"We are talking about a $20 million industry. [For] the people of Newfoundland, of the Magdeleine Islands and of the North, this is part of their livelihood and this is a tradition that has been there for hundreds of years," she said.

The DFO says it encourages the fullest possible commercial use of seals.

There are up to six million harp seals in the northwest Atlantic.

Last year was one of the most profitable seal hunts ever in Canada.

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Protesters, celebrities, fishermen ready for seal hunt
Canadian Press
Published: Wednesday, March 22, 2006

TORONTO -- Protesters, celebrities and fishermen were gearing up for Canada's hotly debated seal hunt, set to get under way later this week in the gulf off the Atlantic Ocean.

Federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn has given a cold shoulder to French film legend Brigitte Bardot, who intends to visit Ottawa on Wednesday to implore the federal government to end the regulated slaughter of some 325,000 harp seals.

Hearn told the St. John's Telegram in Newfoundland, where the largest leg of the hunt takes place, that he turned down a request by Bardot to meet during her visit.

"It just furthers their cause," Hearn said, referring to the attention such a meeting would generate for the hunt's opponents.

Bardot made waves in the 1970s when she first came to Canada to protest the annual hunt by posing with the adorable doe-eyed pups. Many celebrities, including Paul McCartney, have their pictures taken with the fluffy white newborns, though Canada years ago banned the killing of the pups until after they molt and lose their white fur.

Bardot, making her first trip back to Canada in nearly 30 years -- said she would be joined at a news conference in the federal capital by American actress Persia White, of the TV show "Girlfriends," and Sea Shepherd Conservation Society Founder Captain Paul Watson.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper also turned down a meeting with the former sex symbol.

"My responsibilities are about the ... needs of Canadians," he said. "I don't intend to participate in the actions of famous people for publicity."

Former Beatle McCartney and his wife, Heather Mills McCartney, took to the ice floes off the Atlantic Ocean two weeks ago to frolic with seal pups and highlight the work of anti-seal hunt efforts by the Humane Society and other animal protection groups.

The McCartneys made a passionate appeal against the hunt, saying officials should consider developing eco-tourism in place of the hunt, which he described as brutal and "a stain on the character of the Canadian people."

Fisheries officials and sealers say the annual hunt provides badly needed income for the isolated fishing communities in Atlantic Canada, as well as food and shelter for the aboriginal Inuits in the Arctic North.

About 320,000 seals pups were killed during the hunt last year, bringing the local fishermen C$16.5 million (euro13.84 million; US$14.5 million) in supplemental income during the winter offseason. Federal officials say fishing communities of Quebec and Newfoundland, whose livelihoods were devastated when the Atlantic cod stocks dried up in the 1990s, earn 25 percent to 40 percent of their annual income by selling the seal pelts and blubber for about $70 each.

The dates for the spring leg of the hunt have yet to be announced as the unseasonably mild temperatures in Atlantic Canada have made the ice thin. But sealers and federal fisheries officials believe it will get under way by Friday or Saturday. It can last from three to 10 days, depending on hunting conditions.

The quota for the hunt in the Gulf of St. Lawrence is 91,000 harp seals.

The bulk of the seal hunt takes place in April, when it moves the north coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, where sealers can take 224,000 animals this year.

The United States banned Canadian seals products in 1972, and a ban on importing the white pelts of seal pups was implemented by the European Community in 1983.
© Canadian Press 2006

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Hunters, protesters prepare for seal hunt

Canadian Press
Published: Tuesday, March 21, 2006

CHARLOTTETOWN -- Seal hunters and protesters are making plans for the start of the annual slaughter later this week in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Rebecca Aldworth of the Humane Society of the United States, one of the main groups opposing the annual East Coast hunt, says her group will observe and film the hunt despite the fact protesters probably will not be able to land helicopters on the quickly disappearing ice.

Officials with the federal Fisheries Department say the hunt is expected to open Friday or Saturday.

Jean-Claude LaPierre, spokesman for a sealing association on Iles de la Madeleine, says the lack of ice may make it difficult for hunters to reach this year's Gulf quota of 91,000 seals.

Aldworth says she believes growing international opposition to Canada's East Coast seal hunt and high natural mortality due to global warming could make this the last year for the slaughter.

But LaPierre, who has been hunting seals for at least 50 years, says the hunt will go on because it is a critical part of the economy of coastal communities.
© The Canadian Press 2006

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Senator bites back
Rips anti-hunt family in U.S.

By KATHLEEN HARRIS, OTTAWA BUREAU Toronto Sun


A seal pup nips at Heather Mills, wife of Paul McCartney, as the couple protest the seal hunt recently. A U.S. family who cancelled a holiday because of the “brutal” practice got an angry e-mail from Liberal Sen. Celine Hervieux-Payette. (CP file photo)

OTTAWA -- A Liberal senator is under fire for unleashing an anti-American rant on a U.S. family who cancelled a Canadian vacation because of the annual seal hunt.

The McLellans of Minnesota wrote to a cluster of senators outlining plans to boycott a planned holiday in Canada to protest what they viewed as a "brutal" practice. Quebec Sen. Celine Hervieux-Payette shot back with a strongly-worded e-mail response lashing out at American policy.

"What I find 'horrific' about your country is the daily killing of innocent people in Iraq, the execution of mainly black prisoners in the U.S., the massive sale of guns to U.S. citizens every day, the destabilization of the whole world by the aggressive foreign policy of U.S. government, etc.," she wrote.

'ANTI-AMERICANISM' RIFE

Conservative Sen. Marjory LeBreton, the government leader in the Senate, said Hervieux-Payette's wrath proves "anti-Americanism" is alive and well in the Liberal Party and called for an apology for the U.S. "bashing."

"(U.S. Ambassador) Michael Wilson is probably going to have to spend some time next week explaining that this person who spoke out in this way is a member of the Liberal party, who were just defeated at the polls in Canada, to minimize any damage," she said.

Liberal Leader Bill Graham distanced himself from the comments, insisting they are "personal opinions," not party policy. But Hervieux-Payette has no regrets or apologies for her e-mail, insisting she is "really offended" by the family's threats of economic sanction.

"Look in your own backyard and start correcting things that are more horrific than the seal hunting in Canada," she told the Sun.

"People in Canada are sick and tired of threats and retaliation. We are a good neighbour and a good player, and I said to myself if she wants to improve some policies, she should do that in her own backyard."

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McCartney stages anti-sealing protest on ice floe  

Canadian Press

Published: March 3, 2006

SOMEWHERE IN THE GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE -- Music legend Paul McCartney and his wife Heather travelled by helicopter to the barren ice floes in the Gulf of St. Lawrence on to stage a high-profile protest against Canada's annual seal hunt yesterday.

The megastar couple called on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to end the centuries-old commercial hunt, which they described as a brutal slaughter.

"Previous Canadian governments have allowed this heartbreaking hunt to continue despite the fact that the majority of its citizens . . . are opposed to it," the McCartneys said in a joint statement released before they left the airport in Charlottetown.

"We have complete faith that Prime Minister Harper will take swift and decisive action to end the slaughter of these defenceless seal pups for good."

Under partly cloudy skies and temperatures hovering around -10 C, the McCartney's flew by small plane from Charlottetown to Iles-de-la-Madeleine, 160 kilometres northwest of P.E.I., arriving at 1 p.m. local time.

Dressed in bright orange survival suits, they waved to reporters as they boarded a helicopter at the airport near Havre-aux-Maisons. It took them to a large ice pan about 20 kilometres northwest of the islands.

The McCartney's planned to get as close as they could to newborn harp seals -- with scores of photographers and reporters taken to the event by three other choppers.

The longtime animal rights activists noted the Canadian government had approved a three-year management plan in 2003 that set the total quota for harp seals at 975,000 -- a move that prompted renewed outrage among conservation groups.

Thursday's protest was organized by the Humane Society of the United States and the British-based group, Respect for Animals.

"I've observed the seal hunt at close range for seven years," Rebecca Aldworth, director of Canadian wildlife issues for the Humane Society of the United States, said in a statement.

"I routinely witness conscious seals dragged across the ice with boat hooks, wounded seals left to choke on their own blood, and seals being skinned alive. The commercial seal hunt is inherently cruel. It is a national disgrace."

The McCartneys cited a 2001 independent veterinarian report that concluded close to half of the seals killed were likely still conscious when skinned.

The youngest harp seals, known as whitecoats, cannot be killed until they loose their white fur. That can happen in as little as 12 days. But most of the harp seals taken are about 25 days old, the Fisheries Department says.

The date for the start of this year's hunt has yet to be set, though it usually starts in late March. The 2006 quota is also under review.

© Canadian Press 2006

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