Categories: Capital Diary

Supporting the sealers with fur pins

by Mitchel Raphael on Thursday, July 2, 2009 5:21pm - 28 Comments

As MPs parted Parliament Hill for the summer break, the awareness item to sport were seal skin ribbons in support of Canadian sealers.

Montreal NDP MP Thomas Mulcair.

Bloc MP Nicole Demers. (Her head is shaved from a cancer fundraiser.)

Montreal Liberal MP Marc Garneau.

Montreal Liberal MP Justin Trudeau.

Tags: Justin Trudeau, marc garneau, Nicole Demers, Thomas Mulcair

More by Mitchel Raphael

http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

Instead of fur pins, they should be wearing tiny silver sealing clubs on their lapels.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Jack_Mitchell Jack Mitchell

LOL
Lord Kitchener's Own

Reminds me of this, lol.

Dot

Eric Reguly had an interesting column in this month's G&M ROB Magazine. He has an interesting perspective, including a view from Europe.

Is the seal hunt worth it?
It makes meagre revenues and costs a fortune of goodwill abroad

He says no.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business…

P.s. – I was shocked to see a pic of Justin Trudeau. It was about time, Mitch!
http://intensedebate.com/people/Jack_Mitchell Jack Mitchell

Between asbestos and sealing, it's tough to decide which narrow appeal to an absurdly marginal constituency is more desperate.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

The combined revenues from asbestos and sealing are less than Danny Heatley's annual compensation.
http://www.intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

The combined revenues from asbestos and sealing are less than Dany Heatley's annual compensation.

http://intensedebate.com/people/JustinWordswrth JustinWordswrth

But they can't score.
http://intensedebate.com/people/madeyoulook madeyoulook

What are you saying, CR? That since government is so good at picking winners, federal taxpayers should be subsidizing hockey players with questionable driving skills?

http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

Nope, myl. I used the Heatley example just to demonstrate the scale of these industries.

Lord Kitchener's Own

I wonder what colour of ribbon Ottawa-area MPs will sport to demonstrate their support for clubbing Dany Heatley?

http://intensedebate.com/people/madeyoulook madeyoulook

Black and blue, dripping red.

MJ Patchouli

The pins look like seal stoles for Barbie, but I think she's gone PETA.

Seriously, a little creepy, and could someone please innovate some new symbols that are not coloured ribbons in a loop, or a think elastic band for the wrist?
http://intensedebate.com/people/SisyphusThis SisyphusThis

Our GG has ulu earrings. It's true.
Wotcher?

If all the MPs wore seal skin ribbons, how many seals would have to die to make them?

Dave

Depending on the seal, maybe 1/12th of a seal? They release the other 11/12th.

Wotcher?

Really? 308 fur ribbons from 1/12 of a seal? That's a helluva big seal.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Jack_Mitchell Jack Mitchell

Phoque yeah.
http://www.intensedebate.com/people/Jack_Mitchell Jack Mitchell

Phoque, yeah.
http://intensedebate.com/people/madeyoulook madeyoulook

Enough for a state dinner at Rideau Hall?

Oh, and très cue, Jack.
http://www.intensedebate.com/people/madeyoulook madeyoulook

Enough for a state dinner at Rideau Hall?

Oh, and très cute, Jack.

Mikey

truly sickening disregard for lives other than their owns – Ottawa 101.

idiots.

Lord Kitchener's Own

I hear some of them also wear leather shoes, and eat meat, and set traps to kill rats rather than having their homes overwhelmed by vermin.

Barbarians.

Mikey

so do I, but I don;t kill wild animals just for their coats and to send the majority of profits over seas to Norway the CHIEF beneficiary of the atlantic slaughter.

the inuit already have an exemption.

it's sick and depraved, brute and useless.

Lord Kitchener's Own

Well, It's not JUST for their coats, it's also to prevent them from completely overrunning the Atlantic seaboard. Do you have any idea how many Harp seals there are? 'Cause most seem to believe there are between 5-6 MILLION. (a peer -reviewed study in 1999 put the population at an unsustainable 5.4 million individuals).

My comparison to rats wasn't an accident.

The seal population today is arguably larger than it was even before the commercial hunt even began (though, admittedly, reliable estimates from the 1800s aren't simple to come up with). Regardless, the damn things are EVERYWHERE.

So, while I'm not going to go out on the ice and start killing the seals myself, it's true, I'm also not going to exterminate rats around my neighborhood myself either. That doesn't mean I'm going to pillory the Orkin man, or insist that he leave the poor rats alone (and I'm pretty sure with rats, they don't even so much as harvest the skins!).

Frankly, I actually don't care much one way or the other whether the hunt continues or not. And I do understand that it's possible that the hunt is more damaging to our international reputation than it's really worth. However, the self-righteousness of opponents who don't generally know what the Hell they're talking about, and really just want to save the seals 'cause they're cute (despite the fact that harvesting the cute ones is actually still banned!) makes me want to dig in my heals a bit.

Saving animals is great, but perhaps efforts would be better focused on species with populations of less then 5 million.

John D

Apparently someone asked what the least they could do for the sealing industry would be

Lord Kitchener's Own

Actually, I think technically the least one can do for the sealing industry is complain on a blog about how all the politicians are doing is wearing ribbons.

(And also, I hasten to add, the other thing our politicians happen to be doing is KEEPING THE SEALING INDUSTRY GOING against sizable international pressure).