Senate should debate ending the seal hunt

OTTAWA – The Green Party is calling on the Senate to allow Senator Mac Harb’s bill to end Canada’s commercial seal hunt to be debated in the upper chamber. Earlier this month Mr. Harb’s first attempt to introduce the bill failed when, in an unprecedented development, no other senator would second his motion. 

“The overwhelming majority of Canadians oppose the commercial seal hunt and it is laudable that a Canadian parliamentarian has bravely introduced a bill to end the commercial hunt,” said Green Party leader Elizabeth May. “The Senate is supposed to be the realm of sober second thought but the collective attempt to prevent the Harb Seal Bill from being debated is shameful, anti-democratic and flies in the face of public opinion.”

The Green Party has long taken a principled stand against the annual kill on the grounds that it is inherently inhumane, unsustainable and economically damaging to Canada. At the Party’s biennial policy convention in Nova Scotia at the beginning of March, members supported a policy to buy back commercial seal hunting licenses and develop marine ecotourism opportunities for coastal communities.

“The landed value of the seal hunt in 2008 was a mere $7 million and fishers earn, on average, only five percent of their income from sealing. The Canadian government could easily replace this income by buying back sealing licenses,” said Ms. May. “A similar buyback occurred in the 70s with whaling licenses and we discovered that whale watching brought far more money to communities than whale killing ever did. Tourists will pay top dollar to visit the stunning harp seal nurseries in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Already, the Magdalen Islands earn more money from seal watching than seal killing.

“The pending European Union ban on seal products will cripple the commercial seal hunt. The global public opposition and closing markets for this hunt are compelling reasons to end it immediately.”

The seal hunt is heavily subsidized by Canadian taxpayers in the form of icebreaking services, seal locating services, monitoring and enforcement. The Green Party denounces the Canadian government’s lobbying efforts in the EU, where taxpayers have footed the bill for an extensive propaganda campaign by government officials.

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John Bennett
Director of Communications
Green Party of Canada
Phone: 613 562 4916 ext. 230
Cell: 613 291 6888