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NEWS: Nunavut February 18, 2010 - 3:50 pm


GN must still say yes to ethical seal declaration
“Probably not for a while”
CHRIS WINDEYER

Senator Celine Hervieux-Payette may have jumped the gun when she declared on her website Tuesday that Nunavut has signed on to a declaration on ethical sealing.

In a blog posting on the Liberal senator’s website, Hervieux-Payette writes that Nunavut has signed on to the Universal Declaration on the Ethical Harvest of Seals.

The declaration, a creation of veterinarians, marine biologists, sealers and former Nunavut commissioner Peter Irniq, proposes a common standard for harvesting and monitoring seal populations.

“I am delighted that the government of Nunavut is adding its voice to that of the government of Quebec and the government of Newfoundland and Labrador and reaffirms the interdependency between the seal hunt carried out in Nunavut and that carried out in the rest of Canada,” Hervieux-Payette wrote on her blog.

Not so fast, said a spokesperson for Premier Eva Aariak. While the government agrees to the declaration in principle, the GN still has to consult with hunters and the proposal still has to go before cabinet, the spokesperson said.

“Probably not for a while,” the spokesperson said when asked how long the proposal would take before it gets the final sign-off.

In a news release issued by her office, Hervieux-Payette quotes Aariak as saying the health of Nunavut’s seal hunt is linked to the state of the commercial hunt in other parts of Canada.

“The recent European Union seal products ban, while aimed at the Atlantic harp seal harvest, has severely impacted the market for Nunavut ringed seal pelts,” the Premier said.

The federal government is challenging the ban at the World Trade Organization, while Inuit organizations from Canada and Greenland filed a lawsuit in the EU’s General Court that seeks to hove the ban overturned.

Hervieux-Payette travelled to Nunavut last week to meet with GN officials, including environment minister Daniel Shewchuk, and go on a seal hunting trip.

“What an extraordinary excursion!” the senator wrote on her Twitter feed Feb. 11. “Our Inuit hunter killed a seal. We tasted it out of pleasure but also out of respect.”