Le Canada met le paquet !!!!

[Animal 0]

Seal hunt battle goes high-tech


Computer-assisted lobbying Canada takes on U.S. activist group's seafood boycott with sophisticated computer software

Feb 22, 2007 04:30 AM
Tim Harper
WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON–As a U.S. Humane Society boycott of Canadian seafood began to have an effect, the Canadian embassy began a counteroffensive with what it is touting as the most sophisticated lobbying tool in the country.

The battle of the seal hunt has featured international celebrities, grim tales from distant ice floes and graphic photos of bloody clubs on one side and – in typically Canadian understated fashion – a computer software package on the other.

The embassy tool is known as GoCCART (Government of Canada Congressional Analysis and Research Tool), a computer program developed by an American company that allows Canadian advocates to drill deep into every congressional, state or local political district in the U.S. with the click of a mouse.

Who has the most fish processing plants contemplating joining in the boycott in his or her district? Have those plants contributed to congressional campaigns? Are there Canadian-owned businesses in that district who might be offering support to the member?

GoCCART knows and so, now, do staffers from Canadian Ambassador Michael Wilson to representatives in 19 consulates and trade offices from Anchorage to Boston.

The software has been credited with giving the Canadian side a huge boost in opening the border to beef exports because advocates were able to go to legislators and identify meat processing plants in their district where local job losses could be expected if the ban was continued.

The Humane Society says since it began its ProtectSeals boycott in March 2005, Canadian exports of sea crabs to the U.S. have declined by $353.6 million (U.S.), or 36 per cent.

Although it does not claim that plunge is totally attributable to the boycott – Canada says factors such as market tastes, currency fluctuations and transport costs are bigger – it says the dip in exports are more pronounced than exports to other countries without the boycott.

Embassy officials have described the counteroffensive as "Politics 101,'' and it's really an homage to the famous adage from one-time House speaker Tip O'Neill, who believed all politics was local.

"It's all about perception,'' said embassy spokesperson Bernard Etzinger. "We can say, `you're being asked to do this – have you looked at it this way?'"

The pilot project began in January 2005, but it has been fully functional in the past six to eight months. In a funding request from the embassy to the department of foreign affairs, the Washington office describes the "wow factor'' in the level of information obtained, "because we show them local knowledge, and that we care about the same thing they do.''

The documents were obtained under Freedom of Information legislation by Ottawa researcher Ken Rubin.

The software, developed by iMapData Corp. of Washington, D.C., has also been used during the softwood lumber negotiations, to try to explode myths about Canadian social, security and environmental policies, and even on the Canadian push for a more robust international presence in Darfur, Sudan. But it is difficult to determine whether it is working on the seafood boycott, which is approaching its second anniversary.

Rebecca Aldworth, the U.S. Humane Society representative in Canada, said she has never dealt with a fish processing plant or restaurant that said it would not join the boycott of Canadian seafood because of the representation of the Canadian government – or a U.S. representative who may have been lobbied by Canada.

"We're not getting pushed back. I'm not saying this is not happening, but it has never come to our attention,'' she said. "The greatest success of the Canadian government is its misrepresentation of the effect of the boycott. That misinformation is irresponsible and reprehensible.''

Etzinger said Canadian consular officials throughout the U.S. are using GoCCART data to build awareness on the boycott.

"Our consulates in the U.S. are meeting with industry to take advantage of opportunities to correct myths and misperceptions on the seal hunt,'' he said. "We are using GoCCART to build a database of seafood processing facilities and mapping those out by city, state, and congressional district. We will continue to assess the impact that the boycott has on the seafood sector.''