Désespéré

[Animal 0]

Fisheries minister wades into seal protest


Il est vraiment désespéré le pauvre ministre Hearn !!!



http://www.canada.com/nationalpost


Peter O'Neil, CanWest News Service; Vancouver Sun
Published: Monday, March 05, 2007
OTTAWA -- Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn is accusing a Vancouver group of
despicable, immoral and exploitive behaviour for planning an anti-seal hunt
protest for later this month using children as "props" to attract media
attention.

"Please get the day off work/school," urges the notice from a group called
Liberation B.C., which included in its e-mail notice the website link for Humane
Society of the United States (HSUS).

Protesters, urged to wear black, are asked to meet at the Vancouver Art Gallery
on March 15. They are to walk single-file, carrying black coffins, to the
federal department of fisheries and oceans headquarters on Burrard Street.

Loyola Hearn describes group's tactics as "utterly despicable."
Canadian Press
"We need children dressed in black to lay flowers on the coffins in front of the
DFO. It will draw a lot of media attention if we can get the children," urges
the notice posted on the Discover Vancouver website.

Hearn's office sent out an e-mail to the media Friday with the subject line:
"HSUS Resort to Using Children as Props to Attract Media Interest."

Hearn, whose government is in a tough battle in the U.S. and Europe against
campaigns to boycott seal product imports, said the tactics go too far.

"To me it's utterly despicable and shows they have absolutely no morals when
they stoop that low," he told the Vancouver Sun.

"It's sick. Exploiting children and involving innocent children in something
like this is completely and utterly shameful."

Hearn, a Newfoundland MP, said the "supposedly Canadian" protesters against a
"legitimate, sustainable, humane hunt."

Rebecca Aldworth, the Montreal-based Canadian spokeswoman for HSUS, said her
organization has led the global initiative to declare March 15 an "international
day of action" against the hunt.

Aldworth supports the Vancouver group's "fantastic" efforts and is willing to
provide literature for activists as well as use its media contacts to draw
attention to the event.

She said she can't comment on Liberation B.C.'s tactics because "this is not our
event," but added that it's Hearn who should feel shame.

"I would argue that Canada's seal hunt is the slaughter of baby seals."

Joanne Chang, who said she runs Liberation B.C. by herself and has an e-mail
network of about 800 people, said she has never had any contact with HSUS. She
put the Washington, D.C-based lobby group's website address on her e-mail notice
because "everybody knows them."

Told of Hearn's sledgehammer assault on her credibility, she replied: "This is
really crazy."

Chang, 32, an administration employee with a Vancouver company, said it's
legitimate to urge children to get involved.

"They see these images (of seals being harvested), they just have nightmares and
they want to do something about it."

The European Union, under pressure from Germany, Belgium and the United Kingdom
to ban seal products imports, has agreed to launch a study into whether the
Canadian seal hunt is humane.

The federal government has stepped up lobbying efforts, in advance of the hunt
expected to begin later this month.

But it has struggled in the emotional public relations battle to keep ahead of
groups like HSUS, which includes a photograph of a white-furred baby seal on its
website next to a photograph of a sealer about to drive his club, called a
hakapik, into the skull of an older seal.

[animo-aequoanimo 0]

J'espère qu'ils seront NOMBREUX !!!!

[Animal 0]

Moi je trouve que c'est une excellente idée d'amener ses enfants à cette manif... C'est une belle façon de les sensibiliser !

[hop 0]

"exploiting children"

n'importe quoi !!!