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A server delivers entrees featuring seal meat on Parliament Hill in Ottawa - Source: Reuters -
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Canadian parliamentarians tucked into a meal of seal meat to
defy both animal right activists and the European Union, which has
banned imports of seal products.
Some two dozen guests, surrounded on all sides by media, crammed
into a small room off the main parliamentary restaurant to hear
speeches backing the annual hunt off Canada's East Coast, which the
EU says is inhumane.
"This support begins on the plates of Canadians," said federal
Fisheries Minister Gail Shea as she prepared to eat three small
medallions of double-smoked bacon-wrapped seal loin in a port
reduction.
The EU imposed its ban last year after a decades-long fight by what
Shea called "misguided and mean-spirited" anti-seal-hunt
activists.
The seals are either shot or hit over the head with a spiked
club called a hakapik, which critics say is cruel.
All of Canada's major political parties say they are in favour of
the hunt, which takes place on ice floes in March and April.
"The Europeans simply don't know what they're talking about. Since
time began human beings have lived with animals and they have
culled animals," said Michael Ignatieff, leader of the main
opposition Liberal Party.
He spoke at an earlier reception where waiters passed through the
room carrying platters of seal terrine snacks.
Ignatieff ate several for the benefit of photographers.
"It tastes delicious, actually. It's a meaty taste, a little gamy,"
he declared.
The meal was arranged by Liberal Senator Celine Hervieux-Payette,
who said the hunt provided income for fishing communities in the
Atlantic.
"We're sending a message to the European parliamentarians ... we
want to say something so that opponents do not take to the floor
with lies," she told reporters.
The EU ban has slashed demand for seal furs, meat and oil.
Poor weather conditions and a lack of ice mean this year's hunt could be scrapped.
