Today in the news, our Governor General Michaelle Jean was in KUGLUKTUK, Nunavut (in Canada’s far north arctic region) speaking to students and while there she helped skin a seal and ate a piece of its heart, “raw,” as per this news item from the Canadian Press.
Then she “expressed dismay that anyone would characterize the Inuit seal hunt as inhumane.”
I guess Michaelle Jean needs to brush up on her facts.. and her geography. For one thing, she wasn’t in Newfoundland talking to white men. She was in the arctic talking to Inuit kids in Nunavit whose cultural tradition of using seals for subsistence living has never been in question with the seal protests and EU ban.
This quote from a New York Times article on the same story clarifies the point:
“The new EU rule offers narrow exemptions so Inuit communities from Canada, Greenland and elsewhere can continue traditional hunts, but bars them from large-scale trading of their pelts and other seal goods in Europe.
“Rebecca Aldworth, director of Humane Society International Canada, said Jean’s actions were misleading and offensive because of the exemptions.
”Inuit people are protected in the legislation. To suggest otherwise is deceptive on the part of the Canadian government..”
I’ve included map links so you can see just how many thousands of miles the GG veered off course on this issue. But she is not entirely to blame for confusing the use of seals by Inuits versus the Newfoundland annual massacre as she was merely spouting government propaganda.
Meanwhile since research shows Arctic seals with high levels of mercury linked to vanishing ice from climate change, it is too bad that the government won’t take an interest in these kids’ futures through cleaning up horrors like the horrendous greenhouse gas-producing Tar Sands projects (which are also causing rare cancers in First Nations communities up river.)
On the subject of the hearty snack, a European Union spokeswoman called the GG’s actions ”too bizarre to acknowledge”. (New York Times)
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Sir, may I recommend tonight’s special: PCBs in a Brominated Flame Retardant sauce?
Governor General Michaelle Jean touted acts which poison the Inuit!
SEAL MEAT IS CONTAMINATED!
She hurt Native People just to tout the Seal Hunt
Anyone esle who cheers what she did, is hurting the inuit!
“Geir Wing Gabrielsen, who has been conducting research in this area for 20 years, said that levels of Brominated flame retardants are three times higher in Canadian seals than they were 10 years ago.”
- The BBC confirms that brominated flame retardants (BFRs) are being found in animals from the Arctic. People in these areas are being warned by health officials NOT to eat them of the high concentrations of Brominated flame retardants (BFRs).”
“Eating a single one can increase your body burden of these organic pollutants by 10%. We’re advising children and women of child-bearing age not to eat any.” A source told the BBC “They’ve been shown to affect behaviour, particularly brain development, and that sort of effect on learning seems to get worse.””
This act of eating seal meat is not supporting Inuit, it’s killing Inuit people.
Shame on Gov Gen Michaelle Jean for this sour act!