Listen to Doug talk with Paula Gayle of The Broadcast on CBCNL radio here
“Those laws are based on propaganda,” said Jim Winter, founding president of the Canadian Sealers Association (CSA), in St. John’s speaking to CBC’s reporter Patrick Butler.
The ban exists for “moral reasons” and has no basis in fact, added Winter, who protested the ban before several European parliaments.
Audio: Jim Winter was on with VOCM talk show host Paddy Daly November 24 to share his opinions on this summit.
To listen to his thoughts click the link below and then advance the player to: 26:30 to listen to Mr. Winter share his thoughts on the arrival of EU leaders here in St. John’s for the trade summit November 23-24 with prime minister Justin Trudeau.
VOCM Radio https://vocm.com/2019/08/01/open-line-with-paddy-daly/
Also you can hear Jim talk to Paula Gayle of The Broadcast on CBCNL radio reacting to this EU summit taking place here.
Doug Chiasson, executive director of the Fur Institute of Canada, reacted to the EU Summit’s lack of messaging on the seal import ban talking to CBC Newfoundland and Labrador Chiasson’s group considers itself the national voice for Canada’s sealing industry.
He said it’s become extremely difficult for Indigenous people to get their seal products to European market for a number of reasons.
“I would say it’s working very effectively at not allowing Indigenous harvested seal products into the European Union,” he said. “It’s not working very well as an exemption to the EU ban.”
Listen to Doug talk with Paula Gayle of The Broadcast on CBCNL radio here
Dion Dakins, CEO of Carino, Newfoundland’s only processor for seal products,
recognizes there were concerns in the past about the seal hunt — such as those raised in a report from an independent group of veterinarians in 2005 .
“Canada did respond, we improved our animal welfare, it started as an animal welfare concern, we’ve addressed that concern,” he said, adding numerous reports have concluded the hunt is ethical.
Danita Catherine Burke, a political scientist wants an apology from the European Union for what she describes as “cultural violence” stemming from the Newfoundland seal hunt wrote for the academic journal The Conversation on the Summit:
The EU has participated in cultural violence against sealers. Its ban is the result of European politicians accepting, unreservedly, activist narratives that essentially portray sealers as monsters.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare, in fact, celebrates the fact that the EU ban on seal products occurred at its instigation.
You can read her article here and listen to Danita being interviewed on the radio show CBC Newfoundland Morning with Bernice Hillier, Martin Jones here
Gil Thériault director of the Intra Quebec Sealers Association, said the seal population has exploded into the millions in Eastern Canada in recent years.
“One of the man factors impending fish stock recovery is the surplus population of seals. We have the American plaice, the flounder, the herring, the mackerel, the cod, we got a whole list” of affected stocks, Thériault said.