Ethical-sealing pledge could lift EU ban: senator

A Quebec senator is calling on Nunavut to sign on to a proposed international declaration on ethical seal hunting, which she says could help Canada challenge the European Union's trade ban on seal products.

SenatorCline Hervieux-Payette is visiting Iqaluit this week to promote the Universal Declaration on the Ethical Harvest of Seals, which she released last year.

Hervieux-Payette, who plans to go on an Inuit seal hunt on Thursday, said Tuesday the declaration could help Canada make a case to the World Trade Organization to force the EU to overturn its seal product ban.

"It was just a pure political decision which has no legal ground," she said of the ban.

The seal-product ban was adopted by 27 European countries last year, in part because of anti-sealing campaigns that accused Canada of conducting an inhumane seal harvest.

Canada, Inuitoppose ban

The ban has a limited exemption for seal products derived from traditional Inuit hunts, but Inuit sealers and leaders have said such exemptions are not clear and the overall ban has still affected the Inuit seal hunt.

The Canadian government has already filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization, arguing that the ban violates the EU's trade obligations.

As well, Inuit organizations in Canada and Greenland are suing the European Union over the trade ban.

The Universal Declaration on the Ethical Harvest of Seals aims to promote a balance between ensuring animal welfare, maintaining the well-being of people in sealing communities, and protecting the environment.

The document states that its signatories which currently include the governments of Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador care about the welfare of animal populations and believe in ensuring they are hunted properly.

The declaration calls for theseal population to be monitored and documented, and harvest quotas to be defined. As well, it says seals must be killed in a quick and professional manner, using humane methods.

UN seal of approval?

"A universal declaration would be eventually filed before one of the organizations of the United Nations, UNESCO [the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization],"Hervieux-Payette said.

"We know that people will respect these standards, will, in fact, be conducting this activity [seal hunt] according to the highest standards, and will stop all the criticism by people who talk about it without knowing nothing about it."

Nunavut Environment Minister Daniel Shewchuk said he will ask the territorialcabinet to consider Hervieux-Payette's request to sign the declaration.

Such a document could provide support that Nunavut and its Inuit sealing industry needs, Shewchuk said.

"I think it's going to help through the World Trade Organization, and I think it's going to be support for the Inuit groups that are taking legal action on their own in Nunavut now," he said.

Shewchuk added that it shouldn't be difficult for Nunavut to endorse the declaration, since seal hunters in the territory already comply with the document's principles.

As for Thursday's planned seal hunt expedition, Hervieux-Payette said she wants to witness the Inuit hunt first-hand, and gain further knowledge about Canada's sealing industry.