By LAURA FRASER Cape Breton Bureau
Wed. May 6 - 5:29 AM

Ottawa threatened to appeal to the World Trade Organization after the European Parliament approved a bill Tuesday that would ban imported seal products, effectively killing the market for the 150 Nova Scotians who are licensed for Canada’s seal hunt.

Although the vote must still go to the European Council before it becomes law, most media reports suggested that was only a formality and the ban would be in place before next year’s hunt. Video footage of the vote showed that it passed the European Union assembly 550-49.

EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas welcomed the vote and said it addressed "EU citizens’ concerns with regard to the cruel hunting methods of seals."

Tuesday’s vote, however, is sure to pose problems in EU-Canada ties and comes on the eve of a key summit between the two countries in Prague where they are supposed to launch negotiations on a wide-ranging free-trade pact.

The proposed law must exempt Canadian seal products that are humanely harvested, International Trade Minister Stockwell Day said in a news release.

"If there is no such acceptable exemption, Canada will challenge the ban at the World Trade Organization."

Federal Fisheries Minister Gail Shea issued the same challenge in March when a European parliamentary committee took its first step towards the ban.

Canada has taken action to monitor and regulate the country’s commercial sealing industry, partially to satisfy European markets, she said at the time.

"The decision by the European Parliament lacks any basis in facts," she said in a news release Tuesday.

"The Canadian seal hunt is guided by rigorous animal welfare principles, which are internationally recognized by independent observers. I once again caution my European counterparts about the dangers of pursuing politically motivated bans on other countries’ traditional industries."

Veteran Cape Breton sealer Robert Courtney, of Dingwall, says he’s more concerned about letting the seal population go unchecked than he is about losing the few thousand dollars he might get from the annual hunt. If the seal population increases, it could wipe out the groundfish stocks, he said.

"The seal industry makes up part of our income at a time of year where we don’t have much else and ... it is going to be a bad time…. If our markets diminish, the governments need to step in and at least have a cull or do something with the herd to keep it in check," he said.

He said he blames the European Union’s decision on propaganda put out by some anti-sealing activists, particularly those who still use pictures of fluffy white seals even though it’s been illegal to hunt pups that young for more than a decade.

"(Activists) get a 10-second clip and that’s what they base their facts on," Mr. Courtney said.

"I think this is a black day for Atlantic Canada."

Rebecca Aldworth couldn’t disagree more. The director of the International Humane Society Canada has spent 15 years campaigning to end Canada’s seal hunt.

"For me, this has been, in a way, my life’s work. It’s all sort of come to this moment," she said from France.

"To see them vote so overwhelmingly in favour of it, it was a landslide victory.

"As I was sitting there, just images of all of the seals that I’ve been witnessing over the years dying horribly just kept flashing through my mind."

Canada’s seal hunt is the largest in the world, and has an average annual harvest of about 300,000 harp seals, The Canadian Press reported. That resulted in exports of about $5.5 million to the EU in 2006.