ALERT DATE: September 20, 2008
ALERT DEADLINE: ONGOING

Photo: GAN

From unwilling Canadian taxpayers, as per usual.

Photo: SSCS

Yet every year the Canadian government pours millions of our tax dollars into supporting and facilitating the commercial killing of seals on the east coast of Canada. The items we pay for include, but are not limited to, the following:

• planes for spotting seals and sending the coordinates to sealers (interestingly, the Canadian government will not share those coordinates with Canadian observers - they share them with only sealers, making it obvious for whom they are working);
  
  
• Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers to clear paths for sealers to reach the pups and to engage in search and rescue for sealers who become stranded or stuck on the ice (interestingly, Coast Guard vessels have ignored repeated requests for assistance from Canadian observers, making it obvious for whom they are working);
  
  
• helicopters to deliver supplies (including cigarettes) to sealers when their boats become stuck in the ice;
  
  
• expensive Public Relations campaigns abroad, including lavish all-expenses paid trips to Europe for members of the government and representatives of the sealing industry, such as Nunavut Premier Paul Okalik, Canadian Fisheries Conservation Ambassador Loyola Sullivan, Newfoundland Natural Resources Minister Kathy Dunderdale, Fur Institute of Canada executive director Rob Cahill, and sealers Mark Small and Denis Longuepee;
  
  
• All-expenses paid trips to Newfoundland for international journalists where bullying sealing industry executives and sealers waxing lyrical about becoming men by bashing baby seals to death are paraded in front of them;
  
  
• Market initiatives to develop seal products and to find buyers for same;
  
  
• DFO personnel to perform various duties and tasks relating to the seal hunt, such as issuing licenses, writing letters to newspapers, taking online polls, making travel arrangements and general clerical duties.

Photo: IFAW

THAT MONEY COMES FROM CANADIAN TAXPAYERS.

If the majority of Canadians oppose the seal hunt and want it abolished, why is the government using our money to pay sealers to kill baby seals? It's time to tell the Canadian government that enough is enough!

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Please take a moment to send an email to the Canadian government making the following points:

• the government of Canada must recognize that the majority of Canadians holding an opinion oppose the commercial killing of seals and object to their tax dollars being used to keep afloat the cruel and outmoded slaughter of seals;
  
  
• the government of Canada must accordingly respect the wishes of the majority of Canadians and abolish all commercial killing of seals while implementing a license buyback program to compensate those currently involved in the sealing industry;
  
  
• the government of Canada must respect the sovereign right of other nations to ban trade in products they find morally offensive;
  
  
• the government of Canada must cease all lobbying efforts to prevent seal product bans in Europe and other parts of the world.

Everything you need is on this page - names, email addresses and suggested email text. Please feel free to use the text as is, adapt it to your liking, or draft your own. Please remain polite in your email, as profanity or threatening language will cause your email to be deleted.

Please use the email addresses provided to send a copy of your email to the leaders of the Green Party, the Liberal Party and the NDP so they are aware of your position on this issue during the 2008 federal election campaign. You may also wish to send a copy to the party representatives standing for election in your electoral district. For a list of candidates in your electoral district, simply visit the Elections Canada website. Please let us know if you receive a response from any of the recipients.

Please send a cc to your local Member of Parliament. To find the contact information of your Members of Parliament please visit the Members of the House of Commons searchable database. Please also send a bcc to us as action@antisealingcoalition.ca.