Inuit hunters criticise EU over seal products ban

A Canadian Inuit delegation will make an eve-of-vote appeal to MEPs to reconsider plans for an EU ban on the commercial trade and importation of seal products.

The Inuit delegation, from Canada's Nunavut territory will have face-to-face meetings with MEPs ahead of Tuesday's plenary vote in Strasbourg, where deputies are expected to overwhelmingly back the ban.

Despite a limited exemption in the proposals aimed at protecting traditional hunting communities, the Inuit delegation are convinced that the wider scope of the ban will render the exemption meaningless.

One of the Inuit delegates, Joshua Kango, president of the Amarok hunters and trappers association, said he feared a repeat of what happened in 1983 when a commercial trade ban on the import of whitecoat and blueback seal pelts was introduced by the then European Economic Community, which Kango says had a devastating impact on the Inuit community.

"We had an exemption then too," said Kango in a press release ahead of the delegation's visit to Strasbourg. "But that didn't stop the market collapse, and the hardship and the suicides that followed throughout our communities."

Another member of the delegation, Inuit-rights activist and lawyer, Aaju Peter called the exemption for traditional hunting an insult to the Inuit community, and attacked MEPs' attitudes as patronising.

"For one, they [MEPs] don't acknowledge the rights of Inuit to earn a living from selling our products. It's like they want to relegate our trade to the past, and us with it, while the rest of the world is allowed to move forward," said Peter. "Why should we accept this form of cultural colonisation?"

The proposed EU ban has put a strain on transatlantic relations with Canada, ahead of Wednesday's EU-Canada summit.

A new Brussels-Ottawa trade deal could net around €25bn in annual economic activity, dwarfing the economic impact of a seal product ban.

However the proposed ban is an emotive and high-profile issue in Canada, and was a key factor in the Arctic council's recent decision to oppose EU permanent observer status on the body, made up of Canada, Russia, the US, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Iceland.

Despite the last-ditch campaign by the five-strong Inuit delegation, UK Socialist MEP Arlene McCarthy was confident the new law will be adopted on Tuesday.

In an earlier statement, McCarthy, who put forward alternative amendments for a full ban following the defeat of proposals for a less restrictive labelling regime by UK Liberal MEP Diana Wallis, said, "We are determined to deliver this new law, which will be a victory for people power and a credit to the campaigners involved.

"The vast majority of people across Europe are horrified by the cruel clubbing to death of seals and this law will finally put an end to the cruel cull of nearly 300,000 seals a year.

"We have worked extremely hard over recent weeks in the face of heavy lobbying from countries that export this cruel trade. We took a tough line and are happy that the council and commission have backed our call for a ban.

"The original proposal for a weak regime of labelling of products put forward by the Lib Dem rapporteur, Diana Wallis was roundly defeated in committee and we are now on track to get a full ban."

But Peter indicated the Inuit delegation would be working round the clock to influence MEPs' views right up to the vote on Tuesday.

"So far they have ignored the facts that the anti-sealing movement is based on false information, that the seals are not endangered and that we hunt them with respect - they have ignored these facts easily because it is politically correct for them to yield to emotional campaigns and opinions based on images," said Peter.

"But now we are here, and we don't intend to be ignored."

Supporters of the ban will also be out in force this week in Strasbourg, with leading proponents the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) set to hold a Tuesday morning photocall with a giant inflatable seal alongside MEPs backing the ban.

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