A new Senate committee report calls for a national and international campaign to counter misinformation around Canada's seal products industry, and new efforts to build a market for seal products.A sealer drags two dead harp seals back to his boat during a commercial seal hunt in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 2005.
Among those problems is a lack of education around the sealing industry, which is why the report calls for a national and international campaign to promote Canadian seal products.'What we were saying 17 years ago is finally being listened to,' said Inuk activist Aaju Peter. The Senate committee also wants changes to the Income Tax Act so that non-profit organizations that spread misinformation about seal harvesting can have their tax-exempt status revoked.
Sen. Fabian Manning, chair of the Senate committee on fisheries and oceans, says the report's recommendations would offer 'equal treatment' for the sealing industry alongside other food industries. The report says seal populations in Canada are believed to be healthy, but there is little data available on some species of seals, including those found through the Arctic.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada hasn't had catch limits on seals since 2016, because harvesters never exceeded previous quotas. An exemption to European Union's seal import ban for Indigenous harvesters was put in place by the World Trade Organization in 2015, after the EU banned all seal products in 2009.