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Greetings,
I'm forwarding this message from the left bio discussion group. I believe that some on the sustmar
list will find it of interest. As a federal Green Party candidate in PEI in the last election, and now as Environment critic for the party, I voted to phase out the seal hunt in Atlantic Canada.
Sharon Labchuk
Earth Action
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Hello left bios:
I just received my copy of the December 2004 (Vol XIII, #10) US publication
_Animal People: News For People Who Care about Animals_, a publication I
regard as very progressive. I was pleased to see on page 4, a prominently
featured letter by Don Roebuck of Toronto, Ontario, headlined "Canadian
Greens now oppose sealing." It was noted that Roebuck had run as an
Ontario and federal Green Party candidate in past elections.
Because of its importance for those of us who care about seals, I have
copied the letter in its entirety below. As a non party green, I would like
to personally thank all those electoral greens within the federal Green
Party, including left bios, who worked to bring about this important policy
change. We, who care about seals, have no longer to be ashamed about the
party's position on the annual industrial slaughter of harp and hooded seals.
Note however the caution in the letter about the position of the
Newfoundland/Labrador greens. In a federal green "party" sense, seal issues
have been contentious, with Newfoundland and Labrador greens, reflecting to
some degree their seal-hunting local culture, advancing positions on the
annual seal hunt (slaughter) which have been contested, in the present and
in the past, by party greens in central and western Canada, as well as by
ecocentric greens in the Atlantic region itself. Greens are expected to be
sensitive to local cultural considerations but such considerations, I
believe, have to be placed in the context of putting the welfare of the
Earth and all its life forms first. The basic divide is whether or not we
put the Earth first or people's interest first. Do we support, when it
comes down to it, a green ecocentrism or a green humanism?
Perhaps electoral greens in the Atlantic region, in a party sense, can now
step forward and speak out publicly against the planned slaughter of 10,000
grey seals over the next two years, now "authorized" by the Department of
Fisheries and Oceans? This is another major wildlife crime, engineered
again by those who look at the oceans strictly from what they consider to
be a self-interest viewpoint, i.e. fish "belong" to humankind.
For the seals and all marine life. Ecocentically yours,
David Orton
*****
"My letter headlined 'Canadian Greens endorsed seal hunt' in the June 2003
edition of _Animal People_ pointed out that the Green Party of Canada had
adopted a policy in support of the commercial seal hunt held each spring
off our east coast.
Animal protectionists responded with a two-phase strategy. First, with a
federal election coming up, we set out to show that the party would lose
votes over this. Our protests received national news coverage. Follow-up
included going to all-candidates meetings and calling talk shows when the
party leader was in the studio, challenging the party position.
Rebecca Aldworth, then of the International Fund for Animal Welfare and now
with the Humane Society of the U.S., went to the Green Party national
convention in August 2004. She showed her video of the seal hunt and talked
individually to every party member.
It worked! The party dropped its pro-hunt policy and adopted a policy that
calls for phasing out the commercial seal hunt, by a vote of 98 to 7. This
made the Greens the first Canadian party to have an anti-seal hunt policy.
The fight probably is not over. I think there is a good chance that the
Terra Nova (Newfounland) Greens, who were behind the original policy, will
try to get the present policy dropped or weakened at the next Green Party
of Canada convention in 2005. But we will be better prepared."
- Don Roebuck
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