Telegraph-Journal Apologizes to Prime Minister Harper - Monkeys to the Rescue

Well...my my! What a nasty little can of worms this turned out to be. You have to be very careful when you mess around with the Holy Ghost and the Catholic mass. Isn't it just the oldest game in history - mixing politics and religion?

Take a close look at this picture - just what is he doing anyways.....


Yesterday the National Post and a few other Canadian news media covered the story of how the Saint John Telegraph-Journal - Saint John's terribly one sided paper 'inaccurately' made the statement tht Prime Minister Stephen Harper was attempting to pull a little slight of hand with the communion wafer during the recent Romeo LeBlanc funeral mass.


I could not believe this when I read it. An amateur video showed Harper holding the wafer but not eating it... Was there no new lows this man would not sink to in his pact with the Devil? What was he doing with it? Was he not able to take communion because of unforgiven trespasses against God and man? Was he going to plant it on Michael Ignatieff during a political debate in an effort to discredit him? Just what was he up to? Did he commit a sacrilegious faux-pas by walking away with the body of Christ?



Yesterday the TJ were forced to apologize to Prime Minister Stephen Harper for the story which the newspaper said "was inaccurate and should not have been published." The story created a national controversy that lasted for several days while Harper was attending a G8 gathering in Italy and preparing to meet the Pope. THE POPE NO LESS!!


"There was no credible support for these statements of fact at the time this article was published, nor is the Telegraph-Journal aware of any credible support for these statements now," said the apology. "The Telegraph-Journal sincerely apologizes to the prime minister for the harm that this inaccurate story has caused."



The newspaper also apologized to the two reporters whose bylines appeared above the story. "Our reporters Rob Linke and Adam Huras, who wrote the story reporting on the funeral, did not include these statements in the version of the story that they wrote. In the editing process, these statements were added without the knowledge of the reporters and without any credible support for them," said the apology.


The story said that a senior Roman Catholic priest had demanded that Harper's office explain what happened to the communion wafer which was handed to the prime minister during the state funeral. The story also described video footage that showed the prime minister taking the wafer, but cut away before Harper was seen consuming it. I highly doubt that. With a Cathedral full to the rafters and media cameras galore, he was actually eyeing Harper to see if he 'chewed' or 'did not chew' the wafer. Yeah.


You would think that a paper would have checked all the facts before making a ridiculous statement such as that. A Telegraph-Journal newsroom employee who answered the phone said "no one will be talking" about the issue. An aide to publisher Jamie Irving said there would be "no comment."


CBC News has confirmed that editor Shawna Richer has been fired and that Jamie Irving is no longer the publisher of the paper. Earlier, their names had been removed from the paper's list of senior staff.


"Our reporters Rob Linke and Adam Huras, who wrote the story reporting on the funeral, did not include these statements in the version of the story that they wrote. In the editing process, these statements were added without the knowledge of the reporters and without any credible support for them. "The Telegraph-Journal sincerely apologizes to the prime minister for the harm that this inaccurate story has caused. We also apologize to reporters Rob Linke and Adam Huras and to our readers for our failure to meet our own standards of responsible journalism and accuracy in reporting."


Who the heck is in charge of editing this rag I wanna know? A room full of monkeys. Apparently no!...monkeys would have caught that gaff!!


The apology comes on the same day that a dozen professors from the University of New Brunswick, Mount Allison University and St. Thomas University issued a news release stating that they will no longer talk to the newspaper because of its decision to fire a student intern over factual errors that appeared in a story.


In May, Matt McCann was fired after writing a story about a faculty protest against Premier Shawn Graham receiving an honorary degree from the University of New Brunswick. Richer said McCann's story was unbalanced and contained three errors. The professors joining the boycott include six from St. Thomas, four from UNB and two from Mount Allison university. They say they will reconsider the boycott when McCann graduates in 2010 or if he is reinstated at the Telegraph-Journal.


It was another in an embarrassing string of events for the Telegraph-Journal. Saint John Mayor Ivan Court dared the newspaper's publisher to a debate and temporarily imposed his own ban on speaking to the Telegraph-Journal in January over his belief that the paper was too negative in its coverage of city hall. Court then said in late June that Irving and several senior newspaper staff members had told him in a private meeting that if the city cut taxes and replaced its manager, the tone of city hall coverage would change. "I and our former manager met Jamie Irving and his editorial staff in the manager's office. And we were told that unless we did what they wanted, they would continue what you see daily in the paper. And we saw the result of that: We no longer have a city manager," Court said.


From my point of view, this has nothing to do with the Irvings, this has nothing to do with the size of the family business. It all has to do with the editorial integrity of the newspaper, the health of civic debate and what looks to me like a bit of an infringement on journalistic independence.


Til later

Irving Giveth and Irving Taketh Away....New Oil Refinery for Saint John Shelved

Rising fuel-efficiency standards, changing consumer habits and growing use of ethanol in the United States played a big role in the cancellation of an $8-billion proposed refinery in New Brunswick.


Irving teamed up 18 months ago to study the feasibility of building a second 300,000 b/d refinery in Saint John to boost gasoline supplies in the U. S. Northeast. Construction was slated to start in 2011 or 2012.But they scrapped those plans yesterday after spending nearly $80-million on technical and commercial feasibility studies. Kevin Scott, director of refining growth for Irving, said gasoline demand has declined in the past two years, after growing steadily by 1% to 2% for years, and those declines appear permanent.


The move marks the third cancellation or delay of refining projects in Atlantic Canada in the past year. Harvest Energy Trust has deferred a $2-billion expansion of its Come-by-Chance plant in Newfoundland, and plans by Newfoundland and Labrador Refining Corp. for a new facility were stalled by the credit crunch. The refinery project was already on a slow track. Late last year, Irving changed the project's timing to a maximum eight years from three or four. At the time, the company said it was concerned about labour shortages, financing costs and the economic slump. The new refinery would have sourced oil from Canada's East Coast offshore projects, the North Sea, West Africa and South America.


The cancellation means the company will not need, for now, to try to repatriate thousands of tradesmen that moved to Alberta from Atlantic Canada in recent years to work in the oil sands.


The cancellation deals a major blow to New Brunswick's vision of a building a major energy hub in the Saint John area to serve Eastern Canada and the U.S. Northeast. The new initiatives would have been anchored by the expanded Irving refinery capacity, which would have doubled in size. The refinery expansion would have contributed about $7-billion of the $15-billion to $20-billion in new capital investment touted for the region.


The hub idea, heavily endorsed by Irving Oil and the provincial government, is to use Saint John's location and deep harbours to become a key delivery and transmission point for the U.S. Northeast.


Much was riding on these proposals because of Saint John's recent history of economic decline, given the loss of a sugar refinery, of ship-building operations, and the difficulties facing the provincial forestry industry. At its peak, the project was expected to create several thousand construction jobs.


Scores of energy projects were cancelled or put on hold in the oil sands last fall, but some are being re-considered with the economy recovering and oil prices rebounding. While the recession played a role in depressing gasoline demand, the proposed refinery is one of the first in North America to be scrapped because of expectations of lower consumption over the longer term.


Til later

Ah Houston?...we have a BIG PROBLEM!

Is it just me or is travel on the space shuttle loosing it's appeal. I really believe it is time to retire those cigar tubes on steroids. With all the O rings, and broken tiles, bad foam jobs etc. I wouldn't be caught dead riding around in that old thing.

Even as the shuttle Endeavour lifted off into orbit Wednesday evening, several pieces of debris fell off the external fuel tank, and at least one hit the orbiter. Astronauts in space and engineers on the ground will spend the next few days examining and analyzing the damage to see if it might pose a danger to the shuttle on re-entry.

The launching had been delayed five times by hydrogen leaks, schedule conflicts, lightning strikes and rain. That was one short of NASA's record for the number of delays. Two previous missions, in 1986 and 1995, were delayed six times before launching on the seventh try. “Persistence pays off,” Peter Nickolenko, the launching director, said to crew members a few minutes before launching. “Good luck and Godspeed.” Or...good luck everyone, you're gonna need it!

A camera on the external tank captured about a dozen pieces of debris falling off the external tank. At least one, coming off about 1 minute 46 seconds after liftoff, hit the orbiter, leaving three marks on the heat-resistant tiles on the underside.

“We don’t consider those an issue for us,” William H. Gerstenmaier, the associate administrator for space operations, said. Maybe not for him....he's not in the tin can!! “The issues will be in the back of the vehicle.” O.k. make sure you ride upfront another words....yikes!


Now every woman's nightmare - The bathroom lines at the already crowded space shuttle and space station complex got a lot longer Sunday because of a flooded toilet. I don't even want to imagine what that looks like in a weightless atmosphere.


One of two commodes aboard the international space station malfunctioned, right in the middle of complicated robotic work being conducted by the two crews. The pump separator apparently flooded. Mission Control advised the astronauts to hang an "out of service" sign on the toilet until it could be fixed. In the meantime, the six space station residents had to get in line to use their one good toilet. And Endeavour's seven astronauts were restricted to the shuttle bathroom. There have never been so many people -- 13 -- together in space. The toilet repair work fell to Belgian Frank De Winne, who had to don goggles, gloves and a mask. O.K.....YUK.


Flight director Brian Smith declined to speculate whether overuse caused the toilet trouble. "We don't yet know the extent of the problem," Smith told reporters. "It may turn out to be of no consequence at all. It could turn out to be significant. It's too early to tell right now."

Easy for him to say, he's down on earth with approximately 5 trillion john's to choose from.

How can you tell that these things were designed by men. If women had any say in the matter, there would be one men's toilet - consisting of one stall and some sort of "sucky kind of urinal thingy" -or maybe a hose of some type, and 6 stalls for the women with dim lighting, potpourri, candles and lots of soft tissue.

NASA said there is no urgency to the bathroom situation, at least for now. But he said if the toilet remains out of action for several days, "then we'll readdress the situation and see what we have to do." Typical male attitude. What man ever wants to work on the bathroom and we women really want it done! Two bathrooms ultimately are needed for a full station crew of six. Smith said he did not know how long six occupants could rely on a single toilet. Both the shuttle and station are equipped with other ways for the astronauts to relieve themselves, Smith said, including Apollo-era urine collection bags. O.K.....enough! Getting bad mental images here.

Time to go back to the drawing board and re-group thinks me....never EVER - saw these problems afflicting Captain Kathryn Janeway. She's got her own on-suite. Call me when I can look that good in space.




Til later

Got Pesky Bears?...no problem - just kill them!

We have a bit of a bear problem here in Saint John. Coming from Alberta, I can appreciate that bears are a little scary. I have ran across one in a campground back in Jasper and he was a little grouchy, and I wouldn't want to meet one in an alley with lets say a hot dog in my hands. At first I was on the side of the humans. The bears were getting too close to their property, scrounging around their garbage, peeking through people's patio doors and waiting out by the swing sets.

As said previously it was a pretty slow news week, and thought all the bear coverage was simply filler, but no. It seems they became the "bane" (excuse the pun) of the SJ police and there lies the problem.

New Brunswick Fish and Wildlife people should be evolved as well, they however are not giving their expertise on the situation. For days they were trying to lure the bears away with tasty treats, such as honey, Timmy's doughnuts and Crosby's molasses. That last choice may have been pushing it a bit, but it seems that none of these epicurean bear delights did not work. So the next best choice it seemed were to - kill them!

This was where I switched my allegiance and sided with the bears. Number one it is our fault that they are this close to urban centers to begin with, and then the home owners in question did nothing less but attract them in the first place. Now I know that black bears are not an in-dangered species but neither are humans, and we don't kill them when they become bother.

Due to the changing environment, bears are either losing their habitat or the sources of their food. In that case, bears, being highly adaptive, search for other sources of food – the food or even garbage that humans make. Bears are naturally shy and would avoid being seen by man, but when their survival is at stake, they get over their people-shyness and attempt to steal some snacks from humans.

If you do see a bear, you should not be afraid. They are just hungry creatures looking for food. It is only very rare that these bears attack people. Bears only attack people when you get in the way of their food or their cubs.

Hunters place bait in a barrel to attract the bears, and when these intelligent, gentle, and curious animals come to eat, they are shot—often several times before they die. Many bears escape wounded and face a slow death from blood loss, gangrene, or other infections, dehydration, or starvation.

Because of the barbaric nature of bear baiting, it has been banned in British Columbia and many U.S. states. Many Canadians and numerous hunting and conservation groups agree that this is a cruel and unsportsmanlike practice, yet black bears continue to be mercilessly slaughtered in Canada.

Mother bears who are killed leave behind orphaned cubs who- as was the case last week, when they killed the mother bear in West SJ - are completely dependent on them for food during their first 17 months, and when left in the wilderness alone, they often cannot survive. In many areas there are few restrictions against shooting mother bears with nursing cubs, leading to the destruction of entire families. Last week they killed one mother bear of two cubs, which are frightened and hiding themselves, tucked quietly away as they're mother trained them to do - in dangerous situations. They probably won't be found and will slowly starve to death.

Taken from the Telegraph Journal - Police shot and killed a female bear in west Saint John Thursday night, after she charged at them while they were standing on the deck of a home in Westgate Park. "The boys went down, they got a call about 8:30 and they went down to see what was going on," said Les Jarvis, resource ranager for District 3 of the Department of Natural Resources. They saw the bear in a driveway on Mountfield Crescent and had to back away from her because she wouldn't give ground. "Then they got up on a deck at the back of the house and the bear came at them so they put that bear down," Jarvis said. "That one was fairly aggressive - the boys hadn't seen one like that awhile." "The other two bears that might be in the are a may be last year's cubs that the same female had, so we are not sure how aggressive they are," he said. "They don't seem to be causing much problem right now."

She charged because her cubs were there as well - this was simply a natural protective mother bear reaction! Well trained animal officers would have seen this -killing her for protecting her cubs is horrific!

Sounds so expertly and humanely handled - what a joke! Shooting the bear should have been the absolute last alternative. And oh - I don't know - why not come armed with tranquilizers instead on lethal ammunition. Police just itchin to shoot something it seems!!



Til later

The Bay of Fundy back in the running - New 7 Wonders of Nature

O.K., now I am really confused. We’re in - we’re out? What’s going on. Every day last year before the “New 7 Wonders of Nature” contest round 1 closed, I faithfully, and I mean faithfully (I set my alarm daily to make sure!) went on-line and voted for the Bay of Fundy (for some reason pronounced ‘fun-day’ don’t know why - can’t see an A there) to win one of the wonders of nature.

But….I am also from Alberta….hmmm what to do, what to do…..I was torn. This caused me some grief. If I voted for the Bay of Fundy, I was abandoning the province in which I had lived all my life. I always was a very proud Albertan - as a matter of fact ‘Pride’ is a pre-requisite to be Albertan. But…if I didn’t vote for the Bay of Fundy I was not truly embracing my new identity as a ‘maritimer.’

The New 7 Wonders of Nature contest announced the Bay of Fundy, which boasts the world's highest tides, is now Canada's entry in the global competition. Alberta's Dinosaur Provincial Park was disqualified for not meeting contest requirements. Hmmmm…and what are the ‘requirements’ I wonder.

The Maritimes' iconic Bay of Fundy is back in the running to win an international natural wonders contest after a bid by Alberta's Dinosaur Provincial Park suddenly became extinct. Excuse the pun….

I grew up spending vacations in ‘Dinosaur National Park’ - have to admit it didn’t seem all that wondrous then, however got better once the MacDonald’s opened up across from the Tyrell museum. But then most children don’t appreciate things like that anyways. I know my son, was absolutely captivated and it jump started a life long love of fossils and everything ‘rock-jockey.’

Well to get the cold hard facts, and that is what I try to do….(don’t laugh), I went to the local papers out there in ‘Alberta land.’ No use going to my hometown paper the Edmonton Journal, as Edmontonians are still miffed that the West Edmonton Mall was not considered, although the food court there is pretty wondrous, anyhoo…I went to the Calgary Herald. According to their article this is the reason:

A spokeswoman for Alberta Tourism Parks and Recreation said "The reason they gave us was that expectations were different from our end than there was on theirs of what was involved in the competition." Well what in the heck does that mean? I suspected they did not want to really tell it like it is. So I checked out a paper from Belgium, which straight out said that the Alberta park didn't make the cut because, well, there's not much to do there. Wow!…nasty.

"Not much to do" kind of sounds as if "something to do" is dependant on man-made entertainment - can this really be true? I always thought experiencing nature was "something to do" - all these years I've been so misguided. No, there are not any amusement parks, water slides or tacky little people waiting to steal your money, however just a short drive away and you can find that. What Dinosaur National Park does have is an amazing carbon footprint in the history of creation of the earth. Located in the heart of the Badlands, Drumheller Valley has an interesting history which spans back some 70 million years to a time when the area was very different looking than it is today. White explorers did not discover the area until the 1880's. J.B. Tyrrell, in his search for coal deposits along the river, discovered a skull of a dinosaur. That dinosaur is today known as the Albertasaurus. This marked the beginning of the collection of dinosaur remains that are sought after by museums all over the world, including the Royal Tyrrell Museum located in the Drumheller Valley.

While Dinosaur Provincial Park was knocked off the list, the places that did make the cut in Canada were Niagara Falls and New Brunswick & Nova Scotia's Bay of Fundy.

Terri McCulloch, the manager of the Bay of Fundy Tourism Board, said now the bay needs votes to continue to the next stage. "I think the Bay of Fundy stands a very good chance of getting there," McCulloch said. "If we can marshal the troops again, Maritimers were just amazing for support and now we have the whole country behind us."

Well…probably not Alberta….

The Bay of Fundy again now joins the other 261 nominees from around the globe, a list that includes Mount Everest, whatever...you climbed one mountain you climbed them all.

The Bay of Fundy advertises a “New experience with Every Tide.” To say you have the highest tides in the world and to actual see this phenomena take place is something else.

The Bay of Fundy is a 170-mile-long (270km), straight-sided, somewhat funnel-shaped bay which splits at its northeastern head into two narrow bays, Chignecto Bay and the Minas Basin. It was formed as the continental plates parted millions of years ago. As they split, deep rift valleys formed, which quickly filled with sediment washed in from the land. The Bay of Fundy is one of these ancient rifts.

The mudflats also provide a larder of food to hungry migratory shorebirds. Each year up to two million semi-palmated sandpipers and other shorebirds stop over in the Fundy region during July and August on their annual migration from their spring breeding grounds, far to the north on the arctic tundra near Hudson Bay, to their wintering grounds along the coasts of South America. The semi-palmated sandpipers that settle in the Minas Basin and other areas represent 75-95% of the entire world's population of this species. They build up their body fat on tiny crustaceans found only in mud of a certain consistency.

As for things to do; kayaking, canoeing, caving, whale watching, camping, sailing, birdwatching, climbing, beaches, golfing, museums, arts & crafts, dinning, beer drinking, and...whales...oh I mentioned the whales.

But enough said. VOTE! And vote often…all of this country of ours is truly AMAZING!! That is why we are so lucky to be Canadian. www.new7wonders.com


Til later

Arctic Appetizers - more on the Canadian Seal Saga

O.k. here is the latest in my Seal Saga - just after I thought we had heard the last of it, all the hub-bub had died down surrounding Gen Jean’s culinary escapades - I came across this story in the “Nunavut News.” (Where did you think I get this stuff - the New York Times?)

It seems that all the fuss about General Jean has sparked a few entrepreneurial light bulbs a flashing. What’s the old saying “even bad press is good press?” Can’t pay for advertising like that. Inuit leaders want to capitalize on the promotional bonanza offered by images broadcast around the world of Canada's vice-regal munching on a raw slice of seal heart

They have reason for optimism: One Montreal restaurateur says his seal orders have doubled thanks to the media frenzy, and now account for two-thirds of his total appetizer sales.
The premier of Nunavut hopes more southerners follow the lead of General Jean and add to their diet what the locals call "country food" -- not just seal, but Arctic char, caribou, and muskox.

“YEESH” - what ever happened to plain old hamburger helper? You've seen it being eaten on your television screen. Now, people of the Arctic have visions of their food on your plate.

In a region desperate for economic activity -- the employment rate in Nunavut is just 58 per cent -- there are dreams of southern palates, and wallets, opening to the spoils of their land.
There's one big obstacle in getting the food down south: there are no roads to these Arctic communities, and shipment by boat or plane is painfully expensive.

"We have all these wonderful, highly nutritious foods," Premier Eva Aariak said in an interview.
"It's straight from the land. If only we had the infrastructure” Hmm…no preservatives. I would imagine it is Organic as well.

The Governor General can attest to the tastiness of country food. During their stay, Jean and her entourage were treated to succulent musk ox ribs topped in a demi-glaze sauce, and canapes of Arctic char, which resembles salmon or trout in colour, texture and taste. (o.k. I got to quit here….I have not even finished my morning coffee)

But none of those meals captured international headlines like the video of Jean slicing and sampling a seal. Jean said the blubbery mammal had a texture like sushi -- but with a meatier flavor. The premier agrees it tastes like meat, only with a subtle fishy flavor derived from the animal's steady diet of marine life.

“Subtle” fishy flavor?

Although fatty flipper pies are a favorite of Newfoundlanders, seal is a rare find on Canadian menus. One restaurateur who offers seal in unusual appetizers can't believe his good fortune.
Customers have been gobbling up the $13-$15 seal tartar with capers; rare seal tataki; and seal smoked meat from the appetizer menu at Montreal's Au Cinquieme Peche. "It's the most expensive item on our appetizer menu," Lenglet said. "But there's been so much publicity on this that seal now represents two-thirds of our appetizer sales. . . They have doubled."

But building a viable industry would require new infrastructure in Nunavut -- where there are no commercial ports for shipping and no highways connecting the tiny hamlets to one another.
To a visiting passenger, an Arctic community seen from an airplane can resemble a few specks of sand dropped in the middle of a frozen hockey rink.

Airfare even within the region can cost $3,000, and a plane ticket from Nunavut's capital to Canada's capital runs around $2,000. That's one of the reasons so many Inuit rely on hunted food, rather than shelling out more than $20 at the grocery shop for frozen chicken shipped up from southern Canada.

And, just maybe, better infrastructure might drive down the price someday of a seal surf and turf so the rest of us could pick up some Seal steak from lets say Super Store. You know - one gets so tired of Lobster in the maritimes……and I yet to hear any reports of “Mad Seal Disease.”


Til later

Election Canadian Style!

There are a few things that we Canadians are pretty good at. We brew really good, potent beer, give birth to our fair share of awesome hockey players and of course we are always there right behind the Americans to do general “Invasion Cleanup” detail.

But there is one thing that we perhaps excel at more than any other nation in the world and that is….ELECTIONS!!

Yes, we surpass every other country due to the fact that basically we get a lot of practice. We sometimes have elections even when we don’t need one. It’s like well…it’s kind of slow around here…I know lets have an election!

Look at the state of other countries who attempt to hold democratic elections. Riots, terrorism, outright assassinations take place in other places in the world when people simply exercise their right to choose a leader.

Then there is the American template. Their elections should be considered a 4 year sporting event. The stories, political mudslinging and the intrigue makes for some excellent reality T.V., yet we are able to make the whole process look like a walk in the park. Even the swearing in of a new cabinet, takes about an hour and only pre-empts an infomercial somewhere.

We have the whole election process down to a fine art. We have the capability to throw out one leadership, create smear campaigns, listen to both sides of the issues, debate platforms and vote in a new government - all within 30 days or less. If elections were an Olympic event, we would have the gold. You know with the demise of our fishing industry and softwood lumber, we could actually make our ability to hold an election an export of sorts. We could offer to go into a country, do a little campaigning, organize the polling stations and “Voila” new government and be out there inside of a couple of weeks - no violence involved.

Usually our government calls an election when all the infighting has gotten out of control and everyone has forgotten what the fight started over to begin with - or if we have exceptionally good summer weather and the hill wants to get out early

This week's saber-rattling between Michael Ignatieff and Stephen Harper over a summer election has all the makings of an epic battle over which leader has the biggest, um, sword.

Forget the worst economic crash in decades, the collapsing industries, the thousands of Canadians losing their jobs, their savings, their pensions, their homes.

If the political jousting between Iggy and the PM is any indication, the country is at risk of being dragged out of the pool and off to the polls in July over dueling egos. Harper, of course, is no slouch in the larger-than-life department, having spent the past three years successfully muzzling his ministers, and generally trying to put an iron grip on everyone and everything government.

Today, the Conservative administration remains predominantly all Harper all the time. But make no mistake, there's a new ego-slinger in town with the potential to make "l'etat c'est moi" s(the state is me) an understatement in both official languages.

But this time, instead of the usual Hewie, Dewie and Lewie, Mr. Harper and his gang have actually got some stiff opposition. So this time it looks like we could have ourselves one “Humdinger” of an election, a good old fashion shoot out! (not the O.K. Corral type - Hockey - we're Canadian remember)

So right now they are doing a little square dancing - everyone eyeing up the partners to “Doe-See-Doe", and I am sure an announcement will be forthcoming. I however will do what the rest of the country does when it really wants to know what is happing in the Canadian political climate - wait for Rick Mercer to make the announcement.

Til later

Canadian Seal Hunt Attacked by PETA

This post was inspired by an article I read regarding PETA’s - People for the ethical treatment of Animals - latest campaign against the Canadian Seal Hunt. Some groups really know how to hop on the bandwagon to get some press and PETA specializes in it.

The group has launched an animated video of the cute and quirky mascots for the Games, portraying them as crazed seal hunters on a rampage to club baby seals.” As long as the seal slaughter exists, Canada’s image is tainted by cruelty to animals on a massive scale,” PETA executive vice president Tracy Reiman said. “If Canada wants the Olympics to get clean press, it needs to stop the universally condemned massacre of seals.”

The mascots for the Vancouver Olympics are portrayed as club-wielding seal hunters in a new ad from the controversial animal rights group PETA. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals launched an animated video on its Web site Monday that depicts the three Olympic mascots — Miga, Quatchi and Sumi — chasing down a baby seal with a club, then standing over the animal’s blood-soaked body in the next scene.

At first I was going to take my usual tongue in cheek satirical take on it because their latest press has of course, left themselves wide open to criticism and ridicule for going overboard and depending on shock value. However once I began researching the article well…all humor quickly dissipated.

Canada's commercial seal "hunt" is the largest mass slaughter of marine mammals in the world. This year, Canada will allow 270,000 harp seals to be killed.

The bulk of the seal hunt is used for commercial goods. Seal skins have been used by aboriginal people for millennia to make waterproof jackets and boots, and seal fur to make fur coats. I remember as a child -long long time ago - I actually had a pair of seal boots. All of us kids did back in the sixties, they are incredibly warm and water resistant. But these days all kinds of synthetic man made materials can be used.

Seal meat is an important source of food for residents of small coastal communities. Meat is sold to the Asian pet food market. The seal blubber is used to make seal oil, which is marketed as a fish oil supplement. This is totally un-necessary. I don’t understand why Asian markets continue to show total disregard for animals which are being hunted to extinction just to satisfy their palates. The Japanese whale hunt - for apparently scientific research - is another perfect example.

“The decision by the European Parliament lacks any basis in facts,” said the Honorable Gail Shea, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans. “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. Our government will stand up for the jobs and communities that depend on the seal hunt.”

So what it comes down to is ‘they said’ “we said” both sides make a persuasive argument and you will have to make your own decision regarding it. I personally think unless you are supplementing your diet and food supply because of economic reasons, hunting of any type either commercially or for sport is grotesque and barbaric.

What I worry about with PETA strategy is that at times the intensity and tactics they use often take attention away from the issue at hand. It tends to draw more attention to the organization itself. - then PETA becomes the issue.

PETA is also urging a boycott of Canadian maple syrup. Last time I checked all Maple Trees were tapped humanely. What ever we do we better not mention the deep fried Beaver Tails.


Til Later