Hon. Dennis Glen Patterson: Honourable senators, yesterday marked National Seal Products Day on Parliament Hill, established by Bill S-208, developed by our dear former colleague and champion of the sealing industry, former senator Céline Hervieux-Payette. Colleagues, today, in marking National Seal Products Day, I want to alert you to what parliamentary secretary and my good friend Yvonne Jones, MP for Labrador, has described as an ecological disaster in our oceans.

For years, Greenpeace, PETA and their like successfully demonized the seal hunt, with its long and proud tradition in Atlantic Canada and the Arctic. As a result, the seal population is out of control and decimating our fisheries. I want to commend Minister Joyce Murray for being the first Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard ever to acknowledge that seals eat fish. How much fish? According to Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the harp seal population in Atlantic Canada alone eats 1.6 million metric tonnes of fish in the Atlantic region.

Colleagues, Newfoundland and Labrador’s entire commercial fishery amounts to only 220,000 metric tonnes. Harbour seals and sea lions — or Qasigiaq as we call them in Nunavut — eat 30% of Pacific salmon before they can even get to the sea. The result is that fisheries are having to be closed. Capelin stocks are down 70%, and the cod fishery has not been restored 30 years after its closure.

The collateral damage done to the innocent human victims was also spiritually devastating. False narratives about the cruelty of the seal hunt and the money raised through those narratives were used to effectively destroy overnight the market for rich, beautiful seal fur when the European Union and many other countries banned the sale of seal products.

The documentary by acclaimed Inuit filmmaker Alethea Arnaquq-Baril called Angry Inuk is a compelling documentary about the devastating, dispiriting impact of the seal ban. The disappearance of the market for seal skins not only made hunting unaffordable but also deprived the Inuit and the world of a rich, sustainable supply of high-protein food rich in omega-3 fats and vitamins.

Seal skin is also the material used for the very best waterproof and windproof outdoor clothing and footwear, as well as for world-class high-fashion materials. A seal diet was the main source of sustenance which allowed the Inuit to thrive in the harshest climate in the country.

What can we do about this ecological disaster? Let’s look for Clifford Small, MP for Coast of Bays–Central–Notre Dame, whose private member’s bill, Bill C-251, aims at restoring our decimated fisheries through strategies which will restore ecological balance. Senator Wells may sponsor that in the Senate.

Colleagues, we need to support our fledging seal products industry and feed the world while restoring ecological balance in our precious ocean resources. Thank you, honourable senators. Qujannamiik.