Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to say a few words on this motion. I find it quite ironic and shocking to see the full-page advertisement trying to protect that particular picture. I do not believe that 99 per cent have not seen that kind of seal in that fur coat. They are under the snow in the den during that time. Very few hunters run across a den that has been dug up by a fox. Then we would look in there. We would find a dead one caught by a fox from time to time. They are very, very hard to find because they are usually in the bank created by icebergs or multi-year ice. The seal is hunted when it has grown and shed its yellow hair which is quite useless and has nice, very short, black hair that is more useful. My point is this, Mr. Speaker, this advertisement is misdirected, is a false campaign and also misinformation that has no respect whatsoever for any human being or intelligence of human beings around the world.
My experience in the eastern Arctic, is that these harp seals come in July when the ice is rotting, and they come in hordes. When they come in hordes they start eating up all kinds of Arctic cod that is a stable food of the ring seals all year round. The Inuit depend on the ring seal all year round, not on the harp seal. When the harp seals come, just like spawning char or salmon, they start eating up all kinds of cod around there and in a couple of days we can hardly even see a ring seal any more because they are being chased around by these harp seals.
If we are going to concentrate on cruelty to animals by using or harvesting these animals, then can we not at least consider a sports fisherman who catches a fish with a lure, plays with it for 15 or 20 minutes and just lets it go again? Who speaks for the fish? Who speaks for the Arctic cod? Who speaks for the ring seal? I think we will have to start campaigning on the basis of what is a reality, what is the truth, which animals we have up here, and which ones are invading our seas. Maybe that is when they will recognize that there is no shortage of seals whatsoever. I will support this motion. Thank you very much.