Mr. Chair, I cannot say that I agree with my colleague because, as I said previously, this file has taken up probably more time than any other file on my desk since being appointed minister.
We did our public information campaign, we wrote letters to all parliamentarians, a couple of delegations went to Europe and I bet there was not a week that went by that we did not have somebody in Europe speaking to someone about seals. I think we have done quite a lot.
I want to point to an interesting article that I read not that long ago dealing something that happened in the 1960s. It was the testimony of a gentleman from P.E.I. who said that back in the 1960s he was called by one of the special interest groups that at that time thought the seal hunt was inhumane. It hired him to go out and kill a seal so it could be filmed. That was fine. He said that the shock came when he was asked to torture the seal so it could be captured on camera.
Sometimes I feel that what we have fought is an image of something that was a perception in someone's brain because the image of the white seal pup on the white ice bleeding red blood was ingrained in people's minds and that is what people cannot get over.