It's because you'd have to shut down the hunt, if you were going to shut that down, and DFO knows it too.
In terms of what I've said when I've come in here, I want to make the point that I was observing this committee when the European delegation appeared. And excuse me for being cynical, but members of this committee informed the European delegation that the seal hunt accounts for 50% of the income of the people who do it and that the footage we show is 20 years out of date.
You embarrassed the Canadian government in front of that delegation. I had to explain to a committee of European parliamentarians how the footage I was showing them was in fact not 20 years out of date, and that this was a PR talking point for the Canadian government, because they have no way to defend what appears in those images.
Excuse me for being cynical, but HSUS and IFAW are the two groups you've had come in. Notably absent are the Animal Alliance of Canada, Environment Voters, the Nova Scotia humane society, the Animal Rights Collective of Halifax, the Atlantic Canadian Anti-Sealing Coalition, the Vancouver Humane Society, the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies, the World Society for the Protection of Animals, and the Green Party of Canada—all organizations that oppose the commercial seal hunt and support its being phased out.
And you're hearing from two. You've heard from dozens of sealing industry spokespeople, government scientists—