Mr. Hanley, thank you for that question. Since we started travelling to Europe—first to Holland in 2007—we already knew as sealers that it was not just about Inuit sealing and it wasn't just about Atlantic sealing. It was the image being showcased. That was the image being shown on television and in ads to create money and funds for the organizations.
That image cost our economy. People couldn't tell in Europe whether a seal was hunted from other places or whether it was hunted by Inuit.
Our approach has always been that in Canada we have to be united. We have to have one face where we say that, whether the seal is caught here or there, we are all sealers, and the bad taste and image affects us all, which is what happened and is still going on to this day. Inuit hunters and Inuit communities depend on all the work that has been done and that is being done by commercial sealers. We are one family.