Fisheries committee  I agree with the comments by the deputy. I would also add that I think, and I've said it to the committee before, that we all have a role to play in educating the Canadian public. Independent polling shows that the majority of Canadians in recent polls didn't support this issue.

Fisheries committee  My last one was.

Fisheries committee  The senator came out a little late in the process. I heard, through my meetings in Europe over the past year, that the Canadian public doesn't support this and that animal rights groups have spread all that information anyway. It hurts when anybody, particularly anybody of high profile, mentions it.

Fisheries committee  I can't say if they were called in to the Prime Minister's Office, to be honest with you. But I do know an intervention was made through DFAIT. And I do know that in January I wrote every single one of the 27 representatives here in Ottawa, as well as Switzerland, which is outside the EU.

Fisheries committee  Sure. Mr. Chairman, what I indicated is not that we shouldn't focus on Parliament only...we still focused on Parliament, and we carried out active engagement there with a whole host of meetings. But Parliament made up their mind and voted, basically signed the declaration of 2006 and said to the bureaucrats, “We've made up our minds; give us the legislation.”

Fisheries committee  No. What I said is that up until February...they go into their own private meetings, just like a cabinet. They go into their private meetings, the 27 countries in a working group, and they meet behind closed doors. There's no public record of what goes on, except what we hear from various sources.

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I spoke with the honourable member when he raised the issue about the vote in the European Parliament. I responded and said that most people don't understand the dynamics of what's happening in Europe and how this came about, and they think it's Parliament only.

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I said months ago that there has to be a law against using false information to earn money. I've asked to have that pursued to get a legal opinion. I've been told they're looking at it. I haven't seen an opinion on it. There has to be something on trying to dupe the public into giving money to do something and spread false information on a better cause.

Fisheries committee  I will keep it short. We aired the film by Raoul Jomphe in Amsterdam. We had a public opening there and invitations. We showed My Ancestors were Rogues and Murderers, a film done by Anne Troake. We did it in Italy recently, with 20 different media there, and a media forum occurred in Italy on that issue.

Fisheries committee  Yes, we're very much aware of that in resource management. We had independent veterinarians participate in our consultation with sailors. A lot of these issues did come up. And that's not an expectation. When you reach the seal and you notice the seal is not dead, you have to then kill that seal and then you follow the process.

Fisheries committee  Well, it's the companies that are involved in buying them. I met with all the companies. The companies were at the seal consultation process. The markets now are primarily that the seals go to Norway, about 60% in this past year--and it can vary from 50% to 60% over the past two years--and Finland, about 14% and 19% respectively over the last two years.

Fisheries committee  The United States in 1972 instituted a ban on the importation of marine mammals, period, to the United States.

Fisheries committee  No, but for their own within Alaska. There's hunting occurring in Alaska. In 1975 CITES followed the Marine Mammal Protection Act in the United States, and the United States did not institute a ban on the basis of humaneness. Theirs was on the basis of conservation. CITES was post-Marine Mammal Protection Act and it has not referenced seals as being an issue to be listed under CITES and there was no basis.

Fisheries committee  Thank you. I've had a team with me on each of these occasions. On this last trip, for example, and on my previous trip I've asked to have experts with me. I personally requested Dr. Garry Stenson, a senior marine mammal scientist who spent 22 years on the file and who was consulted by EFSA as an expert in the world—probably more expert on the seal file in the north Atlantic, I would say, than perhaps anybody else in the world today—who accompanied me on these files.

Fisheries committee  Thank you. I guess the strategy has been multi-pronged. Number one, it's to strike alliances with like-minded countries within the European Commission that would get us support for getting a resolution within. We have Denmark as one of the European communities. Sweden and Finland are there; I've met with them.