Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Perkins, for your question. That is not what I was saying. If I said it, then it was wrong. It was the animal rights groups that I mentioned.

Fisheries committee  Can you say your question again? I would never call them “environmental”.

Fisheries committee  Thank you for that question. As you know, Inuit have the highest rate of unemployment and the highest cost of living, which is three to seven times that of southern Canada. When the seal market crashed from $100 to $10, then the ability of the hunter to provide his free food, nutritious food, to the community....

Fisheries committee  Thank you for that question. I have maintained that, with all the money that was raised by the animal rights groups—animalists, as they call them—they need to pay every Inuk from all the money they have made, $1 million, to repair what damage has been caused and all the death and hunger that Inuit have suffered.

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the question, Ms. Barron. I'm glad you were able to go to Nunavut. I wish everybody could come up and share some seal the way the former Governor General did. In terms of the exemption, I was so against it when it was being talked about, because the Europeans think they can define who's Inuit and what is traditional and what is sustainable.

Fisheries committee  Absolutely. We increased the access to seal in schools, for instance, as part of the school program. Nowhere in the Arctic or nowhere down south have I been able to buy sealskin for my own consumption. If you hold your hand out like this, the amount of seal in your hand equals an amount of 56 pieces of sausage if you were to consume it for iron.

Fisheries committee  I will answer your last question first, but I don't know what “TK assessment” is.

Fisheries committee  I understand that under the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, the federal minister has to take into consideration the knowledge and input from the communities in assessing anything to do with oceans and waters and management of seals, for instance. I'm not part of that, because I'm not employed by and I'm not part of the hunters and trappers organizations that would give their input.

Fisheries committee  Reconciliation is reconcili-action. You have to have action. We need to see a lot more action from the federal department, which is the only body that can speak on this issue because, as a territory, we don't have the power. We would like to keep the dialogue open as part of reconciling what has been before.

Fisheries committee  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.

Fisheries committee  I hit the five-minute mark.

Fisheries committee  Mr. Chair and members of the committee, thank you very much for the opportunity to speak to you today. My name is Aaju Peter. I was born in Greenland. I went to school in Denmark. I have lived in Iqaluit, Nunavut, since 1981. My ancestors, the Inuit, are the founding people of the circumpolar Arctic, and we are the sole remaining hunting culture in North America.