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Sir Paul's Fundraising Farce
By Gene Manion
Anyone who understands the seal fishery in eastern Canada would have viewed the CNN Larry King Live television interview on this subject on March 3 with utter disgust. This famous broadcaster didn't even know how to correctly pronounce the name of Canada's tenth province.
And, rather than give Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams equal time to present the real facts concerning the seal hunt, King allowed Paul McCartney and Heather Mills McCartney to dominate the show and continually interrupt while the premier was speaking.
I presume King thought his show's ratings would be better if he allowed the emotionally charged celebrities to control the discussion and give the protesters' view of the seal hunt. And Paul and Heather, sitting in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, thought they were in Newfoundland.
While I was living in that great province for 42 years, my company provided aircraft surveillance for many years to the seal hunt protest groups, the sealing industry, scientists and the federal Department of Fisheries.
Controversy regarding seal cruelty became inflamed worldwide when a film about the hunt was released in 1964. Later, after the damage had been done by the film, Gus Poirier of Prince Edward Island made a sworn statement that he had been paid $300 by a protest group to skin a baby seal alive in front of its cameras. The group even asked him to torment it first.
We were involved in air transportation for Brian Davies in the 1960s, during his International Fund for Animal Welfare campaign against sealing. He admitted that his emotional crusade was bringing in vast, tax-free donations from Europe - enough donations that the organization could eventually purchase its own helicopters.
The Brigitte Bardot fiasco in the 1970s was another orchestrated media event held to increase the flow of money to the protest groups. The French actress didn't even go offshore to observe the hunt, instead spending the time in a Quebec motel with her entourage. However, a picture of her cuddling a baby seal showed up on the cover of of Paris Match magazine, and the magazine printed a story about the horrible brutality she had witnessed.
How would these ill-informed groups be able to describe the gory slaughter of cattle, pigs, lambs, chickens or even fish? There is nothing pretty about the killing of any animal, but, except for seals, the killing is usually done behind closed doors and away from the public eye.
Sealing is not a sport. Many of the sealers in Newfoundland are augmenting their meagre seasonal income by partaking of the spring hunt. Relative to other Canadians, they are living at the poverty line. Giving up sealing would deprive them of 10 per cent of their annual income.
No doubt Paul McCartney would barely notice if his annual income was reduced by 10 per cent. To the sealers, however, it is an entirely different matter.
Most Canadians would probably be in favor of stopping the seal hunt because they do not understand the complexity of the issue and have been educated by the one-sided protest propaganda since 1960. Only those who have lived and worked in the Maritime provinces are sufficiently informed to properly judge this affair.
I suggest that Paul and Heather and Brigitte Bardot stick to their successful vocations. How welcome would a Canadian celebrity be in England if he or she made an attempt to have the raven rookery at the Tower of London banned? I liken the seal hunt debacle to singer Celine Dion elucidating the intricacies of a bulldozer.
The main sealing area off the Labrador coast could never be a tourist destination owing to its location, harsh environment and lack of services. But perhaps Sir Paul McCartney and Larry King should go there for a holiday. The visit would probably get good press, and Danny Williams could supply them with a floating igloo.
This entire visit by Paul and Heather is a farce intended to swell the coffers of some organized "do-gooders" who have continually misled the public under the guise of being conservationists.
There are about six million harp seals in our waters and the population is rapidly increasing despite the three-per-cent annual harvest. Each harp seal consumes about 40 pounds of fish every day. Do the math.
Gene Manion
Howe Island