Hon. Céline Hervieux-Payette:

Honourable senators, it is my great pleasure today to speak to an issue that is very close to my heart. Some of my new colleagues may not know that I learned to hunt seals in Newfoundland, and that I have hunted seals in Nunavut.

Today, together with nearly all of my Liberal colleagues, I would like to express my strong support for seal hunters in Atlantic Canada, Nunavut and the Magdalen Islands, as well as their families.

These Canadians are a living part of our history and our future.

For the past 40 years, our fellow citizens have been caught up in turmoil brought on by multinationals that engage in constant confrontation so they can profit at the expense of the people they manipulate. These multinationals attempt to impose their anti-speciesist ideology, an essentially humanophobic messianic movement seeking to convert society to its moral vision of the human-animal relationship.

It is clear from their websites how these groups work and how they are organized.

For a long time, our fellow Canadians resisted silently, out of the media spotlight, the undeserving targets of insults and slander as the world, and in particular film star Brigitte Bardot, cast accusing eyes on them.

That time has ended.

For the past few years, I have been involved in the fight to restore our compatriots' reputation through initiatives such as the Universal Declaration on the Ethical Harvest of Seals, which has the support of the three provinces and territories in which the seal hunt occurs, and the first seal dinner in the parliamentary restaurant.

I am therefore pleased that my campaign has resulted in the government's official engagement. I would like to congratulate the government on creating a symbolic seal appreciation day in support of seal hunters.

This cause goes beyond the seal hunt. It is about respect for our fellow Canadians who live in isolated regions and engage in a noble occupation. They deserve our continued support.

Today, we salute their courage, their ethics and their environmental responsibility.

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