Canadian Press
Sept. 1, 2006

St. John's — Canada's fisheries minister has chosen a novel way to persuade politicians in Belgium to reconsider a plan to ban imports of Newfoundland seal products.

Loyola Hearn, in Brussels this week to meet with the European Union's fisheries commissioner to discuss foreign overfishing, said he reminded the Belgians of the many Canadian soldiers who lost their lives in Belgium during the First World War.

The Newfoundland MP said an import ban would amount to “taking the livelihood away from a number of Canadians whose family members left their blood on the fields here in Belgium, Flanders fields and other places.

“That got their attention,” he told St. John's radio station VOCM. “But the thing is they are looking much more seriously at what we're saying and have agreed to look for the facts.”

Mr. Hearn said he extended an invitation to members of the European Parliament to visit Canada and learn more about the seal hunt.

“I've sort of challenged them to look for the truth, for the facts, and to visit Canada to make up their own minds. Don't base their decisions on ... what they heard and seen from lobby groups who are using 20-year-old videos.”

Mr. Hearn said he raised the issue of the seal hunt after he learned that members of the Belgian Parliament were in the process of introducing legislation to ban the importation of seal products.