~ STRICTLY PERSONAL -..OK, HERE'S a quiz for animal lovers. Name a country that is guilty of pirate whaling. Japan? Nope. Japan continues ‘to hunt minke whales in the Ant- arctic every winter, but since the country remains a member of the International Whaling Commis- + sion, and is merely using a loop- hole in IWC regulations which _ allows limited hunting for ‘‘scien- tific research’’ (even though everybody knows the whale meat ends up in restaurants in Tokyo), Japan may be guilty of hypocrisy - ‘and deceit, but not actual piracy. Norway? Bingo! Under the leadership of Prime Minister Gro Brundtland, the woman who, until -l recently, was revered as the author of the United Nations’ famous . Feport advocating sustainable de- ‘velopment, Norwegian fishermen - have been turned loose with har- “poons again, after having abided ~ by the IWC’s moratorium on whaling since its implementation -in 1982. | -It’sa political decision, having nothing to do with common sense or economics. Brundtland’s Labor Party is ;, down in the polls and facing an election this fall. In a cynical ef- fort to garner votes in the: — depressed northern region of : Norway, Labor promised to open up whaling: Intriguingly, itis the conser- vatives in Norway who oppose the ‘Operation, arguing that it costs INSIGHTS iracy in the hig more in subsidies than anyone makes, and is taking a harsh toll in terms of lost foreign invest- ment, boycotts and bad press. In any event, it makes Norway a pirate whaling nation, operating outside internationally agreed- upon conservation laws. Who else? Iceland, of course. While Norway has taken most of the flak this year for resuming whaling, Iceland has also pulled out of the [WC and has quietly been sending its four-ship whaling fleet out to take whales, quickly rushing back into Reykjavik har- bor before any outside media notice. As far as anyone can tell, they are killing any species of whale they find. ! But here’s the punchline. There is a third pirate whaling nation that hardly anybody knows about, including all but a handful of the residents of the country in question. And that country is ... Canada! Canada is not a member of the IWC. When the IWC first voted to ban whaling to save the great whales from extinction, Canada, under Pierre Trudeau, pulled out of the commission, rather than have to vote either for or against the whaling moratorium. Canada was afraid at the time, it seemed, to anger either Japan or the Soviet Union by voting for the moratorium, and afraid to anger the Americans by voting against it. So in a breathtaking example of chicken-heartedness and en- vironmental irresponsibility, Trudeau pulled Canada out of the IWC entirely, the argument being that Canadians weren’t in the business of whaling any more, having shut down our small whaling operations on both the east coast and the west coast. No mention, of course, was made of wur Arctic coast. And even if anyone was so rude as to mention it, the issue was quickly _ dismissed as being a matter of an aboriginal subsistence hunt, and therefore somehow sacred. Little matter that other people who kill whales, including the barbarians in the Faeroe Islands, the Japanese, Icelanders and - Norwegians, all claim some quasi-mystical, cultural and his- Your Understanding Realtor SONIA ANDERSON It's your move... Cail today. Bus: 926-6011 | Res: 926-1086 ROVALL LePAGE & SON CUSTOM DRAPERIES AND VALANCES Labour $8.50 per panel unlined, $9.50 lined. “CUSTOM BEDSPREADS & COVERS Low. low prices on blinds & tracks. For FREE Estimates Call 987-2966 Serving the North Shore for 23 years torical significance to killing large marine mammals, 1 personaily don’t buy that native people have any more need nowadays to kill whales than any- one else, and certainly no more right, constitutional gobbledegook notwithstanding Canada’s ministry of fisheries and oceans obviously feels dif- ferently, since it has gone ahead repeatedly — and did so again this year — issuing a licence to the Western Arctic Inuvialuit com- munity of Aklavik to harvest a Bowhead whale in the Beaufort Sea some time in September. One Bowhead doesn’t sound like a helluva lot, and from a purely conservationist point of view, it isn’t a move that’s going to threaten the species any more than it is already threatened by climate change, pollutiqn and much-diminished populaticns. But from the point of view of the international politics of whal- ing, it is a disastrous decision: The [WC is already under in- tense pressure, not simply because Norway and Iceland have pulled out and Japan is threatening to do the same, but also because Russia is reportedly considering starting up its mothballed Soviet-era whaling fleet, and is being peti- tioned by its own Inuit to ‘follow Canada’s example’’ and allew an aboriginal hunt. Thus, piece by piece, the inter- national whaling moratorium begins to fall apart. As for the inuvialuit claims that killing a Bowhead is for ‘‘social and ceremonial purposes,’ as the new Tory fisheries minister, Ross Reid, argues in justification of the granting of the licence, I’ve stud-’. ied a copy of an internal federal government memorandum by the fisheries officer in charge during a 1991 Bowhead hunt, and, believe me, it was a fiasco. Not only were the Inuvialuit whale-hunters ill-prepared, disorganized, and confused, they - managed to contravene the condi- tions of the licence repeatedly. They missed optimum hunting times again and again because they were up ‘ until 3 and 4 in the morning, In the end, the fisheries ministry’s own supply ship had to be used to raise the dead whale from the water and tow it ashore — in yet another violation of the licence, Rather than its being a true aboriginal hunt, it was, in fact, a hunt brought to its conclusion by the Canadian government, acting basically as an international pirate agency. And here we go again, Cana- dian piracy i in n the high A Arctic. When ——_ Selling Your Home PAT MUNROE FRI CMR Al (BC) Enjoy my “CARE-FULL” Service Call me personsily playing cards, etc."’ Sun. Sept. 26 1-3 pm Hydrangea Wreath Mon. Sept. 27 7-9 pm Topiary Trees (more classes to come) plus supplies Calf to register - 987-9351. 1804 Lonsdale Ave. N: Van. 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