' specific, operate in.

age 2 - March 23, 1977 - North Shore News -

The harp seal slaughter preséntly being waged the harp ‘seal species. The-
off the east coast of Canada is a much larger issue ¢t Prohibits four things:

than it appears to be. At stake is more than the

survival of the harp seal species. The future of the’

present government of Canada might well ride on

the ice floes along with the baby seals and their.

-_persecutors.

The issue is the behaviour.

the

, eee

of Department of the
Environment and by _§infer-
ence,- what it reveals about
the workings of the bureau-
cratic structure. This struc-
ture, so top-heavy. that it
consumes 40 per cent of the
Canadian GNP, is quite
capable of sinking Canada
permanently, and it would
appear that any controls that
the Canadian people have
over their government are
there in name only.

in fact the powerful civil
service is so insulated from

its only master ’- Parliament -

and Parliament is operating
so poorly - that the civil
service in géneral, and the

Environment Departm ent in

V BA WSesasewaae tment Bas

many
cases in total contradiction to

the wishes of. the Canadian .

people.
CREDIBILITY LAUGHABLE

Pm talking about a rela-
tionship that exists between -

the scalars and the Environ- ;
ment Branch that is contrary .

to the spirit of the environ-
mental movement. It seems
to be a relationship that has

the Department identifying
so closely with the seal

butchers that they will. lie,
issue misleading press. re-
leases, falsify counts, sland-
er the anti-sealing factions,
disparage their own ‘experts’
when the experts disagree

with the Department’s in-
sane policies, and generally.
_act in such a way that their
credibility
-mental’ agency is laughable.

as an ‘environ-

An Order in Council was

_aenrnl L..- tL. Ftte 1 #1:
passea bY He Livérai Caoi-

net last year. Not requiring

approval by. the House, it
was railroaded through at the -

last minute to counter the

threat from groups such as.

the Greenpeace Foundation.
Euphemistically called. the

‘Seal Protection Act’, it is in =

fact a 1 license to exterminate

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OFFICE/NEWS: (604) 980-0511
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Publisher Peter Speck

Associate Publisher Bob Gratam/Managing Editor
Noel Wright/News Guillermo Lam/Photos Ells-
worth Dickson/Productlon Marna Leiren/Advertis-
ing Kristi Vidler/Clossified Berni Hilliard/Circula-
tion Yvonne Chapman/Adiministration Barbara

Haywood/Accounte Sylvia Sorensen.

North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an

independent community newspaper |
qualified under Schedule 111,

and
Part 111,

Paragraph 111 of the Excise Tax Act, is

published cach Wednesday by

North

the

Shore Free Press Ltd. and distributed to every
door on the North Shore. *

Second Class Mall Regtstration Number 3885.

ENTIRE CONTENTS COPYRIGHT © 1977 NORTH
SHORE FREE PRESS LTD. All rights reserved.

: by Peter Speck

“a

(1). Helicopter landings
within two miles of a seal
herd. This is of no conse-
quence to the seal slaughter-
ers, as they simply use the
copters for spotting the herds
and then smash their way
through to the herd with |
icebreakers.

_(2) “Interference with the
‘slaughter of a seal, | for
instance by standing bet-
ween it and the man with the
club and knife.

(3) Marking seals. This
was a counter to Green-
peace’ s plan to’ spray the
seals with a non-toxic green
dye that wouldn’t hurt them —
but would render their pelts:
valueless. Marking has been

done by the government for
years.

(4) Touching or moving
seals -- unless you are killing
them. _

_ SENSELESS SLAUGHTER

These measures were pas-
_ sed for one reason only -- and
that has nothing to do with

the ‘protection’ of seals. The $ 00)
‘Act was tushed through to (reg. AA9' 7 drawers not included -

hamper the efforts of conser- [| Sale priceson com plete stock of waterbed accessories -
vationist groups who oppose ees

_ the senseless slaughter, a ; oS

Greenpeace, for instance,
-has no icebreakers and is
entirely reliant on helicopters
for transportation to the
-herds. And to land more than
two miles away from a herd
and then try to make their
way back to the herd across
miles of rotten ice and
treacherous water is.a very
big obstacle indeed.

The overkill situation last
-year was terrible. The
_,governinent ignored the ad-
vice of the Committee on
Seals and Sealing and set the
quota artificially high --
127,000 seal pups. The
sealers killed’ 169,000 --
forty-two thousand more
than the quota. This year, in
an unrivalled demonstration

of governmental arrogance,
tha aunata uroe oat at 1°90 ANN

WE REUENT EOE VV ROLF AFR MOL AQ

to prevent such an embarras-
sing mistake from recurring.

Nhecoge
This is a serious matter. It

a (reg. $639") drawers not included
isn’t just the seals. At stake

is the way our country is | oo . | _ | Coot
governed. It is ironical that §

the indiscriminate slaughter SOON OF later youllbesleeping
onawaterbedfrom....... :

should bring this to our
’ attention, but other examp-

les of the runaway arrogance
of the: federal bureaucracy
are all around us. a

Feeling thred?
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