The True North

Nunavut vows to ban EU booze in dispute over sealing

Good.

As much as I loathe a cart blanche to hunt simply because one's ancestors came over the Bering Strait, I loathe white liberal ignorance and arrogance even more. In this case, Euro-arrogance. For the Inuit, the seal hunt is a matter of sustenance. Urban dwellers have the convenience of purchasing their meat processed and wrapped; the Inuit do not. They have been hunting seals for centuries. For squeamish Europeans to cast judgment on a people a few (if any) have met smacks of the kind of prejudice one thought we did away with years ago. Did anyone in the EU ask an Inuit hunter what his perspective on the seal hunt was? Did it not occur to anyone that for many people, hunting a way of life or that the hunting of seal pups is banned or that seals consume vital fish stocks?

Perhaps it is best never to let facts get in the way of what appears to be a cuddly animal.