Foreign Corporation interferes in Parks Canada proposal!

A friend of mine recently shared this from Avaaz.org, an American advocacy group that is involved in politics in several countries.  I'd originally heard of these guys during the Sun News licensing saga (somehow the country survived, whew).  


So it seems the Harperites are going to privatize a chunk of Jasper National Park in Alberta by selling it to an American company:

"In days, the Harper Government could privatise a section of Jasper National Park and let an American-owned company blast a 300m metal walkway into our World Heritage mountains -- but Jasper's Superintendent has the power to stop them.
The plan would not only spur development, but would give an American company the right to charge each of us for entry into parts of Jasper park. Greg Fenton, a local Jasperite, has the ability to stop the privatisation of the park he grew up in and loves -- but the company's lobbying effort means he will face pressure to sell out this natural wonder. Let's send him a tidal wave of support and give him the strength he needs to stand up to corporate power and save our Rocky Mountain sanctuary. 
Click to ensure our parks stay in public hands -- sign the petition calling on Fenton to save Jasper National Park before it's too late."

Naturally, I was alarmed.  I found the Evil American Company's website for the proposed development, and it seems Avaaz wasn't being entirely honest.  The proposal would create a skywalk of sorts, hanging over a valley, with a glass floor letting you look down into the value.  This actually sounds, and looks, really cool.




Then I found my way to Parks Canada's page on the development. Although they don't mention Avaaz, it seems to be a point by point rebuttal of Avaaz's claims.  Turns out the park will not be privatized, it will remain firmly in public hands.  Brewster Travel will not control who gets into the park, Parks Canada will.  


Avaaz supports some great causes like Arab democracy and gay rights.  I just don't get why they waste their time with stupid ones.

Parks Canada says it best:  "National parks are protected for – not from – Canadians."

Back at it

So it's been a while and I have several things on my mind...


Religion
I was at a wedding this past weekend and a friend of the groom's family was asked to say a short prayer to bless the wedding. He did that, then went into a diatribe against gay marriage and how countries like the Netherlands and Canada are ruining the world, or something like that. I could easily demolish someone like him in a real debate, but this (not very well educated) man (with really bad grammar) chose my friend's wedding to spout his political views, which made him the world's biggest assshole. And if open minded countries like Canada are really that bad, take a hike buddy.


Environment
I am a bit of an environmentalist myself, and I've noticed two trends recently. The first is disconcerting, the second is annoying.

With all of the focus currently on global warming, are we in danger of ignoring good old fashioned pollution? Whatever happened to all the worry about smog days, clean water, landfills, etc? I'm not knocking the attention that global warming is getting, but let's not forget that there are other environmental issues out there.

With global warming having become the cause du jour, the usual bandwagon jumpers have begun doing things that annoy people like me. You have the retail store customer who'll refuse to take a bag while saying "It'll save a tree." No, you well intentioned moron, it won't. Plastic bags are not made from trees, they're made from oil, natural gas, and coal. Plastic bags are not evil, they are reusable, and recyclable. It's our own city's fault for letting them end up in landfills instead of having found a way to recycle them like other Canadian cities already have.


City Council
Speaking of our city, our gutsy councilors recently decided to put off a vote to burden Torontonians with new taxes. Toronto faces a cash crunch, everyone knows that. Yet the councilors gave themselves and the mayor a raise a few months ago, refused to give up their perks, and are now looking at cutting back on services (wait for it...) that involve non-union jobs! Thus our fun cycle of using taxpayer dollars to give underperforming politicians raises and unionized workers inflated salaries while hitting the taxpayer up for more cash continues.

In defense of the Seal Hunt

So the Canadian seal hunt is on, again; lefties and animal lovers are complaining, again; pictures of those cute and cuddly baby seals are being shown on television ,newspapers, and the web, again; and those pictures are triggering shock and empathy, again; which is leading to some nice fundraising for anti sealing groups, again.

Let's examine some of these anti-sealing websites shall we? I've only picked three, there are dozens.

Heading over to www.canadiansealhunt.com we see pictures of white baby seals, sealers using hakapiks, and lots of blood and guts. It asks you to boycott all Canadian seafood, travel to Newfoundland, certain fashion labels, specific seafood companies, and herbs made from seals.

On IFAW's Stop the Seal Hunt site, we also have some of the same pictures and information. This site also claims that the seal hunt is unsustainable, implying that seal populations are declining, while citing their own reports. There's also a very prominent Donate link.

On Boycott Canadian Seafood, we see a prominently displayed baby whitecoat, and more of the same. My favourite words on this site: "Help put an end to the commercial slaughter of baby seals. Make a donation today."

Now, let's examine the facts.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the federal government's ministry, has a seal hunt fact sheet. Hey look at fact #1, hunting whitecoats has been banned since 1987. Could this mean that each and every one of these anti-sealing websites are trying to take advantage of your empathy by showing you the cutest seals and implying that they're the ones being hunted, when in fact they are not hunted? Nah...they couldn't be that blatantly dishonest could they? The fact sheet proceeds to dispel myths about seals being skinned alive (they're not), the hakapik being a cruel instrument (it's not), and that seals are being killed to preserve cod (they're not).

Fact #5 states something very, very, important. The seal hunt is NOT unsustainable as many environmental groups claim. The harp seal population has been growing steadily and is now triple that of the 1970s.

Fact #6: "Seals are a significant source of income for some individual sealers and for thousands of families in Eastern Canada at a time of year when other fishing options are limited at best, in many remote, coastal communities. Sealing also creates employment opportunities for buying and processing plants."

Let's bolster this fact with something from Newfoundland and Labrador's own seal hunt fact sheet: the industry is worth $55 million to the provincial economy, and the money is crucial to eastern Canadians with limited employment opportunities.

I'll bring in my final (and favourite) link, Terry Glavin's article in The Tyee. He is an environmentalist, and is sickened by the disinformation being spread by anti-sealers. If you read nothing else, read that article. It has a lot of good information, and it's too much to repeat here.

Let's move into my opinions.

The anti-sealing movement is full of liars, idiots, and hypocrites.

They're liars because they tell you that the cuter ones are hunted, that it is unsustainable, and that it has no economic value. The unemployment rate in Newfoundland & Labrador is approximately 14%. Canadians that depend on this for a big chunk of their income need the money. It's easy to ask them to do something else, when there are no other jobs available.

They're idiots because their lying and hypocrisy is making the animal rights and environmental movements look bad. I have no problem with this, since I despise most animal rights activists (yeah that's right, I said it).

They're hypocrites because they have a problem with the cruelty in killing seals, but they say nothing about the cruelty in killing cows and chickens in slaughterhouses. I'm looking at economic benefit here. Cattle ranchers and chicken farmers are also responsible for a lot of slaughter. But then you might say, but isn't there a difference between killing cows/chicken to eat them versus killing those cute widdle baby seals? Well it's not just the pelt and oils that are sold, so is the meat! I don't eat it, and maybe you don't, but there are people that do.

I refuse to accept that the welfare of animals is more important than those of people. These morons are audacious enough to (try to) hurt Canada's economy by banning our seafood exports. It hasn't worked, but it still pisses me off.

I'll end this post by requesting that you eat seafood, and lots of it. Don't stop there, beef, pork, chicken, and other meats are oh so tasty. You won't just enjoy a hearty and delicious meal, you'll also piss off animal rights activists, which, for me atleast, is an added bonus.