Seal Harvests and the Social Elite.

The following commentary was bought to my attention after being sent to the leadership team of the Newfoundland and Labrador Defense League (nldl.org), a citizen's coalition dedicated to protecting and encouraging economic, social and political growth in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The letter presented below clearly expresses how many people in the province feel about government's handling of annual seal protests. Sealing protests that take place each spring off our shores with the same regularity as the swallows returning to Capistrano.

I'd like to thank the author, Mike Kehoe, for sharing his insights and for granting me permission to publish his words to a much wider audience.

I hope you get well soon Mike.

Myles Higgins


Y A W N.............. Oops sorry. I always react with a yawn when I am forced to continuously watch a boring replay of a movie I have seen many times before.

So, here we go again. It's that time of year when animal rights militants make their annual pilgrimage to the cash box known as the Atlantic seal hunt. More structured footage, more taunting intimidation, more media events and more beautiful people on beautiful scenery splashed with the blood of so called "baby" seals.

More righteous indignation from the misinformed and the misled, spoon fed to them by those who see themselves and their cause of animal rights as the duty of the social elite. Greater gobs of verbal and written bile being directed at people whose only "crime" or "fault" is to pursue a legal activity.

Don't waste your time calling on Ottawa to ban anything from countries choosing to participate in this charade. It just will not happen. Ottawa will not ban the purchase of planes, wines, automobiles, meats or anything else in order to make the point it supports its people. Ottawa will say all is good and our engines are running smoothly in the voyage to deal with the damage caused by anti sealers. They have been saying this for 30 years.

Ottawa's game plan again this year will be to wait it out. To get past this season to the next as it has for the last 30 years or so. It will minimize damage to anything west of Port Aux Basque and tolerate anything east. Loyola Hearn will be no different. A sort of don't worry be happy approach. Ottawa will achieve this through controlling response to animal rights protestors by a relatively small group of sealing industry stakeholders. That group will be wined and dined, traveled and feted. There will be the token "non achievement" meetings with select groups but nothing will be designed to generate a long term solution. The meetings held are intended to provide deniability for Ottawa and Hearn when they are accused of doing nothing once again. Ottawa is ok with that.

To date no other industries have said they have had enough of the boycotts and are willing to fight back. However, some, tourism in PEI and some fisherman's groups in other Provinces are now becoming willing to throw in the towel as they feel abandoned by the sealing industry and the Federal Government. They want the issue out of their back yards. They see themselves receiving little more than the bile splatter from animal rights protest activities.

Using the Atlantic front for footage in order to fundraise while closing markets through legislation, appears to be working on some level. These tactics are not being offset in any meaningful way by a coordinated initiative to deal with misrepresentations, misunderstandings or outright lies against the seal hunt.

There is no "command central" to clearly identify the benefits of allowing sealing to continue. There has been no sign of the other Loyola here either, the newly minted Ambassador for Fisheries Conservation. How about it Loyola? You could do some good.

Until recently polls indicate that Canadians supported the rights of fishermen to pursue a legal, sustainable managed and humanely conducted harvest. After all, the slaughter houses of Alberta and canneries of B. C. will be next when these militants become unoccupied by seals. I fear this support may be slipping into lethargy though.

Has the battle been lost, should Canada continue (or as I would argue "begin") to fight?

Other stakeholders have been isolated from this fight by the Federal Government. Countries with similar problems such as Norway, Japan, Greenland, Iceland and other industries such as the meat, fur, oils, tourism etc and groups such as aboriginals have been successfully isolated and their effectiveness in the fight neutralized. They’ve all deliberately been kept away because their presence would cause Ottawa’s bureaucrats to lose control over the issue.

The solution, if there is to be one to be found, lies with the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The Province must take control of the promotion of the rights of people to engage in this legal harvest of animals and the full utilization of the products generated through a humanely conducted and sustainable harvest.

We must cause to be established an organization of all stakeholders to proactively bring forward the rights of humans to live off of meats, furs etc if they so choose. We must get a participatory buy-in from other stakeholders. Elevate the issue to the level it deserves and, on an interim basis, fund this initiative with a view to long term funding coming from resource utilization participants.

One last point, please don't depend on Ottawa to fund such a group.

Know what I mean????

By Mike Kehoe

Seal Hunt Film Exposes Activists

Humane Society's Canadian wildlife issues director Rebecca Aldworth.
Photograph by: Canadian Press

Newspapers across Canada today are reporting that anti-sealing activists, particularly Rebecca Aldsworth of the HSUS, are desperately trying to block the airing of a sealing documentary on the CBC French language station. Apparently the footage does not reflect well on Ms. Aldsworth or her team and this upsets her greatly.

I guess you can only hide the truth for so long Rebecca.

Here are some excerpts from one such article published today.

OTTAWA - Animal-rights activists are considering legal action to block a controversial documentary on Canada's commercial seal hunt on RDI, the CBC's French-language news network.

Phoques, le film, (Seals, the movie), produced by Quebec filmmaker Raoul Jomphe, has ruffled feathers at the Humane Society of the United States, because of a scene showing members of the group watching a dying seal for more than an hour as they filmed a promotional video of the hunt on ice floes in Atlantic Canada...

Guylaine O'Farrell, a spokeswoman for CBC, said the public broadcaster could delay the documentary's air date if necessary, but explained this is part of a normal, in-house review process.

Meantime, Jomphe said he doesn't think anything needs to be changed in the movie, which was presented at a special screening for employees of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans last week in Ottawa.

"The images speak for themselves," he said, pointing out that he included Aldworth's explanation about wanting to transport the seal to a hospital. "When they take images of hunters, they do editing, and that's what we see ... and suddenly she's all offended that she's being filmed in that way."

Power to the People of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Ever since the idea of developing the lower Churchill project moved to the front burner I’ve been a strong advocate for a truly home grown project. The province should not only develop the lower Churchill itself but that it should do it in a way that allows the power is used at home and not simply sold across the border into Quebec, Ontario or the U.S.

If Newfoundland and Labrador is to have any hope of a future and of attracting major industrial investment it needs this energy to attract them. Selling the power outside the province just makes it easier for companies to setup shop elsewhere and continues the forced out-migration of our citizens. Aside from the need for industrial development here at home we also need this power to improve our environmental record and reduce greenhouse gasses for the benefit of all the world’s people.

Should the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador develop the lower Churchill for it’s own use?

How in the name of God, Allah or Mohammad can the government of Newfoundland and Labrador even consider doing anything else?

The province is in desperate need of power to fuel industrial growth. The entire province, especially the Labrador portion, is arguably one of the richest sources of raw materials on the continent, if not the planet itself. Currently much of the province's resources are exported for processing elsewhere. Why is this happening? The answer is simple. There is no available source of inexpensive and abundant power in the province that would enable smelters or other processing facilities to be built and efficiently run.

I say “no available source” because there is indeed abundant power and there always has been. Never the less, it's not available for use in Newfoundland and Labrador. Instead the power is being exported and used to fuel the economic engines of Quebec and beyond.

Can the province afford to make the same mistake with the Lower Churchill as it did with the Upper? Forget for a moment the bad financial deal that was signed in the past. The more critical issue is whether or not the province can afford to give up the potential industrial development and economic growth that would come from controlling and using a vast supply of power right here at home.

According to Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro, the province currently has a generating capacity of 7,289 megawatts for local use and for export. While our current needs are largely being met (with the exception of certain locations in Labrador and on the island) there is very little power available for growth and expansion. Hydro predicts that we will hit the proverbial wall and have difficulty even supplying our existing needs in less than 5 years. Capacity and cost issues are plain to see all around us. Some paper mills have been struggling with a limited availability of low cost power in recent years and this led directly to the closure of the mill in Stephenville. In a limited power environment, such as exists today, how can ayone expect major industries to setup shop here?

The lower Churchill project has the ability to produce 2,824 megawatts or an additional 40% above and beyond the capacity currently in place in the province.

Even though development estimates on the project run as high as $9 billion dollars, this is a bargain at the price.

It's been estimated that the Upper Churchill system has generated over $24 billion in profits since coming on line in 1972 (approximately 96% of those profits have gone to Quebec Hydro, 4 % to NL). The value of clean power continues to rise and it's a revenue stream that will never stop flowing. Although the Lower Churchill is only half the size of the upper Churchill project, the numbers are still staggering and once the initial outlay has been recovered, revenues from hydro power are free to flow faster than the river itself.

Financing should not be an issue in the current political environment. The provincial government is in better financial shape than it was in the 1970s, when the upper Churchill deal was signed. For that matter, it's in a better position than at any time since joining confederation, thanks to high oil revenues. It wouldn’t be a stretch to expect the federal government to cost share the project based on its green value. The situation simply requires the action of a provincial government that is willing to be aggressive in attracting industry partners who are looking to setup shop in a low cost energy market.

Canada has extremely large and difficult commitments to meet on the environment. The Lower Churchill project alone would allow the Country to meet nearly 10% of its initial Kyoto commitments (should Canada ever decide to move on that issue). This doesn’t even take into account the additional benefits to be gained by using most of the power in Labrador while directing less than 20% of it to the island. That 20% would allow the shut down the Holyrood oil fired generating facility, an environmental black eye for the entire province and the Country.

The Holyrood station burns an estimated 6,000 barrels of heavy crude per day in each of three units, for a total of 18,000 barrels per day. It also uses over 750,000 litres of sea water per minute for cooling and 900,000 litres of fresh water for make up purposes. In return for this environmental disaster the plant generates a paltry 490 megawatts of power. Shutting down this plant would not only help Ottawa meet its environmental challenges but imagine how much money could be saved if Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro didn’t have to buy 6.5 million barrels of oil a year at market prices in order to run the Holyrood plant?

Not only should the lower Churchill project be developed by the province and for the province, the power should be used to attract industry and improve environmental conditions right here at home. The only power that should ever be considered for external sale is any unusable over capacity that might exist and any over capacity should be viewed as a problem to be addressed and resolved as quickly as possible.

The timeline being considered for this project would see first power flow from the lower Churchill by 2014. This gives the province seven years to market the power potential and to attract energy hungry companies from around the globe. Companies that are likely to jump at the chance for access to clean, stable and reasonably priced power in an area with a readily available workforce.

The potential is staggering in proportion. No longer would raw ore need to be pulled from the earth only to be processed elsewhere. Smelters could be built in the province.

No longer would raw materials of any kind need to leave for processing. Factories and mills would be able to setup shop in the province.

Perhaps most importantly, no longer would our people need to migrate out of the province in order to find work. The work could come to us.

Retaining control of this power is not something that's nice to do. It's something that must be done for the province's very survival.

If the project is managed correctly, within a year or two of first power, the province of Newfoundland and Labrador could be in a position where it is experiencing impressive industrial growth.

Within a few years of first power, the province could find itself experiencing in-migration rather than out-migration.

Within a decade of first power the province could find itself with a booming oil industry that, although important, is only a small percentage of over all provincial revenues rather than its life’s blood. A life's blood that will one day run out.

Within three decades of first power the Upper Churchill contract will expire and the staggering revenues from that mega project, as well as the available power it contains, can begin to flow to it’s rightful owners.

In less than 50 years, less than the time the province has been a part of Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador might just experience a population explosion. Power brings industry, industry brings jobs, jobs bring wealth and wealth brings people. The migration of 1 or 2 million people into a province with a land mass the size of Newfoundland and Labrador would not be a problem, in fact it might be a god send.

Finally, you add to all of the benefits outlined above the ultimate benefit to our province. Massive in-migration would eventually equate an increased population and a larger population translates into additional seats on Parliament Hill. With those additional seats would come an entirely new kind of power altogether. A power that has been lacking for too long in Eastern Canada.