Statement made on 24 November 2009 by Senator Lorna Milne (retired)
Hon. Lorna Milne:
Honourable senators, apparently Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade officials were instructed to meet with a Ms. Rebecca Aldworth on November 9 of this year. Ms. Aldworth is a paid employee of the Humane Society of the United States — HSUS. She is an individual who has vilified Canadian sealers in the international press and political figures in Europe and the United States.
For those senators who have not heard of the HSUS, in my opinion it is a false front organization that was originally set up to siphon funds from the legitimate American Humane Society, which was founded in 1877. I believe the primary purpose of HSUS is to raise money for which it does not have to account publicly, and since that is its primary purpose, it has leapt on to the seal hunt bandwagon.
My question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate. Is this Conservative government and the Minister of Foreign Affairs considering abandoning their support for the Canadian seal hunt, the people of the Maritimes, the people of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and our Aboriginal peoples of the North?
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