Former RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli wore the traditional muskrat hat during a memorial service on December 27, 2001.
Photo Credit: Ken Gigliotti/CP Photo/Winnipeg Free Press

Government reverses ban on fur hats for police

The Canadian government is obliging the national police force, the RCMP, to go back on its promise to stop using fur in almost all of its uniform hats.

The RCMP wrote to an animal-rights group in August to say that it had found a non-fur tuque that would work well in normal winter conditions and that it would phase in the new hats supplying them to cadets in the coming month.

The exception was to have been for officers working in the extreme cold, where the warmer, traditional hat of muskrat fur would continue to be used. The force stressed its suppliers use humane, internationally-approved trapping standards.

‘Government will stand up for hunters and trappers’

All that changed Tuesday, when Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq rose in the House of Commons to say the decision to phase out fur hats would be reversed. “Our government will always stand up for Canada’s hunters and trappers,” said Aglukkaq. The minister herself is an aboriginal who hails from northern Canada where many people making a living with fur.

Another member of Parliament said the decision to phase out fur hats threatened to devastate thousands of livelihoods. “The fur trade is vital to the economy of many remote rural communities — communities who often have few other economic options,” said Conservative MP Robert Sopuck.

 ‘Shock and disgust’

The reversal was greeted with “shock and disgust” by the Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals.

In another, previous attempt to support the fur industry, the Canadian government lobbied hard and unsuccessfully to stop the European Union from banning seal fur and other products.

Categories: Environment & Animal Life, Politics, Society
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