Petition circulates against EU status at Arctic Council

An Inuit woman working with seal skin and an ulu, a traditional Inuit knife. (CBC)
An Inuit woman working with seal skin and an ulu, a traditional Inuit knife. (CBC)

A group of Canadian Inuit have launched a website to drum up support for the abolition of the European Union ban on seal products.

They’re also circulating a petition calling on the Canadian Government to reject observer status for the EU at the Arctic Council.

“We the undersigned Citizens of Canada, call on we call on Parliament to reject the European Union’s application for OBSERVER STATUS at the Arctic Council until such time as the European Union recognizes the rights of Canadian seal hunters to participate in a lawful industry by completely lifting the seal product ban (Regulation (EC) No. 1007/2009) currently in place,” reads a section of the petition posted on the website inuitsealing.org

This May, Canada takes over the roving chairmanship of the Arctic Council from Sweden.

Inuit throughout the Arctic have been negatively affected since the EU seal ban was put in place in XXXX.

Though the ban includes an exemption for Inuit, the ban has nevertheless killed the market for seal products that generated income for Arctic Inuit communities in places like Greenland, Canada and Alaska.

The General Court of the EU will decide later on this week whether the EU ban on seal products should stand or be struck down.

Related Link:

What the EU seal ban has meant for Inuit communities in the Arctic, Eye on the Arctic / Radio Canada International

Seal Ban: The Inuit Impact, Radio Canada International

Eilís Quinn, Eye on the Arctic

Eilís Quinn is an award-winning journalist and manages Radio Canada International’s Eye on the Arctic news cooperation project. Eilís has reported from the Arctic regions of all eight circumpolar countries and has produced numerous documentary and multimedia series about climate change and the issues facing Indigenous peoples in the North.

Her investigative report "Death in the Arctic: A community grieves, a father fights for change," about the murder of Robert Adams, a 19-year-old Inuk man from Arctic Quebec, received the silver medal for “Best Investigative Article or Series” at the 2019 Canadian Online Publishing Awards. The project also received an honourable mention for excellence in reporting on trauma at the 2019 Dart Awards in New York City.

Her report “The Arctic Railway: Building a future or destroying a culture?” on the impact a multi-billion euro infrastructure project would have on Indigenous communities in Arctic Europe was a finalist at the 2019 Canadian Association of Journalists award in the online investigative category.

Her multimedia project on the health challenges in the Canadian Arctic, "Bridging the Divide," was a finalist at the 2012 Webby Awards.

Her work on climate change in the Arctic has also been featured on the TV science program Découverte, as well as Le Téléjournal, the French-Language CBC’s flagship news cast.

Eilís has worked for media organizations in Canada and the United States and as a TV host for the Discovery/BBC Worldwide series "Best in China."

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