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Keep The Seal Cull - Ban Heather Mills McCartney |
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Written by D.L. McCracken
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Saturday, 04 March 2006 |
 It's that time of year again boys and girls. As February bids its final adieu to winter-weary Canadians from coast to coast, the month of March debuts with either the heart of a lion or the gentleness of a lamb. Either way, March brings the first promise of Spring to the people north of the 49th parallel and for that reason alone, the month of March is welcomed with open arms from the craggy shores of Newfoundland/Labrador to the more temperate Pacific shores of British Columbia.
But March brings something else into our lives, an event that has divided a country and subsequently the whole world is suddenly watching Canada in horror, disgust and sanctimonious indignation. What could it be? What could the Great White North be doing once a year that attracks the attention and the scorn of world renowned aging Hollywood movie stars and equally aging musicians and their much younger wives?
It's the annual seal cull. March is the month that the industrialized fisherpeople of Newfoundland/Labrador head out to the ice floes in the Gulf of St. Lawrence for the sole purpose of slaughtering as many young seals as they can muster. The floes are suddenly awash in the red blood of the kill and the anguished cries of the seal mothers who hover helplessly nearby as their babies are viciously mutilated and skinned.
And those are the images that are shown around the world to a shocked and sickened and irate audience. The images are always accompanied with a pharisaic voice-over that insists upon further describing the scene in as much detail as possible - ice floes turned red with blood, cruel men raising their clubs high in the air and swiftly coming down on the unsuspecting head of the cutest, whitest little seal pup one could imagine. You've seen those horrific images, haven't you?
Those are the images that have become ingrained on so many people's minds. Those cute little innocent baby seals....the thing is though that the cute little pups called the whitecoats haven't been bludgeoned since 1987. The Canadian government banned the cull of the whitecoats but those are the images that continue to make their way around the world and into the livingrooms of offended celebrities.
Celebrities like Sir Paul and Lady Heather McCartney. Paul, the "cute one" from The Beatles. Heather, the second wife. The super-couple were this year's representatives of the United States Humane Society's annual campaign to abolish the Canadian seal cull. The McCartneys traveled to the Canadian Maritimes last week in a very well publicized and obviously staged sequence of events to remind the world of the atrocities going on in Canada and to demand that Canadian prime minister "Steve" Harper ban the practice.
Note to Sir Paul - it's Stephen Harper. Our prime minister is not the "Steve" type and I doubt his own wife would get away with calling him that. Your usage of the familiar "Steve" in your impassioned speeches would lead the less well informed to believe that you enjoyed a close personal relationship with Prime Minister Harper.
Now I'm not going to deny that I am against the annual cull. I do not agree with it and I consider the cull tactics cruel. But this article is not about my personal opinions. This article is being written because even though I am personally offended by the cull, I am even more offended by the actions and words of Sir Paul and Heather McCartney.
Fast forward to the photo shoot on the ice floe. Paul and Heather were warm and cuddly in their orange snowsuits, wolly toques and spiffy shades and there they were, lying prone on their bellies watching with unmitigated wonder a seriously cute whitecoat seal. I would assume that some basic rules were laid down beforehand regarding strict federal regulations that forbid human contact with marine animals - in other words we are not allowed to touch them. So imagine my surprise when Heather's hand came out and she began stroking the whitecoat's hindquarters. At that moment I was one of many Atlantic Canadians who were sitting in front of our television screens and rooting for the seal to turn around and take a chunk out of her. Alas, the seal displayed more manners than I and merely growled its displeasure.
Fastforward yet again to Friday night's installment of CNN's Larry King Live. At first we were told that only the McCartneys would be interviwed by Mr. King so most of us here in Atlantic Canada shrugged our shoulders and checked the telecaster for alternative programming. But then it was announced that the premier of Newfoundland/Labrador, Danny Williams was also scheduled to make an appearance on the show. Suddenly Larry King Live became must-see-TV, at least for us here on the east coast.
The first thirty minutes of the one-hour show was devoted to the McCartneys and they were given plenty of time to express ad nauseam how very dismayed and saddened they were by the "barbaric...and really brutal" practice. Heather went on to say that she understood that this is a livelihood for some of the people in Newfoundland/Labrador so they "really researched" the cull. She went on to say, "we did not want to come out here and start...cuddling up to seal pups and saying 'It's terrible that you do this' if people are totally surviving on this." Earth To Heather - that's exactly what you did.
But really I wasn't listening intently at that point. I was waiting impatiently for Premier Danny Williams. Mr. King finally introduced the premier half way through the show. (Note to Larry King - it's NewFOUNDland, not NewFINDland.) As Mr. King was introducing the premier he explained to his audience that Mr. Williams was appearing not only to expose the inaccuracies and falsehoods associated with the seal cull but that Mr. Williams was representing the prime minister of Canada as well.
I mention this because from that point forward I and many of my colleagues were flabbergasted to see Heather McCartney treat the premier (and hence the prime minister) with blatant disrespect. She stopped just short of accusing the premier of being a liar. Several times. Williams was attempting to explain that the vast majority of seals are shot, not bludgeoned. At that point a sneering Heather retorted to Williams, "Well, it's just not true. It's complete and absolute rubbish. It's just not true." And, "Let's forget that you don't care about the humanity."
Heather McCartney's performance on the Larry King show did manage to change my mind about a few things but perhaps not what she and her husband intended. I was under the obviously false impression that the McCartneys are basically down-to-earth people who conducted their various activist campaigns with grace and intelligence. I was wrong. Heather McCartney proved to be crude, impolite, disrespectful to government and world leaders, a woman who loves the sound of her own voice and refuses to listen to any opinion that differs from her own.
It astounds me to think that Heather McCartney believes that browbeating disrespect will win friends and influence people.
Finally, a note to Sir Paul - the next time you decide to come to Canada, do us all a favour please and leave the little woman at home.
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