Shame on Canada

I am generally quite proud of my country, and I will usually defend it against its critics, but our seal hunt leaves me disgusted and ashamed.

Whatever the excuses for it -- its supposed economic benefits, the alleged need to control the seal population -- there is simply no good reason for it. We're talking about the killing, the brutal killing, of 325,000 seals, most of them babies.

Shame on Canada for allowing this to take place year after year. And shame on Prime Minister Harper for defending the hunt with the ridiculously stupid statement that Canada is the "victim of a bit of an international propaganda campaign". The mass slaughter of seals is reality, not propagandistic fantasy. We need the leadership in Ottawa to end it for good.

(The BBC has more here, our own Globe and Mail here.)