Ruminations

Blog dedicated primarily to randomly selected news items; comments reflecting personal perceptions

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Canada Has Garnered International Publicity!

Here we are, the eyes of the world upon Canada. Canada the good, the wholesome, the predictable. Moderate, responsible, dependable Canada. A country of fairly smug people who fully understand that as a relatively wealthy democracy, and a 'middle power' we don't much make the international news. We have pride in ourselves as reasonable people, a country bursting with the traditions of our own aboriginal populations, as well as those of great portions of the country from elsewhere on the Globe. We are a pluralist, well-mannered society.

Her Excellency The Right Honourable
Michaëlle Jean
CC, CMM, COM, CD, BA MA Mont, LLD(hc) Alb, LLD(hc) Man, LLD(hc) Osg, DLitt(hc) McGill, DA(hc) Ott, DIR(hc) Perugia, FRCPSC(hon)
Michaëlle Jean


Now all of a sudden, we're an international bad-boy. Michaelle Jean, our current Governor-General, our symbolic Head of State, representing Britain's Queen Elizabeth, as this country's traditional head of state, has comported herself in a manner seen as less than acceptable. In her position as the country's top diplomat, she represents all of Canada, to the Crown of England, and to the world at large. She is also our goodwill ambassador, our tenuous reach-out to others both within and without the country.

She has the temerity, the authority and the audacity of her position to exemplify what Canadians mean to one another and to our global outreach. Born in Haiti, a woman of colour, of personal talents and strong convictions commensurate with those of a free society, Michaelle Jean stands on ceremony when it is required, and balances societal convention with political and social recognition of the meet and the moot when she must.

It is traditional and it is civil for representatives of state to comport themselves in a manner reflective of the position they hold. And Governor General Michaelle Jean does just that, and masterfully. She has been exposed and submitted to some fairly unorthodox and difficult situations, both political and cultural, and she has managed, unerringly, to find her way to evenly and successfully discharging her duty.

In no less so a manner has she done so than when, during a visit to Rankin Inlet in Nunavut, she took part in a traditional Inuit feast. She was there to present in solidarity with Canada's people of the North. Her professionalism as a regal appointee, and her exquisite display of etiquette did justice to her position and to her sensibilities as an intelligent woman.

Using a traditional carving knife, she sat beside a community elder to share the Inuit delicacy of a slaughtered seal heart. The traditional seal hunt as practised by Canada's Inuit and by marginal-existence sealers has been used as a rallying cry for oppositional animal welfare purists for years. Whose largely successful campaign has painted the hunt as cruel and inhumane.

When in actual fact, it is not. And when in fact, the harvesting of seals is no different than the harvesting of any other animals that humans normally accept as part of their daily diet. The European Union's decision to ban seal products and boycott the hunt in their protest against Canada's commercial hunt simply reveals as the height of hypocrisy and self-righteousness.

It was simpler for the EU countries to uniformly - although not all were in agreement - declare themselves in opposition to the hunt in the face of endless lobbying by influential European animal rights activists. There are EU-member-states whose questionable practices in animal husbandry might be questioned, but the ire of animal rights activists has been turned upon the seal hunt.

A traditional way of life is being threatened, one that is ecologically sound and meaningful to its practitioners. First the device of showing photographs of white-coats with their large, soulful-looking eyes of innocence played upon peoples' emotions, strengthening the hand of animal-rights activists, and Canada declared white coats off limits for hunting to defuse the situation. Now only adult harp seals are hunted.

Governor General Michaelle Jean undertook her duty with honour and commitment to those in Canada whose reputation has been unfairly besmirched and whose culture and livelihood has been threatened by hysteria, misinformation and false premises.

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