August 2009 Volume 10
Canadians Back Namibia on Seal Harvests, The COVE Film
Canadians Back Namibia on Seal Harvests - by John Ekongo
Canadian parliamentarians on a two-day visit to the country said they supported Namibia's position on seal harvesting.
Co-Chair of the Canada-Africa Parliamentary Association, Senator Raynell Andreychuck, a Conservative, said that much of the condemnation over seal hunts is laced with emotions rather than facts on the ground.
Animal rights activists worldwide have criticized the governments of Namibia, Canada, Norway, Greenland and Russia over the annual seal harvests.
But, said the group, We are one voice, we don't believe that actions of the European Commission (EC) are justified. There is unity among the people, although a few minorities are against seal harvesting but it's a very few and an overwhelming majority supports our position.
The group added that they will continue to engage the EC on why there is need for seal harvesting. Canada and Namibia have a commonality in the marine industry and this is one area in which the Association said it would relay a message to Canadian businesses for possible interchange of ideas.
The Association briefed journalists about its visit to Namibia.
Describing their interactions with their Namibian counterparts as fruitful, another co-chair of the Association, Senator Mauril B. highlighted the need for stronger inter-parliamentary relations.
We hope to strengthen bilateral parliamentary engagements at a continental level as well.
The team said there is a great need for the parliaments of the two countries to conduct regular parliamentary exchanges with the aim of promoting parliamentary democracy and ideas between the two houses.
The Association, established in 2003, is an organization of Canadian parliamentarians dedicated to promoting exchanges between African and Canadian parliamentarians.
The delegation that visited Namibia consisted of four legislators from both the party in government, the opposition and senior staffers of the Association. The group also met with opposition parties represented in the National Assembly.
The delegation returned to Canada on Friday.
THE COVE FILM
The Cove opened in North America last Friday. I am glad to report that the #1 place on sales in North America has been here in Vancouver!!!! Due to the success of the movie, the film will keep for another week at the cinema in 900 Burrard (Scotiabank movie theatre in Vancouver).
The daily hours of the film are: 12, 2:20, 4:50, 7:20 and 9:50 PM every day.
I HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!
For times and place to go to watch the movie from Friday September 4th, Pls. check the Georgia Straight.
PLEASE READ THIS MESSAGE FROM OUR COLLEAGUE RIC O'BARRY (The person behind the film "The Cove" who has exposed the Japanese dolphin drives)
The publicity surrounding The Cove movie provides a unique opportunity to expose the dolphin trafficking industry, educate the public and to stop the slaughter of dolphins and whales in Japan, ONCE AND FOR ALL.
In the past month, I've been all over the world doing interviews on The Cove and have gone to the mayor and people of Broome, Australia, urging them to sever their sister-city relationship with Taiji until the dolphin slaughter stops.
In early September, I'm going back to Taiji and I want you to join me in spirit and solidarity. We need your donations now to support our campaign.
It's going to cost us a great deal of money to promote The Cove movie in Japan and get it shown against the government's opposition. Your support is critical to our efforts to expose the dolphin slaughter in Taiji to the Japanese public. The fishermen in Taiji and the government bureaucrats in the Fisheries Ministry are counting on our failure. But you can help us prove them wrong.
We already have one indication of the difficulty of screening The Cove in Japan. The Cove was submitted to the Tokyo Film Festival at the urging of one of the participants, a Japanese director. The theme of the festival this year is the environment. He told us it would be "hypocritical" for them not to show The Cove. However, the Festival is funded in part by the Japanese government, and The Cove was rejected.
We need funds for advertising, for travel, and for equipment to continue showing up in Taiji to expose and document the killing of dolphins in the secret cove.
We may get harassed, but the dolphins we are hoping to save are worth it. We're also exploring ways to expose the Japanese government's dangerous undermining of food safety enforcement and to involve Japanese health and safety organizations in our campaign to protect Japanese children from mercury-laced dolphin meat.
Please donate to help us and the dolphins.
We'll keep you posted on our ongoing efforts. Please spread the word about our campaign to save Taiji's dolphins.
Ric O'Barry
Campaign Director
Save Japan Dolphins Coalition
Please sign this petition and pass on to all of
your friends. Save the environment in
Australia!
www.petitiononline.com
Please ask ten friends to each ask a further ten today!
The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting enough people to click on it daily so they can meet their quota of getting FREE FOOD donated every day to abused and neglected animals. It takes less than a minute (about 15 seconds) to go to their site and click on the purple box 'fund food for animals for free'. This doesn't cost you a thing.
Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate food to abandoned/neglected animals in exchange for advertising.
Here's the web site! Please pass it along to
people you know.
www.theanimalrescuesite.com
Please, check this story: Paraná is the Capital City of the Province of Entre RÃos, located in the North East of Argentina. Canadian Voice for Animals writes that, "It has been a No-Kill city for more than 10 years but has a non-existent policy for the neutering of strays."
Because of these policies the number of unwanted animals has got out of control. Canadian Voice for Animals-Argentina say that they had foreseen this situation and had tirelessly tried to focus the attention of local authorities on this problem, with no success whatsoever.
Canadian Voice for Animals reports that the Paraná authorities are now planning to open a super-shelter in Paraná in order to clean the city for tourism.
"In this dark hole hundreds of poor souls will be cramped and starved to death."
Read the rest of the story here:
www.candobetter.org and sign the petition
here: www.thepetitionsite.com
Want to help the animals?
Go to www.catcahelpanimals.org for more info in how you can help and learn about several issues worldwide.
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