Mr. Speaker, let me be clear. We are certainly going well beyond rhetoric in many different ways. The first way is that our government will be appealing the ruling of the World Trade Organization on Canada's challenge of the European Union seal products ban.
Defending the sealing industry has been a priority since the notion of a ban on seal products by the European Union first arose. The Canadian seal harvest is demonstrably sustainable and humane, as all truly independent observers agree.
Together with industry, we have worked to strengthen the regulation and monitoring of the harvest and professionalized harvesters through a training program. In fact, processors now refuse to buy from sealers who have not been trained.
Make no mistake, despite the claims of animal rights groups, there is a demand for seal products, at least when access to markets is not blocked by discriminatory trade bans.
We are going to continue working on this and defending our sealing industry.