Endangered whale meat still being shipped through Canada
Posted March 2, 2015 3:06 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Endangered whale meat continues to travel through Canada on its way to the Japanese market, according to a local NDP MP who has found documents revealing that happened at least twice last year.
Allowing the shipment of meat from endangered animals through Canada is unacceptable, says Vancouver-Kingsway MP Don Davies, who claims ports south of the border wouldn’t allow it in.
“We sign conventions that obligate our country to not facilitate trade in endangered species, so to see our country domestically not enforce those obligations, I think, damages our reputation on the world stage,” says Davies.
Back in December, Davies brought a petition signed by 65,000 people to Ottawa but says he hasn’t heard back from the Feds on whether there’s any plan to stop the practice.
“I asked the minister of trade in Parliament why the Conservative government was permitting the trade in endangered fin whale meat across Canada,” Davies says. “He said he would look into it at that time, and here we are three months later and we’ve heard nothing from the government.”
Under existing laws, meat from endangered animals cannot be shipped by Canada, but as long it stays in customs, it can be shipped through the country.
