On Saturday, June Callwood lost her fight with cancer. RIP.

*


I read something that bugged me, so let’s talk seal hunting. For all of those people who are interested in educating themselves about the Canada Seal Hunt before they decide whether or not to get their knickers in a twist about it, I direct you to Myths and Realities about the Canada Seal Hunt. There is no point in suffering a painful wedgie needlessly. Become properly informed. That site is a whole wealth of information, actually.

Even still, I’d like to drive a couple points home:

It’s illegal to hunt the whitecoat harp seal pups (as well as hooded seal pups). Manipulative, extremist organisations like PETA–they kill animals, by the way–who use the whitecoat as their mascot in their fight against the hunt don’t want you to know this since their platform relies heavily on what we call, in technical terms, The Cuteness Factor. The Cuteness Factor is essential in getting people in a wedgieful uproar. You will note that trees and the ozone layer are not nearly as cute as the whitecoat harp seal pup and that is why we keep destroying both.

The maritimes are what we in Canada classically refer to as ‘Have Not’ provinces, and anyone who doesn’t know the economic realities in Eastern Canada before they decry the seal hunt should really check them out. The Myths and Realities page says it better than I can: “Seals are a significant source of income for individual sealers and thousands of families.”

And how annoying was it when Paul McCartney and Heather Mills stopped by for that photo-op with the protected whitecoat seal pup? Here we have two people who could easily supplement the source of income they’re so eager to take away from Canadians who genuinely need it without suggesting alternative sources while at the same time spreading misinformation and propaganda to boot.

Not cool.

So before you let your underwear wedgify itself over this, thereby pissing you off, please work hard to inform yourself of the facts about the Seal Hunt from an unbiased source. Every time an uninformed mouth spouts off about the travesties of the hunt while holding up a picture of a whitecoat harp seal pup, an informed person gets their knickers in a twist, so what we have here are two groups of people rendered horribly uncomfortable by their wedgies and that is how wars get started.

So do your part for a Wedgie Free World today.

That is all.

Further reading: CBC’s Seal Hunt In Depth.