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Michaelle Jean Too Bizarre for EU-Eats Raw Heart From Gutted Seal
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by Tina Kells | May 26, 2009 at 02:34 pm
342 views | 12 Recommendations | 13 comments
May 25, 2009 will go down in history as the day that Michaelle Jean, Canadian governor general and the Queen's representative in Canada, grossed out a nation by eating a raw heart from a recently gutted seal.
In a gesture dubbed by EU officials as "too bizarre to acknowledge" Michaelle Jean asked to taste the heart while participating in an Inuit festival.
The EU recently voted to ban Canadian seal products, condemning the seal hunt as cruel and barbaric.
Hundreds of Inuit at a community festival gathered on Monday as Mrs Jean knelt above a pair of seal carcasses and used a traditional ulu blade to slice the meat off the skin. After cutting through the flesh, she turned to the woman beside her and asked: "Could I try the heart?"
After swallowing a piece whole and deeming it tasty, Mrs Jean, whose post is largely ceremonial, defended the hunt as a traditional hunting practice that is not inhumane.
A spokesman for Stavros Dimas, the EU environment commissioner, offered no official reaction.
"No comment; it's too bizarre to acknowledge," Barbara Helfferich said.
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at 03:27 on May 27th, 2009
Sensationalist Journalism? Aww... yes what would we average people do w/o a daily dose of writers like you, tossing out "Come On" sales tactics meant to disturb us first and second to build your readership on.
But the reality Tina, is you're poucing on a practice that has been done for centuries w/o a second thought by the Inuit natives of whose land you live on. The very people your fore fathers stole it from, remember!
You fail to treat these Inuit natives cultural heretage as sacred, and at the same time expect them to respect your opinion. You condem Michaelle Jean for having the diplomatic prowess to attempt to help her constituents keep their heretage and customs alive. At least they eat the food they kill.and I imagine you've never done that before. Not because you don't eat meat either. You and others like you, who denouce this, will only eat what others kill, raise or harvest. And that only after it's been properly homogenized and re-packaged to look like something it's not!.
How are you any better than Michaelle or the Inuits she's trying to help? What have you done for anyone else besides what's of your own interests or beliefs. Your condeming sensationalist story stinks and calls more attention to your ignorance of others than your attempt to paint some morbid barbaric picture of a people pushed to the the brink of extinction so you can plant your gardens behind concrete walls on stolen Inuit lands!
at 08:41 on May 28th, 2009
this is very stupid. Why can't "we" just except the fact that people all over the world eat different things and move on. Michelle Jean was just trying to support another culture and that great. She was just showing the world what she believed in. There is nothing wrong with what she did she ate seal heart so what!! A lot of people in this world eat cow heart and pig heart and even veal. And do you guys know what veal is? It's baby cow! Yeah thats right they tie the little baby cow up and don't let it move. And you think eating seal is bad! When you kill a seal they don't suffer at all you hit them once in the head and their dead but you make litle cow suffer so you arn't any better than she is! its just a way of life! SO LIVE WITH IT!!!!!!!!!!!
at 04:49 on May 29th, 2009
It's okay to eat raw fish (its caled sushi) but your a barbaric murderer when you eat raw seal. I don't get it. The way things are going, these f**ing animalist will make the world vegetarian. They start with seal, veal and foi gras, then it will be hunting, then beef and chicken, then it will be a crime to kill a fly. Hey, you don't see that these f***ing animalists groups have an hidden agenda and won't stop until we all become vegetalian!!!!! Eating meat is nature law, like when lions eat antilopes.
I hope people finaly wake up.
at 14:45 on May 26th, 2009
She's like the Anthony Bourdain of Canadian politics...Bravo!
at 07:17 on May 27th, 2009
Well the German eat Blood soup in some areas and raw fish in the north and the French like their Frogs and snails.
However none of those are endangered. Yet the killing of snails is some what barbaric and so is the killing of frogs, at least the way it is practised still today could be considered inhuman.
at 11:07 on May 27th, 2009
Who are you and where are your sources? sure i could spend time looking for the journals but since it seems you've thoroughly done your research why don't you share those with us as well? if not then we're both wasted space.
at 15:50 on May 26th, 2009
I'm sorry, this is just gross; I understand she wants to show support for the seal hunt but did she really have to gut it herself and then eat a raw heart!? There must be some other way.
at 22:36 on May 26th, 2009
To her it was a "message" and to that poor animal, it was the very means by which it lived. Have some reverence for life!
at 08:12 on May 27th, 2009
SEAL MEAT IS INFESTED WITH METHYL MERCURY. EATING SEAL MEAT IS EQUIVALENT TO EATING LEAD PAINT. BY MICHAELLE JEAN ATTEMPTING TO SHOWCASE THIS, SHE IS ESSENTIALLY CONTRIBUTING TO POISONING THE INUIT.
This is not 1,000 years ago. It is no longer the day of oxcarts in the dark ages. Industrial operations in Canada have leaked 400,000 tonnes of hazardous waste into the oceans, primarily approved by the very DFO govt entity which also runs the seal hunt. So the agency that runs the seal hunt, has poisoned the seals. The non-native (white) hunters do not care about this because they dont eat it. They merely hack the seals to obtain fur money and garbage the rest. So the victims of the Sealers are the Inuit. And now, a thousand year old practice is deadly. Mercuric poisoning causes stunted brain growth, lowered IQ, organ damage, and eating seal meat contaminated with mercury will cause anyone who eats seal meat or oil to potentially give birth to infants stricken with deformities. So this is what the governor general just did. And the user above named "B. Frank" who is touting sealing to be frank has essentially just promoted further biological brain damage to the inuit. Anyone touting further human consumption of these materials is egging people on to ingest material tainted with polychlorinated biphenyls, and harmful toxaphene. One must understand, this rumor or old wives tale about this material being 'healthy' diet, is long gone. Imagine if you will, if there was a crystal clear spring, that 'people' drank from for 1,000 years, however recently a corporation came and dumped the contents of 200 porta potty toilet loads into this fountain, and people were now still drinking from it. Here we have "B. Rank" telling everyone Yes, this has been scrumptious for 1,000 years, that proves its safe and healthy, keep drinking it! -- Seal meat is now toxic. The samples tested from inuit have revealed that over half of them now exceed human mercuric and PCB poison levels due to this. Samples from Inuit in Greenland are off the richter scale and so high that their tissue and blood samples could be classified as hazardous waste.
Anyone going around cheering this act as some kind of victory needs to realize that this governor has just advocated and cheered for the continuance of a practice that will now result in further poisoning of this imporant culture. Never advocate this.
All of you here. Take the time to post in the comments on any articles touting this eating of these substances and post that Seal Meat contains Mercury poisoning which does damage to the Inuit. Remind people of this. Its like enticing people to continue the great cultural practice of eating pieces of Lead paint.
at 08:37 on May 28th, 2009
Well that's precious. The EU condemning Canadian fishers and hunters as barbaric! I hope your supersensitive nature's won't be too grossed out to know that 200 years ago, the Inuit might have killed Ms. Jean and her entire party and eaten their hearts as part of a ritual cannabilism.
But before the EU gets too hot, please remember that your own grandfathers were making lampshades and soap from Jews, and sleeping on mattresses stuffed with human hair (to say nothing of gassing Gypsies, homosexuals, religious fanatics, etc.) And you're outraged by the tradition of a harmless group of people that number maybe 10 000? Please.
And while your bristling with your pompous pet-loving eco-indignation, please tell your ocean-going 'fish-factories' to stop raping our coastal waters. Then to be consistent, please top eating meat or using any animal byproducts like leather. If you want to protest something worthwhile, visit a slaughterhouse.
I applaud our GG for having the bollocks to step up. I may go out and purchase a set of seal-skin boots, a hat and coat (the warmest and most water repellent skin on the planet) just to support the thousands of east coast fishers who are now unemployed. It strikes me as hilarious - and entirely ingenuous and despicable - that barely a couple of generations after Europe was forced to cease their systematic rape of the entire planet, they are suddenly squeamish over the legitimate hunting activities of a few families who's livelihood depends on said activities. Please spare us the sermons and get yourselves a life.
at 08:49 on May 28th, 2009
I AGREE!
at 08:50 on May 28th, 2009
I AGREE!
at 08:55 on May 28th, 2009
Brain damage from eating seal meat, and we're causing it by permitting these people to practise their cultural traditions. Nice.
This is the kind of insufferable rubbish put forth by the pretentious fekkineejits that completely undermines any intelligent debate on the matter. Godsakes man, you should be doing stand up with this stuff.