You know its big news when CNN and MSNBC both cover the story. I don’t know if they covered it just to make us look bad (like always depicting Canada with snow on the ground) or if the Americans are just shopping around for a new war, but both networks aired this world shattering event in prime time.

O.k. it was a slow news day, but still…..

We pissed off the Queen too no less. General Jean , is the representative of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II as Canada’s head of state. It seems General Jean did not check with her boss before doing this, and well the palace is miffed at this misstep of etiquette, a feau paux of royal proportions it seems, and they were not amused. It was a seal….not a Corgi for god’s sake!

Kicking off a week long visit to Nunavut on Monday as part of the territory’s 10th anniversary celebrations, at a community festival in the central Nunavut community of Rankin Inlet. General Jean ate a slaughtered seal’s raw heart in a show of support to the country’s seal hunters, a display that a European Union spokeswoman on Tuesday called “too bizarre to acknowledge.”

After cutting through the flesh, General Jean turned to the woman beside her and asked: “Could I try the heart?” She swallowed a piece whole and deemed it tasty, saying: “It’s like sushi. … And it’s very rich in protein.” Well o.k……..maybe not quite like sushi, but it was near lunchtime and she was probably just trying to be nice after all.

General Jean snacking on a slain seal’s raw heart has also sparked criticism from animal rights groups who believe Canada’s annual seal hunt is cruel, poorly monitored and provides little economic benefit. Sealers and Canadian authorities say it is sustainable, humane and provides income for isolated communities. General Jean, whose post is largely ceremonial, defended the hunt as an eons-old traditional hunting practice that is not inhumane.

I mean these are not the same guys that run around clubbing baby seals, dodging Sir Paul McCartney and Greenpeace. Its not like they are selling seal flippers or whiskers as aphrodisiacs to the Chinese, seal meat is a dietary staple in the Arctic. What else are these people supposed to do to get the daily requirement of protein.…call Domino’s?

Barbara Slee, an anti-seal hunt campaigner at the International Fund for Animal Welfare in Brussels, said she was disgusted by Jean’s actions. “The fact that the Governor General in public is slashing and eating a seal, I don’t think that really helps the cause, and I’m convinced that this will not change the mind of European citizens

“It amazes us that a Canadian official would indulge in such bloodlust,” Dan Mathews, senior vice-president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, told the Toronto Star. “It sounds like she’s trying to give Canadians an even more Neanderthal image around the world than they already have”

Neanderthal? Bloodlust? Holy Muck luck Hannah…who are these people?

EU governments are to sign the ban into law on June 25th after the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to impose the measure. EU rule has some exemptions. The new EU rule offers narrow exemptions so Inuit communities from Canada, Greenland and elsewhere can continue traditional hunts, but bars them from large-scale trading of their pelts and other seal goods in Europe. EU voted to impose a ban on seal products on grounds that the seal hunt is cruel.

I don’t know if a photo op with a dead seal really falls under the category of “Seal Products.” But what do I know…apparently I am a Neanderthal.

Next week our other illustrious leader, Stephen Harper, is also making a little trip up there. It seems he too will be partaking in a little snowshoe schmoozing, probably worried that his “anti-Michael Ignatieff -he’s not a real Canadian” ads aren’t being picked up on satellite or something. When asked if he too would partake in a little seal heart a spokesperson replied, “Well lets just say that Mr. Harper is not a Vegetarian”.

$100 bucks says he brings his own lunch.

Til later