MLA’s shout “shame” over distorted Olympic logo

Moses Aupaluktuq, MLA for Baker Lake, brought his concerns to the Nunavut legislature about images from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' anti-sealing "Olympic Shame campaign."

Materials from an on-line campaign by the radical ­animal rights group at www.olympicshame2010.com include an image of the 2010 Winter Olympic's inuksuk logo swinging a club at a seal and a cartoon of an Inuk hunter, "Evil Quatchi," shown with seal blood dripping from his mouth as he chases down a seal with a Stone Age club.

Aupalutuq's vivid des­cription of the images caused his fellow MLAs to shout "Shame! Shame!"

"Will the minister or his department make an official response to this PETA anti-sealing campaign and website on behalf of Nunavummiut?" Aupalutuq asked Daniel Shewchuk, Nunavut's environment minister, on June 12.

The radical animal rights organization, PETA, created its parody of the Olympic logo to depict the act of clubbing a seal to death with a hakapik, a harvesting technique, which has been used in the Gulf of St. Lawrence by Newfoundland and other sealers, but never by Inuit.

The PETA-made logo also includes a white-coat seal pup lying in a pool of blood – even though white-coat pups are no longer harvested even in southern Canada.

The campaign also features a cartoon starring the seal hunter Quatchi as well as e-cards and downloadable stickers and colouring pages for children which show "evil Quatchi clubbing seals" and "baby seals say help me."

"What the anti-seal lobbyists are doing has a major impact on Nunavummiut and on Inuit culture. It clearly shows gross misunderstanding of the seal hunt," Aupaluktuq said.

"In the Olympics coming up in 2010, the Inuksuk is going to be the official symbol. We will have to give the support and we have to educate the outside world about Inuit and our culture."

Shewchuk assured Aupalutuq he would "make a response" about the material.

"We will voice our concerns to the Vancouver Olympic Committee and we will ask for the support of Canada to stand behind us too," Shewchuk said.