'They are feeling guilty now.'

Nunavut will use the three-week delay of a proposed European Parliament bill banning the import of seal products to push European Union member states to change their minds.

Environment Minister Daniel Shewchuck said March 27 in the Nunavut legislature "certain political events" in Europe caused the vote to be delayed.

"The Government of Nunavut is using this extra time to once again lobby the 27 members of the European Union and to convince them of the folly of voting for a ban," Shewchuck told MLAs.

Shewchuk said he'll write to EU members to urge them to reconsider and said the federal government has assured the GN it will also step up efforts in Europe.

But it's an open question whether that will work. The Agence France Presse news agency reported March 30 that a meeting of EU ambassadors showed strong support for a ban.

Quoting anonymous diplomatic sources, AFP reported that Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Bulgaria, and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are all opposed to the bill.

But that doesn't mean that all of each country's members of the European Parliament will vote against the ban.

Meanwhile, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami released a copy of a legal opinion it says is proof that Europe knows its seal products ban could be illegal under international trade agreements.

The document also warns EU lawmakers that the proposal's so-called Inuit exemption, which would allow the non-commercial import of sealskins hunted on a small scale, could actually violate the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the Technical Barriers to Trade agreement.

"We are not surprised to learn of this legal advice and we note that it has been given in very clear and categorical terms," Mary Simon, president of ITK, said in a news release.

Canada has repeatedly threatened to challenge a ban at the World Trade Organization.

Duane Smith, president of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (Canada) said the European Parliament's legal opinion offered no conservation reasons for a seal skin ban.

He urged Ottawa to use international trade rules to pressure Europe to scrap such a ban.

"The Canadian government is now equipped with compelling evidence that the EU knows that it cannot just unilaterally impose a ban on the trade of seal products," he said.

"We expect that the federal government will do whatever is needed under international trade law and other avenues to insist that the EU and its members respect their international commitments," Smith said.

Back in Iqaluit, MLAs unanimously passed a resolution condemning the proposed ban as being "based not on legitimate principles of conservation but on a misguided and ill-informed ideology."

Speaking in favour of the resolution, Hunter Tootoo, the housing minister, slammed animal rights activists who have backed the proposed EU ban.

"The European countries, they've killed off just about all the wildlife that they have. I think they are feeling guilty now, so they want to try and save something somewhere else. We shouldn't have to suffer the consequences of their guilt."

And Shewchuk said: "The seal hunt will always be at the heart of Nunavut."

And in the assembly March 27, Iqaluit West MLA Paul Okalik urged the GN to send representatives to Europe to step up the pressure.

"Our stories have been the most powerful [way] to tackle the animal rights movement," Okalik said.

Any junket would have to be led by the federal Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.

But Shewchuk said Nunavut would be part of any such trip if it took place.