Puppet seizure a signal to change the MMPA

OKALIK EEGEESIAK and SHEILA-WATT CLOUTIER

OTTAWA — Here’s a striking instance of good intentions gone awry. U.S. border officials in Buffalo recently seized six Inuit marionettes en route for repair from Pelly Bay, a tiny Inuit village in Nunavut., to a Rhode Island puppeteer.

These puppets are used by elders to teach our young about Inuit ways and history. They have great cultural, but little financial value.

So why were they confiscated? Because of the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act, introduced in 1972 to greatly restrict — essentially banning — trade in products made from marine mammals. The puppets are made of hair from ringed seal, muskox and barren ground caribou; wood; and beluga whalebone washed up on the Pelly Bay shore.

The marionettes are made from animals abundant in the North. They are not endangered. Moreover, they were not even being sold in the States. Now they have been sent to a federal laboratory in Oregon for forensic analysis. The authorities could press charges against Canadian Inuit — an extra-territorial application of U.S. law that could become a full-blown diplomatic incident.

Why are Inuit in Pelly Bay being harassed by U.S. officials?

The problem can best be explained by considering the ringed seal. Inuit hunters annually take about 50,000 of an estimated 2.5 million ringed seals in the Canadian Arctic. The skins can be made into superb coats — but they can’t be exported to the U.S. because all species of seal have become an environmental symbol and political icon to many Americans. So killing seals is bad.. Saving them is good.

The marionettes are not an isolated target for customs officials either. Canadian Inuit crossing into the States frequently have their personal sealskin clothing impounded.

The collapse of the sealskin market in the early 1980s as a result of animal rights organizations caused immense suffering in Inuit communities. Unable to sell animal products and use the cash to buy hunting equipment, many Inuit could no longer live on the land. Yet it is Inuit — passing their values and knowledge from one generation to the next — who are the ones who will ensure the Arctic will be protected. The MMPA threatens this.

The U.S. congress has an opportunity to put things right this fall, as it considers reauthorizing and possibly amending the act. Since this statute was adopted, Canada and the United Nations have signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which governs the sutainable use of all wildlife and plants for over 45 nations.

The MMPA is not based on credible science or accepted management principles — but CITES is. Indeed the MMPA violates the General Agreement on Tarriffs and Trade and the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Inuit hope that Congress will use the reauthorizatioin debate to bring American law into line with international treaty obligations. Perhaps then Inuit in Pelly Bay will get back their marionettes.

(Editor’s note: This opinion piece was published in the Globe and Mail on July 26.)