OTTAWA - The federal fisheries minister is encouraging members of Parliament to show their support for Canada's embattled sealing industry by wearing a lapel pin made from seal fur.
Keith Ashfield issued a statement saying the pins would be made available Thursday in the House of Commons.
"Sealing is an important economic and cultural driver in Canada's eastern, Arctic and northern communities," the New Brunswick MP said in a statement.
"It is a long-standing and integral part of Canada's rural culture and a way of life for thousands of Canadians."
The minister's appeal comes as the centuries-old commercial sealing industry is on the verge of collapse as international markets dry up.
In December, the federal government confirmed that the world's largest buyer of Canadian seal products -- the Russian Federation -- had banned importing harp seal pelts.
The European Union banned importing seal products in 2010, and the federal government has failed to deliver on a promise to open the Chinese market to Canadian seal meat.
Liberal Senator Mac Harb said the Conservative government should be declaring the industry dead rather than staging a photo op.
"The Conservative government is ignoring Canadian opposition to the commercial hunt and has turned a deaf ear to the international community and its boycott of commercial seal hunt products," Harb said in a statement released Wednesday.
"Instead of working towards a buyout of sealing licenses, the government is offering sealers only hollow promises of non-existent seal trade agreements with China, a doomed challenge of the European Union ban at the WTO, and another photo op on Parliament Hill."
