Honourable senators, today is significant: It is National Seal Products Day on the Hill. In May, parliamentarians, seal harvesters, industry leaders and advocates gather on Parliament Hill to showcase a variety of seal goods, including seal fur, seal oil omega-3 pills for humans and pets and authentic Indigenous seal products.

Highlighting Canada’s sealing industry annually with this event is critical for coastal communities throughout Canada. For these communities, seals have historically served as an essential source of food, fuel, income and clothing.

If you tuned into the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, or APTN, broadcast of the Arctic Inspiration Prize, you will have seen the incredible, glamorous sealskin cocktail dress worn by co-host Andrea Brazeau.

Highlighting the importance of the sealing industry for parliamentarians and all Canadians extends far beyond showcasing these products and drawing attention to coastal Inuit and First Nations communities. The seal harvest plays an essential role in maintaining the ecological health of Canada’s oceans by reducing the overpopulated biomass of seals that are putting fish stocks and marine animals at significant risk.

The Senate has played a pivotal role in ensuring greater advocacy and awareness of the sealing industry with the establishment of National Seal Products Day by Senator Hervieux-Payette.

Colleagues, we must support those who sound the alarm on the critical state of the sealing industry, which has suffered immensely from coordinated misinformation and disinformation campaigns.

Anti-sealing activists have successfully preyed upon the good nature of Canadians, using charged imagery designed to elicit strong negative emotional responses toward the seal harvest. The result has been a dwindling market for seal products in Canada and abroad and little support from Canadian federal governments, past or present, or the larger Canadian food‑producing community.

Parliamentarians are in a position to give sealers hope that Canada can revive its sealing industry.

Dear colleagues, your fact-based discussions with Canadians, especially food producers, is critical. We clearly need an increased focus on research, as well as regulatory changes that will result in increased economic viability and foster the development of domestic and international markets.

From coast to coast to coast, seal products provide food, clothing and income support for Canadians. Let us act together as one country, with a Team Canada approach, just as we have supported Alberta beef, P.E.I. potatoes, Ontario and Quebec dairy products, B.C. wine and Saskatchewan wheat.

I look forward to welcoming you to National Seal Products Day in the House of Commons Speaker’s dining room tonight, to learn more and taste the seal products on offer. Together, as one country, let us help revitalize the seal industry. Thank you, gùnálchîsh, mahsi’cho.