The Navigator Online - The Voice of the Marine Industry

The Canadian Fisheries Minister had a pie thrown in her fac while giving a speech on January 25 in Ontario.
She wasn’t hurt in the incident and after cleaning the pie off her face she continued with her talk at the Canada Centre for Inland Waters in Burlington, Ontario.
In an interview with The Guardian, A PEI newspaper Shea, who is from PEI, said; “this actually just strengthens my resolve to defend this industry.”
A 37-year-old New York City woman named Emily McCoy was taken into custody immediately after the incident. McCoy is a member of the seal protest group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) says it is responsible for the incident, saying it was part of its campaign against the seal hunt. This is not the first time McCoy has pulled such a stunt. She’s the same woman who jumped on top of a table at a Charlottetown, PEI, hotel last October during a meeting of the Fisheries Council of Canada.
She received a fine of $120 for that.
Police are now investigating how McCoy managed to get into the public event with a pie in her possession. Shea says she has wondered about the fact that McCoy might have been carrying something more dangerous than a pie.

Meanwhile the president of the PEI Fishermen's Association says the pie throwing assault on Ms Shea cannot be tolerated.

“This action was a physical assault on a Minister of the Crown,” said Mike McGeoghegan, “not slapstick comedy. It demands full accountability under the Criminal Code of Canada. This is an intolerable incident.”

He said the over-abundance of seals in the Gulf of St. Lawrence is of serious concern to the Canadian fishing industry. Scientific estimates put the harp seal population at some six million animals, while the permanent grey seal population approximates 400,000 animals. Both populations continue to grow.

PETA and other animal rights groups campaign for an end to the Canadian seal harvest while fishermen complain of decimated fish stocks, gear damage and dwindling incomes. “Animal rights groups are grossly misleading the public about the cumulative effects of the growing seal population and the nature of the harvest,” says McGeoghegan. “Their propaganda ignores the findings of independent veterinarians regarding the harvest and ignores the decimation of other species by massive seal populations. Stunts such as the pie incident are done only for purposes of publicity and fund raising from a misinformed public,” he said.

“The PEIFA supports Minister Shea in her efforts to expand markets for seal products around the world and encourages her to move toward a cull of the grey seal population to protect the future of the Atlantic Canadian fishery,” says the PEIFA president.