OPINION
By Jim Winter
ST. JOHN’S, NL – It appears all Canadian media are giving huge coverage to the pending demise of the Hudson’s Bay Company. It is sad to see so many workers lose their jobs with little or no chance of severance or possibly pensions.
However there is another side to the story. The Hudson’s Bay Company has been American owned for decades.
The Canadian Olympic Committee
In 1995 it won the right to design Canadian Olympic team uniforms. They produced a design for the 1996 winter Olympic team that was approved and paid for by the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC). “The Bay” proudly announced that these Canadian winter Olympic team uniforms would contain NO Fur despite the role that fur has played – as explained to school children throughout our nation – in Canada’s development.
This practice has been carried on by the COC in all winter Olympics since 1996. A legitimate news story is: Why did the American owned HBC adopt the policies of American Animal Rights Corporations? Why did the COC accept and pay for this design concept and continue to accept NO Fur designs? Who in the hierarchy of the COC was behind this decision and why?
Canadian Arctic Sovereignty
Canada’s Northern Border (The Arctic) is under threat from both American and Russian leaders and policies. Yet the Canadian navy is spending a fortune sending one of its ships to wander around Antarctica doing maritime research when much less than 50% of our Arctic waters are charted to a degree considered to be adequate for safe navigation. The same applies to much of the Labrador Sea.
As a PR effort it has been successful as Canadian media have been extensively covering the trip. As a decision by senior Navel Management it indicates a woeful lack of understanding of what should be the major priority of our navy: protecting our country’s northern border by improving our totally inadequate knowledge of its waters.
Not to mention the lack of foresight in ship design that leaves our navy and coast guard with very few ships capable of the work needed to defend our northern border. What was the dent put into our military’s limited budget by this ill advised expedition?
Given the present world political instability we need hydro-graphic surveys for charts, we need scientific research, and we need the right kind of ships. We need all of this but we need it in our arctic waters and islands, and along the coast and waters of Labrador not in Antarctica.
PS: I am sure that sheep, appreciate the distinction that allows their pelts to be used in the uniform boots.
