Gorilla politics

A CHILD ONCE ASKED BRIAN MULRONEY WHY CANADIANS CAN’T OWN APES. HIS REPLY,

U.S. President Ronald Reagan had just wrapped up his visit to Ottawa and Meech Lake negotiations were mere weeks away, but it seems Brian Mulroney found time to explain to a child why Canadians are not allowed to own gorillas.

“Apes are only allowed into the country if people are going to put them in a zoo or use them for research,” he wrote in an April 9, 1987, letter to a seven-year-old boy in Vancouver.

The recipient, Mark Hughes, had written to the prime minister regarding his mother’s refusal to let him own a gorilla on the grounds that it was illegal.

“It was something along the lines of ‘my name’s Mark Hughes … I like gorillas a lot, and I think I listed some things I like about gorillas,” said Hughes, now a Vancouver standup comedian.

The letter then added, “I understand they’re illegal, but this is why I want to have one anyway.”

Rather than receiving prime ministerial approval for a pet ape, however, he received a patient rundown of the government’s inability to assist with his problem.

“Your question about the laws regulating ownership of exotic pets is one I do not get asked often,” wrote the prime minister, before explaining gorilla restrictions were in place to prevent the spread of disease.

The law is much the same today. As the Government of Canada website puts it, it is prohibited to import “nonhuman primates … due to public health concerns and zoonotic disease potential.”

Gorillas are susceptible to the Ebola virus and can spread the disease to humans. A provoked gorilla can also tear an adult in half with ease, which could conceivably fall under the auspices of “public health.”

Hughes’ letter spent 30 years in storage, before his mom recently dug it out and sent it to him in an email. He then posted it to Facebook.

Geoff Norquay, a former senior adviser to Mulroney, confirmed the letter looks authentic.

It would have been drafted at a time when Mulroney’s own children were at an age to be asking questions about gorilla ownership.

However, as Norquay noted, Brian Mulroney would never have seen Hughes’ letter. Routine correspondence was handled by staff, and all replies were auto-signed.

Although Hughes’ letter was among the more whimsical pieces of correspondence. The response concludes by asking Hughes to consider his ability to properly care for a 160 kg primate.

“Perhaps you should also think about where you would keep such a large animal if you had it, and how much it would eat,” it reads, noting an “ape might not be very happy living in a house in Vancouver.”