Aglukkaq takes heat over polar-bear tweet
OTTAWA — Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq has fired up a Twitter storm after posting a picture of a dead polar bear and playing down scientific concern about threats to the survival of the iconic species.
“Enjoy!!” Aglukkaq wrote on her Twitter page as she reposted the photo of the dead animal. “My cousin caught his first polar bear last night. Community feast to follow in Arctic Bay!”
The comments prompted a flurry of mixed messages: praise from people supporting the polar bear hunt as a northern cultural tradition; and complaints from those saying Aglukkaq was part of a government supporting fossil-fuel expansion that is contributing to global warming and melting ice that threatens the species.
“Man those endangered species are tasty,” wrote Twitter user Paul Smith, among the more critical commentators.
“I grew up in the north. Why take and post the picture?” asked Brian Watters. “To what gain other than to shock? Keep it private.”
But many defended the picture.
“Peoples in the north don’t have the luxury of going to the grocery store,” wrote Paul Oster.
In response to the criticism, Aglukkaq wrote: “I will continue to stand up for Inuit and Northern communities who rely on the polar bear hunt. Polar bears are culturally, spiritually and economically important for northerners.”
Aglukkaq raised the eyebrows of scientists in October after playing down evidence of global warming, and suggesting the species was in good shape because her brother was observing more polar bears in his northern community. “My brother is a full-time hunter who will tell you polar bear populations have increased and scientists are wrong,” she told the Globe and Mail.
Andrew Derocher, a University of Alberta professor who focuses on polar bear research, said for Aglukkaq “to sort of put up her brother as the counterpoint to 40 years of research is disingenuous in terms of trying to represent the science on polar bears in a global context.”