The ongoing controversy over shark fin soup has crept its way into an Abbotsford classroom.
As part of a class project, Grade 8 students at Colleen and Gordie Howe Middle School sent letters to Abbotsford MP Ed Fast, asking why the Canadian government has not passed legislation to ban the trade of shark fin.
On Monday afternoon, Fast visited the school to speak with the class.
“How many of you believe that shark finning is wrong?” he asked the students, referring to the practice of removing a shark’s fins and then discarding the rest of the fish to die.
“How many of you have already made up your minds that the Government of Canada should change the laws?”
Most of the students raised their hands.
“That’s what I thought,” said Fast who then asked where the students got their information from.
The students had watched two films on the subject and learned about the practice from their teacher.
“What I would encourage you to do, as you grow up and become older, before you form final opinions, hear the views of other people. Otherwise you won’t come up with decisions that are balanced,” said Fast.
But he also warned that all viewpoints, both for or against, get “twisted a little bit.”
He encouraged them to look at all aspect of the issue before making a final decision.
“By the way, I’m against shark finning, just so you know,” he told the class, explaining that Canada does have laws that prohibit the taking of the fin and then leaving the shark to die.
He called it a terrible practice.
But he also said there are people who catch sharks and use the whole shark, fins and all, just like you would a tuna.
He said it wouldn’t be right to punish people who are not breaking the law by banning trade of the product entirely.
“We want to make sure that when we make decisions we’re not painting everybody with the same brush.”
He told students that the government works hard to ensure that any shark fin that is imported into the country is “legally harvested.”