Pie in face strengthens Shea's resolve on seal hunt

By Wayne Thibodeau

Transcontinental Media

The Guardian

Fisheries Minister Gail Shea says her resolve to defend Canada’s seal hunt is only strengthened after an American protester pushed a tofu pie in her face during an announcement in Ontario Monday.

Shea, a P.E.I. MP, wasn’t hurt. She left the podium, cleaned the pie off her face and then returned to carry out her announcement at the Canada Centre for Inland Waters in Burlington, Ont., west of Toronto. “If this is what it takes to defend the Canadian seal hunt then I’m very proud to do it,” Shea said in an one-on-one interview with P.E.I.’s The Guardian newspaper following the incident. “This actually just strengthens my resolve to defend this industry.”

Police have charged a 37-year-old New York City woman with assault. Emily McCoy was taken into custody immediately after the incident. The animal-rights group PETA or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says it is responsible for the incident.

PETA says in a release it was part of its campaign “to stop the government’s ill-advised sanction of the slaughter of seals,” and called the pie used a “tofu cream pie.”

McCoy is no stranger to police. She’s the same woman who was arrested for trespassing after she stood on top of a table at a Charlottetown hotel last October during a meeting of the Fisheries Council of Canada.

She received a fine of $120 for that last October.

During the incident in Ontario Shea began, as she does most events, by thanking those in attendance for coming. A woman walked up to the podium and softly pushed the pie into Shea’s face, while saying: “Shame on you Gail Shea . . . it is a shame on Canada, it is a shame that she has not denounced this bloody seal hunt.”

The bright lights from the television cameras, Shea said, prevented her from seeing the woman coming towards her. “I could kind of see something was coming in front of the lights, but I couldn’t tell what it was until I got it right in the face,” Shea said. “I didn’t know what was happening until I actually got the pie in the face.”

Shea said it’s unfortunate that groups like PETA have to resort to incidents like this to get attention. “I had a chance to clean off my face and resume my duties. Islanders would expect me to do that,” said the grandmother of eight.

Police are now investigating how McCoy managed to slip into the public event with a pie in her possession.

While not injured, Shea said she does consider it assault with a weapon.

It has also crossed her mind that the person could have had something much more dangerous than a pie in her hand. “You just deal with so many people,” said Shea. “You can’t know that everybody that we come across is rational. “But it’s part of the job, it’s part of the risk you take. You can only have so much security. The public needs to have access to us and we need to have access to the public.” (With files by The Canadian Press, Canwest News Service)