Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrived in Trinidad Thursday for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), beginning Friday, with the opening address followed by meetings on climate change.
It's the last international summit before the Copenhagen climate change conference next month and the environment is getting a lot oif attention at the Port of Spain meeting.
Special guests include the UN Secretary General, the French president and the Danish Prime Minister, who will cahir the Copenhagen climate talks.
Harper wants to focus on climate change, the global economy and human rights at the summit, but on Thursday, Canada was the focus of another issue: animal rights.
The rights group, PETA, staged anti-Canada demonstrations in Port of Spain Thursday and plans to do it throught the summit with the aim of "shaming" Harper over his country's annual seal hunt.
The issue has become a very emotional one with the government of Canada defending the slaughter of tens of thousands of seal pups annually.
In an effort to dramatize the support for the annual hunt on Canada's east coast the Parliamentary restaurant in Ottawa has announced that it will be offering seal meat on its menu.
PETA is holding a demonstration at the Canadian High Commission in Port of spain on Thursday, and plans to have a "seal" appear outside the meeting from 27 to 29 November.
"The seal slaughter is a bloody stain on Canada's reputation, and Prime Minister Harper can't escape that stain no matter where he goes", said PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman in a media release.
PETA insists that the commercial seal slaughter is an off-season profit venture for the fishing industry, and it accounts for less than 1 per cent of the province of Newfoundland's economy.
The European Union and the U.S. have banned seal products, and world leaders - including U.S. President Barack Obama, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and The Dalai Lama - have spoken out against it, PETA said.
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