A month or so ago, Liberal Senator Mac Harb introduced a private members' bill in the Senate that would have effectively ended the seal hunt in Atlantic Canada. Not a single Senator, Liberal or Conservative, would second that bill and, as a result, it died.

Conservative Fisheries Minister Gail Shea and Conservative Senator Fabian Manning issued press releases on government letterhead and at government expense denouncing Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff and his "hidden agenda" on the seal hunt.

Shea's officials would subsequently concede that these press releases were issued in error.

Earlier this week, Minister Shea made her first appearance in front of the Senate's Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans. Liberal Senator Bill Rompkey is the chair of that committee. Here is an excerpt of an exchange between Shea, who represents a PEI riding, and Senator James Cowan of Nova Scotia ...