by Nathan Sing
The vegan community in Toronto is divided over Kukum Kitchen putting seal meat on their menu after a petition was started by an animal rights group in early October.
The petition, which was posted on the platform Care2, demanded that the Indigenous restaurant take seal meat off of their menu, stating that seals “are intelligent beings that do not want to die.” This sparked a debate within the Toronto Vegans Facebook group, with the majority of members standing up for the restaurant which aims to preserve Indigenous traditions.
“There are so many other restaurants in Toronto that are serving meat products,” said Mitchell Mittelstaedt, an Indigenous member of Toronto Vegans. “To form some sort of a witch hunt that is vilifying one Indigenous restaurant for serving seal meat is just racist and incredibly misinformed.”
While Mittelstaedt thinks it’s unfortunate that animals are dying, he believes it’s an “incredibly privileged position to be able to say that we as vegans stand against the death of animals in every single instance.”
Other members are taking a contrarian view on this issue. Nicole Sieber, another member of Toronto Vegans, reacted to the backlash with a “huge eyeroll.”
“There is always something new out there to normalize the exploitation of animals,” she said.
Sieber said that this Native practice along with other cultural practices around the world that exploit animals should “no longer be considered socially acceptable.”
“All cultures should be expected to evolve with the times,” said Sieber. “A tradition, regardless of where it started from, is an idea and an idea cannot take priority over a life.”
Sophia Banks, the owner of ‘Vegan Canteen’ catering company based in Montreal, says that it’s preposterous to think that everybody should be vegan.
“What frustrates me with these vegans is to go around calling meat-eaters villains and monsters,” she said. “That’s a horrible way to frame it.”
“They’re not monsters, it’s part of their culture,” said Banks
Joseph Shawana, the chef and owner of Kukum Kitchen, says he opened the restaurant to honor his grandmother and the traditional meals she prepared for him and his family when he was young. In Shawana’s native language Cree, ‘Kukum’ directly translates to grandmother.
The restaurant also works to preserve Indigenous culture, a culture Mittelstaedt and the majority of the members of Toronto Vegans say have suffered due to colonization and exploitation.
“The Inuit culture is one that has suffered greatly in the last 300 years or so, as has every Indigenous culture in North America, and people are struggling to keep that alive,” said Mittelstaedt.
“Kukum Kitchen is keeping those [traditions] alive for future generations, as well as giving Inuit people that live in the city a home to get some traditional meals.”
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