IQALUIT - Delegates to the G7 meeting will learn more about Inuit culture and seal harvesting while in Iqaluit, said Nunavut's MP.

"This is an opportunity for us to educate southerners and the international community what it's like to live up here and to showcase the richness of the Inuit culture," said Leona Aglukkaq, MP for Nunavut and federal health minister, the day before the G7 was to start in Iqaluit.

"It's an opportunity for us to again educate the international community that we eat the seal meat. This is not a pleasure-type hunt. We depend on the seal meat as our meat."

Canadian and Greenlandic Inuit are suing the European Union to challenge the EU ban on the import of seal products. A lawyer representing Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and the Inuit Circumpolar Council's Greenland region filed the suit Jan. 11.

The EU parliament voted last May to ban the import of all seal products including skins, other body parts, meat or omega-3 dietary supplements derived from seal, despite opposition from Inuit groups and seal-hunting nations.

A community feast to welcome G7 visitors was scheduled for Saturday at Inuksuk High School, and was to include both country and southern foods.