Paul Watson: Canada flouts its charter of rights

Paul Watson

The Canadian Charter of Rights looks very pretty and sounds awfully nice. It certainly presents a marvellous illusion of human rights.

Canadians have been convinced they have rights like the right to free speech and expression for example.

But what is set upon paper does not appear to be exist in reality. It appears that some Canadians have more rights than other Canadians.

A court has ruled that Canadians have the freedom to kill baby seals but they don't have the freedom to protect them.

Some Canadians have the freedom to assault people they disagree with while others do not have the freedom to even witness or document an injustice.

In April of this year, eleven members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Socieity were arrested and charged with witnessing, photographing and filming the killing of baby seals on the ice off eastern Canada without permission from the government of Canada.

A few months later, the government decided to charge me with the same "offence" despite the fact that I did not leave my ship.

The eleven crewmembers were physically assaulted by the sealers and struck with sealing clubs, their faces were bloodied and they had cameras smashed. The entire incident was documented on video.

In response to the assault, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police refused to charge the sealers because, according to the police, "the presence of the Sea Shepherd crew on the ice provoked the violence of the sealers".

The video evidence of the assault was then turned over by the police to Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans as evidence that the crew had approached within a half a nautical mile of a seal being killed.

The Sea Shepherd Society filed a suit against the Department of Fisheries and Oceans stating that its regulations prohibiting the witnessing and documenting of a seal being killed were unconstitutional.

On December 9th, Judge Nancy Orr of the Provincial Court of Prince Edward Island delivered a bizarre ruling. First she agreed that our rights were infringed.

"The applicant's right to freedom of expression has been infringed in this case by the provisions of sections 32 and 33 of the Marine Mammal regulations."

Then she ruled that the government had a right to infringe on our rights.

"The Respondent (the Canadian government) has clearly shown on the evidence in this matter that these regulations are demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society."

And therefore she ruled against us and dismissed our motion.

In other words she ruled that the Canadian Charter of Rights guarantees the rights of citizens - except when the government of Canada decides to infringe upon those rights.

As a result, my crew and I have been ordered to stand trial for the horrific crime of approaching a sealer killing a seal without government permission.

In other words, in Canada you have the right to speak until you speak and the right to expression until you express yourself.

* Paul Watson is founder and president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.