Seal hunt protest crew sued by Tories

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Seal hunt protest crew sued by Tories

 

Marianne White, Canwest News ServicePublished: Saturday, November

29, 2008

T he federal government has filed a $487,000 statement of claim

against the seal hunt protest vessel Farley Mowat, owned by the Sea

Shepherd Conservation Society, to recover the costs it has incurred

for maintaining the ship since it was seized last April during the

annual hunt.

" The Government of Canada filed that statement of claim against the

Farley Mowat (Thursday), " said Department of Fisheries and Oceans

spokesman Phil Jenkins on Friday.

The ship has been in the custody of the government and docked at

Sydney, N. S., since it was raided on April 12, 2008 for allegedly

encroaching on seal hunters near Cape Breton 12 days earlier.

 

 

 

 

The RCMP, transported by the coast guard, commandeered the ship and

arrested 17 crew members. In the end, only the captain and first

mate of the anti-sealing vessel were charged with approaching within

about a kilometre of the seal hunt without a permit.

The U.S.-based Sea Shepherd Society maintains the ship was in

international waters observing the hunt at the time.

Society leader Paul Watson was in Australia Friday and was not

available to comment but, in an interview earlier this week, Watson

said his group is preparing a lawsuit against the government to seek

$30,000 for each month its vessel remains seized.The vessel is worth

about $750,000, according to its owners.

The statement of claim filed by the Canadian government includes

security, shipyard and berthing expenses, as well as marine survey

costs incurred between April 12 and the end of November.

On top of the$487,000, the government also paid for air surveillance

to track the Farley Mowat, travel and overtime for fishery officers

and coast guard surveil-lance, according to documents obtained under

access to information laws by the International Fund for Animal

Welfare and given to Canwest News Service.

The costs attached to air surveillance and expenses for fishery

officers were not detailed in the documents, but logs show

icebreaker George R.Pearkes spent nearly 12 full days between March

29 and April 14 supporting the RCMP in tracking and seizing the

Farley Mowat.

Government officials refused to provide the cost to operate the

icebreaker for a day, arguing it is not related to the Farley Mowat

case because the icebreaker is owned by the government and the crews

are on salary. The department has in the past said it costs $40,000

per day to operate a larger icebreaker, the Amundsen, an Arctic

research ship.

The government will also have to pay for legal fees related to the

court case against two Farley Mowat crew members. Both parties are

due back in court for trial in April 2009.

Paul Steele, director general of DFO's protection and conservation

branch, noted in a May e-mail to the department's top managers that

these legal costs are going to be " significant " and will put

financial " pressure " on his branch.

Jenkins said the costs borne by the government in the Farley Mowat

case are simply " the cost of enforcing the law. "

The International Fund for Animal Welfare said the dollar figure is

much higher than it anticipated.

" I think Canadians will be shocked to see how much money the

government is willing to spend to prevent people from monitoring the

seal hunt, " said Sheryl Fink, research specialist at the IFAW.

The government asked the Sea Shepherd Society to make arrangements

to get the Farley Mowat back last month, but Watson said the ship

has not been properly maintained. " We want it to be fully

operational, just like it was before it was seized, " he said.

 

 

 

For in a Republic, who is “the country� Is it the Government which is for

the moment in the saddle? Why, the Government is merely a servant—merely a

temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and

what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn’t. Its function is to

obey orders, not originate them.

Mark Twain