A quick comment. When we talk about banning the hakapik, I would urge all members to support the idea that we do not ban the hakapik. I'll give you two examples very quickly.
In the mid-1970s Brigitte Bardot came here, as we all know, and talked about banning the hunt of the seal pups. We banned the whitecoat hunt in 1987, and last year she was here again. Here's the issue.
The other issue is that when Monsieur Blais and I were over in Europe, they had a motion calling on all European nations to recognize the clubbing of seals as a cruel and inhumane practice--clubbing of seals. When we came back to Newfoundland, the issue came out that the minister would look into banning hakapiks. When we went back to Europe, they had revised the passage to include firearms. It doesn't matter; it's not going to stop. I hope the committee will take a unanimous approach on this.
Rene, I'm kind of stressed to hear about the situation you had with the protesters. What would you suggest to this committee and to the minister about how to combat that, besides banning them from the area? What do we need to do beyond that? What do we need to do over the next couple of years to make sure that what happened to you doesn't happen again?