It's happened to me. I've had death threats. I've had people threatening to skin my children alive, when they were much younger, so that I would understand how a mommy seal feels.
I've also seen people confronting sealers on the ice, when we've been there. But that goes back a few years.
I think Hedley's point about observers is well taken. There are no observers and there never have been. There are simply protesters who go under the guise of observers.
It is inconceivable to me how a man like Jerry Vlasak--a man who is banned from entry into the United Kingdom, who is banned from entry into Norway, because of his well-known, clearly espoused views that it is perfectly acceptable to kill human beings--could be endorsed by the Government of Canada and given a permit to be out confronting sealers in the Magdalen Islands. I don't understand how that could happen.
I think you have to look at the sealing operation as an outdoor abattoir, as Hedley has referred to it and as all the guys do. We know what it is. It's an outdoor abattoir. In Canada, abattoir workers work inside walls, on private property, and are protected from confrontation with anybody. I think, as do many sealers in Quebec and Newfoundland, Canadian sealers deserve the same protections.
There are examples in Canada of public lands and public properties being closed to the public for reasons of public safety or reasons of ecological concern--i.e., don't walk on these daisies; they're the only ones in the world, so we can't let you in there. There is absolutely no reason why the Magdalen Islands, an area that unfortunately, from the point of view of the Magdalen Islanders, is extremely accessible to all these protest groups....
The people on those islands are the ones who have to put up with an awful lot of stuff, even more than we do. We have the advantage of being a little bit harder to get to. Of course, that's not to say we haven't had to put up with our own amount of crap--excuse the language--over the years.
Can anybody explain to me why Canadian workers, obeying the laws of Canada, should be subjected to this type of harassment? Because I don't understand it.
On the other hand, I do think it is imperative that we have international veterinarians--independent veterinarians, not sponsored by animal rights groups--observing what we're doing. We do, like everybody else, want to do it properly. We would like to improve.
To my mind, and I think most sealers in the Magdalen Islands and in Newfoundland would agree with me, the whole concept of permitting these protesters under the guise of observation is just leading to disaster. As Hedley has said, and I agree with him, it's going to be a big problem one of these days; somebody is going to get hurt. It's like the old intersection where they don't put the darn stoplight up until after somebody's dead.