As far as the protesters are concerned, during the last hunting season, last spring—in any case, charges will be laid—the officers responsible for overseeing the situation lost complete control of it. On the one hand, you have a person who is trying to do his job as a hunter, a job he has been doing for many decades, and who is a victim—last year, it was even worse than in the past—of repeated provocations on the part of the protesters. On the other hand, you have a 65-foot boat and inflatable vessels with two people onboard who have brought cameras to take pictures, or two people who have cameras which transmit directly live images by satellite. There are no words to describe what hunters in general had to endure here around the Magdalen Islands when the protesters arrived in the gulf.
If the protesters had come to simply observe the hunt, that would not have been an issue, but some conditions would have had to have been respected, namely that they could not provoke the hunters or even put pressure on them, which might lead them to make mistakes. The hunters are at work, and they sometimes have to work in dangerous conditions. One of these days, there will be a catastrophe: an inflatable boat might sink or there might be another such accident. The hunters are at work, there are men on the ice, and there is a person in charge of monitoring the hunters. Then you have an inflatable craft which comes close in order to provoke the hunters. But since this boat cannot break the ice to get to where it wants, it follows the trail which has been broken by the hunters, the boat moves up directly behind the hunters and the person in charge of monitoring the situation has to keep an eye on both the protesters and the hunters. This does not make any sense from a security point of view. Last year, the situation became critical. The protesters were supposed to stay 30 feet away from the hunters, but they came closer.
It is all right to observe the hunt. There are organized tours to the Magdalen Islands for people who wish to observe the whitecoats. It is illegal to kill a whitecoat and people are there to observe the situation. There is a set period of time in which to do this, namely from March 1 to March 15. The observation is done from a helicopter. We don't agree with that approach, because it stresses the seals, but at least the people who observe the seals don't bother the hunters at work beginning March 20.
We have never had any problems with people who are on an observation tour; however, we always have problems with the people who want the seal hunt to be abolished. They come and endlessly provoke us, and each year, they organize a huge media event. For instance, someone said that a hunter had threatened a protesters with a knife. Imagine that! Our every move is monitored, they accuse us of being barbarians, but we are not; we are basically prisoners when we are out on a hunt. We have to watch our every move because we are being watched from all sides. And this doesn't just last for 5 or 10 minutes. Last year, protesters stayed with me for three hours. Other hunters were also surrounded for three or four hours. It is unconscionable for this type thing to be tolerated.