What You Can Do to #FreePaul Watson
And why you should... And why Justin Trudeau should...
My first conversation with Captain Paul Watson changed my life. I was writing a story about orcas in captivity at the Vancouver Aquarium for Maclean’s magazine and decided to chase a quote from the world’s most famous whale advocate. Paul mentioned Moby Doll - the first orca ever displayed in captivity, an orca the Vancouver Aquarium harpooned in July 1964, just over 60 years ago.
Moby’s story haunted me. I’ve now written so much about that whale and his family, the endangered southern resident orcas, that many people just know me as “the whale guy.”
Today, Paul Watson’s in jail in Greenland, which is part of Denmark - a country that’s ashamed to charge him for trying to stop their brutal slaughter of pilot whales, so they’re hiding behind a dubious international arrest warrant from Japan.
How sketchy is this warrant? Both America and France ignored it. The president of France publicly asked the government of Denmark to ignore it.
Some people have asked whether Paul Watson deserved to be arrested. Hell, yeah.
Paul Watson wants to be arrested.
But not in Greenland.
Not to face a kangaroo court in Japan.
Paul Watson proudly and publicly engages in acts of civil disobedience and what he calls “aggressive non-violence.”
It’s not uncommon for activists to act as if “civil disobedience” is a get-out-of-jail-free card because their hearts are pure and their cause is just. That’s not how civil disobedience works. Paul Watson knows this.
A lifetime or so ago, I was set to produce and direct a play to protest a proposed censorship law that would have made that production illegal in Canada. I made sure that everyone involved understood there was a chance that we could face criminal charges, maybe jail, for putting on a show. The law didn’t pass, so we never had the chance to risk going to jail for the crime of committing theatre.
Civil disobedience means you’re prepared to go to jail because you believe the law you’re breaking is unjust. And unlike most protesters practicing civil disobedience, Paul Watson and his crews don’t just risk arrest, they risk their lives.
When I interviewed Paul on February 26th, 2024 for the Skaana podcast, he wasn’t just aware of the possibility of being arrested, he was hoping he’d get arrested.
In Iceland.
He talked about double-dog-daring the Icelandic government to arrest him after boasting about sinking half their whaling fleet and destroying their whale processing plant. If he was arrested in Iceland, he could bring global attention to that country’s outlaw whaling activities. You can listen to that interview here.
Last year, Paul was in the Faroe Islands and on July 19th, 2023, his boat, the John Paul DeJoria - flagship of his new organization, Neptune’s Navy, tried to block a pod of 78 pilot whales from entering the kill zone for the “Grindadrap” - the annual slaughter of about 1000 whales and dolphins. The Faroese Coast Guard and police tried to stop the John Paul DeJoria. They didn’t board and it seems no one was arrested or charged. If I’m wrong on this, please let me know and I’ll happily make a correction - the joy of posting this on my own Substack page.
The Faroe Islands are a self-governing nation under the external sovereignty of the Kingdom of Denmark.
That red water off the Faroe Islands… That’s the fresh blood of whales and dolphins.
I suspect Watson would have been okay with being arrested for saving a pod of pilot whales. He wasn’t.
And I assume he and his crew weren’t charged because, really, does any country want an image of dozens of whiles being butchered in blood-red water featured on CNN?
Then it was time to set off to challenge the Japanese whaling fleet.
But first… boats need fuel. So the John Paul DeJoria made a pit stop in Greenland - also an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. And that’s when Watson was arrested.
He did not break any laws in Greenland. He stopped for gas.
The Danish police were waiting for him.
Watson was officially arrested on a “red notice” for his acts against a Japanese whaling ship.
It’s a bit tough to swallow that this has nothing at all to do with “Operation Bloody Fjords.” I’d say it’s tougher to swallow than an overcooked pilot whale burger.
How bogus is this “red notice?”
The US government refused to honour it.
The government of France refused to honour it.
If I was a journalist in Denmark I’d want to know who made the first call between that country and Japan about Watson entering Danish territory - the Japanese government or the Danish one?
It sure seems like the Kingdom of Denmark found a way to come at Paul without acknowledging that the real reason they wanted him off the water had nothing at all to do with Japan.
How fond are the Danish of Paul Watson?
They are such fans that when the John Paul de Joria left Greenland one of their naval vessels followed the boat all the way to Halifax. Neptune’s Navy was told this was a routine military exercise - a startling coincidence that surely had nothing to do with making sure the boat didn’t head towards the Japanese whaling ship that had just added endangered Fin whales to the species they are killing for scientific research.
Most countries that still kill whales cite cultural or historic justification. That’s the story in the Faroes. They claim a traditional right to eat poisoned whale meat full of mercury.
Not Japan.
Though the country has a long history of whaling, the Japanese government dances around international laws prohibiting whaling by claiming they’re slaughtering whales for scientific research - though that research seems to consist entirely of determining the most efficient way to kill whales and how best to cook their meat.
So this isn’t a loophole they’re exploiting, it’s the unwillingness of other governments to call them out on a lie.
Japanese politicians are not fans of Paul Watson.
He’s facing up to 15 years in prison in Japan on very sketchy charges. He’s 73. If he’s extradited he will likely spend the rest of his life in a Japanese jail for the crime of trying to stop that country from illegally killing animals who are starting to receive legal personhood status in some parts of the world.
If Denmark’s government chooses to extradite him, they’re not just complicit in the prospect of Watson dying in Japan, they’re clearly in favour of it.
So what can you do? Where’s Justin?
If you’re a Canadian, like me, it’s worth asking why our Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, isn’t making the same demand as French President Emmanuel Macron - since Watson is a Canadian citizen.
I’m keeping my email to our Prime Minister and Canada’s foreign affairs minister, Mélanie Joly, brief. After the dear so-and-so I’m going with this…
French President Emmanuel Macron is publicly urging Danish authorities not to extradite 73-year-old anti-whaling activist Paul Watson from Greenland to Japan based on a dubious “red notice” that both the US and French governments refused to enforce.
I hope the Canadian government will immediately do the same on behalf of a Canadian citizen who was born in Toronto, raised in New Brunswick and helped launch the global environmental movement in Vancouver.
Here’s the link to email Justin Trudeau: https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/connect/contact
The link to email Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, The Honourable Mélanie Joly: https://www.ourcommons.ca/members/en/melanie-joly(88384)#contact
And the link to find your Member of Parliament: https://www.ourcommons.ca/members/en
Please reach out to all three. And feel free to include your favourite opposition leader if you’re so inclined.
For more on the fight to stop Denmark from extraditing Paul Watson to Japan on a bogus Red Notice to face a kangaroo court, check out Neptune's Pirates & the Captain Paul Watson Foundation
To support Paul Watson:
As I post this the Free Paul Watson petition has passed 56,000 signatures. Do I hear 60,000? Do I hear 70… https://www.paulwatsonfoundation.org/freepaulwatson/
Paul’s public supporters include such radicals as Jane Goodall, James Cameron and Sylvia Earle.
And this post for the Skaana podcast has the email I sent the Danish Ministry of Justice in Copenhagen; Phone: +45 7226 8400 Email: jm@jm.dk
For more on Captain Paul Watson here’s the conversation we had in 2018 when the two of us were presenting our documentaries at the Friday Harbor Film Festival.
And our two-part interview in 2021 when we talked about Seaspiracy, aggressive non-violence and so much more.
