Does the Danish Justice System Want Justice for Paul Watson or Do they Want to Grind Him?
#FreePaulWatson
Interviewing Captain Paul Watson for Skaana at the Friday Harbour Film Festival, USA, 2018.
When Captain Paul Watson was arrested in Greenland on a very sketchy warrant from the Japanese government the biggest concern was that he would be extradited and face a kangaroo court that would sentence the 73-year-old to spend the rest of his life in jail. But at his court hearing on August 15 in Greenland, the country of Denmark broke out their own kangaroos.
According to the Captain Paul Watson Foundation: “The hearing was conducted in Danish without a translator, violating Danish law. The court also refused to consider video evidence from the Whale Wars series that could undermine the charges against him. Paul’s lawyers have appealed to the High Court of Greenland. He remains in custody until September 5, pending a decision on extradition to Japan.”
And a statement from one of those lawyers, Jonas Christoffersen. “Paul Watson has been denied the basic right to defend himself with evidence while enduring degrading treatment that is more fitting for a convicted criminal than a man yet to have his day in court. The Ministry of Justice must act swiftly to end this travesty."
If you’re thinking… Hey, its the Japanese government that wants to bring Watson to court on criminal charges with evidence so flimsy that neither America or France would enforce their warrant, why would Denmark want to keep an anti-whaling activist in jail? Why would Denmark have a whale in this hunt?
One word: “grindadráp” - aka “the grind” - which is the special form of whaling in the Danish Faroe Island where pilot whales and dolphins are slaughtered because… tradition…
A tradition Watson has publicly interfered with. A lot.
So does anyone really think that Greenland/Denmark’s treatment of Watson is all about honouring that Japanese “red notice” and has nothing to do with the blood red waters in the image below?
This’d be from Paul Watson’s trip to his hearing…
Why Paul Watson Matters
Paul Watson wasn’t just one of the founders of Greenpeace his membership number was, appropriately, 007. He was one of the earliest and most famous faces of Greenpeace and the environmental movement. And he repeatedly put his life on the line to save whales, then seals - pissing off all sorts of governments, including Canada’s.
After being ejected from Greenpeace decades ago for being too radical, Watson formed the Sea Shepherd Society to take “direct action,” flew the pirate flag and referred to Greenpeacers as “the Avon Ladies of the Environmental Movement.”
Last year, Watson was ejected from the Sea Shepherd Society and the story seemed very similar. He’s now activist-non-grata for the organization — except for Sea Shepherd France and Sea Shepherd Brazil who are still Team Paul.
The official response from the new Paul-Watson-Free Sea Shepherd Knitting Circle to Japan adding Fin whales to the dead whales they are supposedly scientifically researching is "disappointment" - which says all you need to know about why anyone who actually wants to fight whaling as opposed to just being disappointed that it’s happening needs to fight to #freepaulwatson
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 kept 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 check out Neptune's Pirates & the Captain Paul Watson Foundation
And here’s the petition to free Paul Watson which has just passed 71,000 signatures. Do I hear 80? 90? 100,000 https://www.paulwatsonfoundation.org/freepaulwatson/
To donate to Paul Watson’s legal defense fund…
A message from Paul from prison about where to donate to help him. And where not to…
Thank you to everyone who has donated to my defense fund. I very much appreciate your support.
Unfortunately a few groups are taking advantage of my situation by accepting donations they have no intention of using for my defense.
Only the following groups are authorized by me to accept donations for my defense and my conservation work.
1. Captain Paul Watson Foundation (all entities except OZ)
All other Sea Shepherd groups other than France and Brazil do NOT support me.
You can listen to that interview here.
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.
Here’s the Seaspiracy Substack on Paul’s arrest.
And the latest from my personal Substack.
