Activists From Canada

"Martin Luther King, Jr. once wrote that you cannot commit an act of violence against a non-sentient object. Back in 1986, the Green Party of Canada tried to toss me out of the Party for sinking whaling ships on the ground that it was a violent act. I pointed out that the Green Party of Canada supported violence when it was convenient politically — for example they supported and continue to support abortion which is, like it or not, a violent act, certainly more violent than sinking some metal into the sea. Violence is not violent when we justify it, be it abortion, or war, or eating meat for example. I support abortion but I'm not a hypocrite about it — it's violent, I accept that. Every American taxpayer accepts the violence that their tax-dollars fund."

"When it comes to whaling, I believe that direct action is the most effective approach. There is no argument to say otherwise. Our actions speak for themselves. In the Southern Ocean we saved the lives of 6,500 whales. Overall, through the decades, I believe that we’ve saved the lives of tens of thousands of whales that would have been killed illegally if not for our intervention."

"It's dangerous & humiliating. The whalers killed whales while green peace watched. Now, you don't walk by a child that is being abused, you don't walk by a kitten that is being kicked to death and do nothing. So I find it abhorrent to sit there and watch a whale being slaughtered and do nothing but "bear witness" as they call it. I think it was best illustrated a few years ago, the contradictions that we have, when a ranger in Zimbabwe shot and killed a poacher that was about to kill a black rhinoceros and uh human rights groups around the world said "how dare you? Take a human life to protect an animal". I think the rangers' answer to that really illustrated a hypocrisy. He said "Ya know, if I lived in, If I was a police officer in Harare and a man ran out of Barclays Bank with a bag of money and I shot him in the head in front of everybody and killed him, you'd pin a medal on me and call me a national hero. Why is that bag of paper more valued than the future heritage of this nation?" This is our values. WE fight, WE kill, WE risk our lives for things we believe in... Imagine going into Mecca, walk up to the black stone and spit on it. See how far you get. You’re not going to get very far. You’re going to be torn to pieces. Walk into Jerusalem, walk up to that wailing wall with a pick axe, start whacking away. See how far you’re going to get, somebody is going to put a bullet in your back. And everybody will say you deserved it. Walk into the Vatican with a hammer, start smashing a few statues. See how far you’re going to get. Not very far. But each and every day, ya know, people go into the most beautiful, most profoundly sacred cathedrals of this planet, the rainforests of the Amazonia, the redwood forests of California, the rainforests of Indonesia, and totally desecrate & destroy these cathedrals with bulldozers, chainsaws and how do we respond to that? Oh, we write a few letters and protest; we dress up in animal costumes with picket signs and jump up and down; but if the rainforests of Amazonia and redwoods of California, were as, or had as much value to us as a chunk of old meteorite in Mecca, a decrepit old wall in Jerusalem or a piece of old marble in the Vatican, we would literally rip those pieces limb from limb for the act of blasphemy that we’re committing but we won’t do that because nature is an abstraction, wilderness is an abstraction. It has no value in our anthropocentric world where the only thing we value is that which is created by humans."

"V Stands for Verity, Virtue, Valor, Validity and Veganism. … Veganism is real conservation in action. It goes beyond talking about climate change and diminishment of biodiversity and actually does something to address the problems."

"In a way, the event could also be called the "Holocenic hominid collective suicide event.""

"A virus kills its host and that is exactly what we are doing with our planet's life support system. We are killing our host the planet Earth."

"The activists of the and the are merely emulating the strategies and tactics of every other social and political movement that has ever existed but with one distinct difference – they have not killed anyone. Yet environmentalists and animal rights activists have been murdered, and the media is reluctant to portray the deaths as terrorism."

"Driven by his profound love of animals, Paul Watson is perhaps the ultimate animal defender....."

"The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is a conservative organization. I am a conservative. You can't get more conservative than being a conservationist. Our entire raison de etre is to conserve and protect. The radicals of the world are destroying our oceans and our forests, our wildlife and our freedom."

"I think the problem is that we don't really understand what we are. In essence we're just a conceited, naked ape. But in our minds we're some sort of "divine legend", and we see ourselves as some sort of god. That we can walk around the earth deciding who will live and who will die and what will be destroyed and what will be saved. But the fact is we're just a bunch of primates out of control."

"I am unconcerned if people do not approve of this approach, but my position is: find a whale that disapproves of our actions and we might reconsider. We didn’t ram and sink those whaling ships for people. We did so for the whales. They are our clients."

"We're now in the midst of a 3rd World War, but this time the enemy is ourselves, and the objective is to save the planet FROM ourselves. There's no hope for masses of humanity to do anything — they never have, they never will. All social change comes from the passion and intervention of individuals or small groups of individuals. Slavery wasn't ended by any government or any institution. Women got the right to vote not because of any government. The civil rights movement, the same thing. India with Mahatma Gandhi, South Africa with Nelson Mandela. Again, it's always individuals. You need those individuals with the passion and the energy to get involved. In fact, I don't know of any government or any institutions that are doing anything to solve any of these problems. All over the world, all I am seeing is individuals and non-government organizations that are passionately involved in protecting ecosystems and species, and that's where I see some optimism. That's where I see results are happening."

"All of our targets were criminals, they were all operating in violation of international whaling laws."

"We are pirates of compassion hunting down, hunting down and destroying pirates of profit."

"And we'll be watching you No matter what you do And you can do your part By watchin' others too."

"Need distraction Need romance and candlelight Need random violence Need entertainment tonight Need the evidence Want the testimony of Expert witnesses On the brutal crimes of love."

"I never believed in much, But I believed in you."

"Welfare mothers make better lovers."

"We got a thousand points of light For the homeless man. We got a kinder, gentler, Machine gun hand. We got department stores And toilet paper Got styrofoam boxes For the ozone layer. Got a man of the people, Says keep hope alive Got fuel to burn, Got roads to drive."

"There's colors on the street Red, white and blue People shufflin' their feet People sleepin' in their shoes But there's a warnin' sign On the road ahead There's a lot of people sayin' We'd be better off dead. Don't feel like Satan, But I am to them. So I try to forget it, Any way I can."

"The economy was getting so bad, I had to lay myself off."

"When I was a younger man, Got lucky with a rock 'n' roll band, Struck gold in Hollywood, All the time I knew I would Get back to the country, Back where it all began. Get back to the country, Back in the barn again."

"Live music is better! Bumper stickers should be issued!"

"Shelter me from the powder And the finger Cover me with the thought That pulled the trigger Think of me As one you'd never figured Would fade away so young With so much left undone."

"In my little box At the top of the stair With my Indian rug And a pipe to share."

"The king is gone But he's not forgotten. This is the story Of a Johnny Rotten It's better to burn out Than it is to rust. The king is gone But he's not forgotten."

"Where the eagle glides ascending There's an ancient river bending Through the timeless gorge of changes Where sleeplessness awaits."

"My my, hey hey Rock and roll is here to stay. It's better to burn out Than to fade away. My my, hey hey."

"It's gonna take a lotta love To get us through the night It's gonna take a lotta love To make things work out right."

"It's gonna take a lotta love To change the way things are It's gonna take a lotta love Or we won't get too far."

"It's a cold bowl of chili when love lets you down."

"You are like a hurricane There's calm in your eye. And I'm gettin' blown away To somewhere safer Where the feeling stays. I want to love you but I'm getting blown away."

"Please take my advice, please take my advice, Open up the tired eyes, Open up the tired eyes."

"He tried to do his best but he could not."

"I've been flyin' down the road, And I've been starvin' to be alone, Independent from the scene that I've known."

"I'm not going back to Woodstock for a while, Though I long to hear that lonesome hippie smile, I'm a million miles away from that helicopter day, No, I don't think I'll be goin' back that way."

"Think I'll roll another number for the road, I feel able to get under any load, Though my feet aren't on the ground, I've been standing on the sound Of some open-hearted people going down."

"I'm singin' this borrowed tune I took from the Rolling Stones, Alone in this empty room, too wasted to write my own."

"And the world on a string doesn't mean a thing."

"Oh tell me where the answer lies, Is it in the notebook behind your eyes?"

"Well, people let me tell you, it sent a chill up and down my spine, When I picked up the telephone and heard that he'd died out on the mainline."

"If I was a junkman selling you cars, Washing your windows and shining your stars, Thinking your mind was my own in a dream What would you wonder and how would it seem? Living in castles a bit at a time The King started laughing and talking in rhyme. Singing words, words between the lines of age. Words, words between the lines of age."

"On the shore lay Montezuma with his coca leaves and pearls In his halls he often wondered of the secrets of the worlds.... The women all were beautiful, the men stood straight and strong They offered life in sacrifice so that others could go on Hate was just a legend, war was never known The people worked together and they lifted many stones."

"He came dancing across the water with his galleons and guns Looking for the new world in that palace in the sun"

"I have seen you in the movies, And in those magazines at night. I saw you on the barstool, When you held that glass so tight."

"You're all just pissin' in the wind, You don't know it but you are."

"I guess I'll call it sickness gone, It's hard to say the meaning of this song."

"Well, all those people, they think they've got it made, But I wouldn't buy, sell, borrow or trade Anything I have to be like one of them. I'd rather start all over again."

"The world is turning, I hope it don't turn away."

"You can really learn a lot that way, It will change you in the middle of the day, Though your confidence may be shattered, It doesn't matter."