1996-04-10-3 The Vancouver Echo

by Mike Bell

[Asian community takes on animal parts trade]

It will take more than a little gall to stop the massive Chinese trade in animal parts, but Anthony Marr has a feeling deep in his heart that he’s the one who can make a difference…

1996-04-10-3 Associated Press

[Poaching surges for bear parts]

… “Given a choice between a bottle of synthetic UDCA (Urso-deoxycholic Acid) and a real bear gall bladder, an old-timer will choose the latter every time; it’s half medicine and half mystique. It’s hard to fight superstition with a test tube,’ says Marr…

… “If the Chinese really want to be modern, on par with the West, we have to do a lot of soul searching,” he said…

1996-04-12-5 Sing Tao Daily, Vancouver

[Grizzly-bear-poaching penalty increased to $25,000 max]

…Anthony Marr says that the new penalty, though raised, is still too lenient. For a criminal who trade in millions of dollars, a penalty of $25,000 is “less than GST”…

1996-04-14-7 The Richmond News

by Nevil Judd

[Anti-poaching activist disappointed with response from local schools]

… “These areas are the epicentre of Chinese activity,” said Marr… “Certainly, the demand side of the equation rests squarely on the shoulders of Chinese, Japanese and Korean cultures…”…

1996-04 Vancouver Magazine

by Shawn Blore

[Loaded for bear]

… “Canada’s laws could use an aphrodisiac,” says Marr. “Where fighting endangered species trade is concerned, it is more or less impotent.”…

1996-05-07-2 The Vancouver Sun

by Nicholas Read

[Help our Grizzlies; stop hunting them]

… Anthony Marr says…all sport hunting should be abolished…

1996-05-08-3 Ming Pao Daily News, Vancouver

by Eric Chan

[Chinese Canadian launching province-wide anti-bear-hurting referendum]

… Marr considers killing of bears for entertainment or profit a “barbaric practice”.

1996-05-15-3 The Vancouver Sun

by Brian Morton

[Bear hunt wish not on list of foundation in Canada]

… The local chapter of Canada’s Make-A-Wish Foundation has been swamped with calls protesting against a 17-year-old Minnesota boy’s being granted a wish by Make-A-Wish-America to hunt a Kodiak bear… Anthony Marr, who is leading a WCWC campaign against bear hunting, said Make-A-Wish-Canada should try to persuade international chapters to ban hunting requests.

1996-05-16-4 The Province, Vancouver

by Charlie Anderson

[Canvassers out to stop bear hunts]

…Anthony Marr said…, “It’s going to require a massive effort, and we are counting on friends in other environmental groups to help out.”…

1996-06-05-3 The Westerly News, Tofino, BC

[Referendum road tour aims to stop bear hunting]

… “We are convinced that if something is not done now, the bears in BC will go the same way as the elephant’s and tiger’s and rhino’s paths towards extinction,” said Marr. “The subject of this road tour is to halt this downward spiral.”…

1996-06-07-5 The Vancouver Sun

[Laws to curb wildlife trade]

Ottawa - Environment Minister Sergio Marchi has brought in stiff new regulations to curb the illegal trade in wildlife and plants. The regulation provides fines of up to $300,000 and jail terms of up to five years…Under previous legislation, it was illegal to import tiger parts into Canada, but once smuggled into the country such parts could be sold openly.

1996-06-08-6 Nanaimo Daily Free Press

by Paul Walton

[Wildlife group campaigns for referendum to ban bear hunting]

… Marr believes that when poaching is included, about 10% of all bears in BC are killed annually… (he) said that the purpose of this wildlife road tour is to set up the infrastructure for a referendum vote on banning bear hunting…

1996-06-12-3 Alberni Valley Times

[Wilderness group brings bear campaign to Port Alberni]

The Western Canada Wilderness Committee is on the road to protect bears. The Bear Referendum Road Tour 1996 will be in Port Alberni on Thursday, June 13…

Bear paws.

THE FIRST GREAT CONFRONTATION

by Anthony Marr

June 14, 1996, Friday, mostly sunny

[12:02 @ Annette and Scott Tanner’s residence in Qualicum]

The night of the dreaded Big Confrontation in Port Alberni has come to pass, and it lived up to expectations and more. And it is only one day in the first week of the province-wide, 8-week, 12,000-km, 45-city Ban-Bear-Hunting-in-BC Referendum Initiative road tour. Just a few days ago, in the town hall meeting in Campbell River, a hunter pointed at my nose and said, “I saw you on TV this morning. The price on your head just went up $10,000.”

Before leaving the Tanner’s to drive to Port Alberni yesterday afternoon, I asked (my assistant) Erica one last time if she would much rather stay behind than come with me. This is an Option 3 situation – an overt meeting in hostile territory. The meeting is well pre-publicized in the Alberni Times, and heavy hunter turn-out is more than likely. I did not want to have to worry about her safety as well as mine. She said a firm “No” without hesitation, one even firmer than those before. I respect her for that.

What transpired in Port Alberni was a horrific free for all, the “all” being the 65 hunters in an audience of about 70, all crammed into a room meant for no more than 30, equipped with just that many chairs. Standing room only, with wall-to-wall hunters. It was thirty degrees Celsius outside, and ten degrees warmer in the room sweltering with body heat and smelling of sweat, beginning with mine. The red hot verbal exchange only added fuel to the fire inside the oven, with both oven doors jammed solid with hunters We couldn’t escape if we wanted to. Of the five or six supporters, at least two or three were so intimidated that they slipped away unnoticed, leaving my local host Maureen Sager and two or three other women to hold the bag.

The hunter group included two or three local hunting-guide-outfitters and a conservation officer who was openly chummy with the hunters. About two-thirds were men and one-third were women, the latter attired from T-shirts and jeans to business suits and high heels, but all with hints of blood lust in their eyes, especially as they unflinchingly stared in my direction. No doubt, however subconsciously, they were feeling that trembling excitement as they sighted their quarry through their rifle-scopes. Was there an extra-kick for them to have all sixty-five weapons trained on the same prey?

Their verbal barrage began right in the middle of the first slide in the slideshow, and right in the middle of my first sentence. There-after, I estimate, of every ten sentences I attempted in my presentation, I could finish maybe two without interruption.

Maureen, an active woman in her 60s, did her best to keep order, but was totally ignored, and at times assaulted by such threats as, “This guy flies in and out, but you have to live here. So watch what you’re doing, lady!”

Another jeered, “Not only is this guy from out of town, he is from out of the country, for God’s sake, and he has the gall to barge in here and tell us what we can and can’t do in our own backyard!”

An older man bellowed, “All Chinese immigrants should be charged $100,000 for the damage done to the Canadian culture, starting with this guy right here, right now!”

Yet another shouted above the din, “Us western hunters have been conserving wildlife since before you were born, in China!”

About a third through my slideshow, I found myself turning off the projector and saying, “Fine. If you want a debate, we’ll have a debate.” Strangely, this somehow pacified the proceedings a little bit, since the word “debate” invoked in ones mind the terms “order” and “rules of engagement”, and if then they spoke out of turn, they’d be interrupting one another instead of me.

Basically, their message to us, obviously predetermined among themselves, was “Scrap your campaign, or else”. The milder ones were thoughtful enough to say, “Change your campaign to strictly anti-poaching but pro-hunting, and we’ll support you, or else.”

If the men’s assaults were bad, like punching in the gut, some of the women’s were worse, like pinching your sensitive zones. One woman in her thirties, seemingly having come to the meeting right after having dragged a dead bear into town, said with a killer glare, “What you’re trying to do is to deprive my children of a great heritage that his forefathers created and God condoned, and his father and his mother now enjoy!”

Another, also in her thirties, deceptively genteel-looking, said with a sly smirk, “If you don’t play the game, honey, you don’t make the rules.”

Through the first hour, Erica sat on the sideline. Finally, she could contain herself no longer, and stood to make a point. Before she could finish her sentence, as was now the norm, another older man shouted, “Young lady, you are not old enough to teach me anything. Sit down!” I pointed at the “honey” woman and said, “I’ve been listening to this young lady for the last hour. It’s about time you listen to this young lady here for a change. Go ahead, Erica.” Strangely, the man acquiesced, and stranger still, the smirk of the “honey” woman changed into a sweet smile, if only for the moment.

In contrast to the physical heat which I found hard to endure, I found myself handling them in a surprisingly relaxed state, matching wits with them point by point without losing my cool, and in fact enjoying certain moments of this my first major confrontation with a large group of well organized hunters. They may be good shots through a gun barrel, but boy, are they lousy shots through their mouths.

A hunter hollered, “Who gives you the authority to do what you’re doing?”

“What do you think of the Chinese tradition of using bear gall bladders for medicine?” I asked him as if he hadn’t spoken.

“I think that’s obscene.”

“Should it be banned?”

“Damn right, it should be banned! And it is banned, by the law, and by God, not by some freelance environmentalist.”

“I agree with you on this, sir, but I think for a trophy hunter to kill the most magnificent creature he, or she,” glancing meaningfully at the “honey” woman, “can find so that he or she can have its head to hang on his or her wall is equally obscene, and it, too, should be banned, unless, like you, I have a double standard.”

“Since you obviously don’t understand this, darling,” rejoined the “honey” woman, “I’ll tell you that there is nothing as trophy hunting in this province. We pack out all the meat. We waste nothing.”

“You pack out the meat because you are required by law to do so. And this law, in case you’re not aware, was due not to the hunters, but due to your despised Bear Watch, which dumped a skinned bear carcass they found in the bush on to the front steps of the legislature. Before this law, the bear head and hide are all most bear hunters pack out. Just yesterday, I heard a hunter complain about having to pack out bear meat.”

“I eat the meat of everything I kill.”

“Then may I suggest that you leave the head and hide, and the antlers, behind, since they are of no nutritional value.”

The man next to her shouted, “How dare you insult our women, right here in our town?!”

“Only for as long as they keep on killing our wildlife, right here in our country.”

At another point, when one of them was talking about “ethical hunters”, I responded with, “If there are ethical hunters, there must be unethical hunters, then?” I couldn’t resist exaggeratedly sweeping the room with my eyes. Some dropped theirs involuntarily.

After an awkward moment of silence on their part, I asked them point blank whether they had never deliberately broken any rule, never taken anything on the side, never left any kills unreported, never left any meat behind, never exceeded their bag limits, never wounded any animal that got away. “If you have never done any of these, raise your hand,” I challenged them. Every hand came up without exception, but many after an unmistakable hesitation. Later, Maureen commented that I had very skillfully made the hunters obey my command. “It wasn’t by design. It just worked out that way,” I said truthfully. In retrospect, I can see that anything else I ask a show of hand for would be disrespectfully ignored.

At another point, another hunter repeated, “We are the original and true conservationists of wildlife. You guys are just long-haired, welfare-collecting social parasites, using us to raise funds with.”

“If it is so easy to raise funds, even using you, the social parasites wouldn’t need to be on welfare, would they? Back to your first question, I know that true conservationists conserve wildlife for its own sake and for the health of the planet, and false conservationists conserve only so that they will continue to have something beautiful to kill. Which kind of conservationist are you?”

I saw some fists clenching, and some blue veins bulging on red necks, but I’ve gone too far to back down.

“This guy’s front is to attack the Grizzly bear hunt,” said another hunter, except this time he is addressing his cohorts, “but in fact, it is an attack on the entire hunting tradition, establishment and fraternity, from the top down, and from the foundation up. His real agenda is to stop all hunting, of all species.”

“For once, you might be right,” I said. “Killing animals for entertainment is barbaric and morally bankrupt, no matter what you kill.”

“Are you calling us ‘barbarians’? You Chinese people are very good with that, I hear.”

“My apologies on behalf of the Chinese people. But no, I did not call you a ‘barbarian’, although I do call your so called ‘sport’ ‘barbaric’, and I mean it.”

A woman spoke up, “We don’t kill for entertainment. Hunting is a noble sport. It is not killing. It is communing with nature.”

“Hunting is not killing? Tell it to the bear, and the deer, and the moose. Well, they might consider you not a hunter, but a terrorist, if that makes you feel better. As for entertainment or not entertainment, may be you should take a look at your hunting regs, ma’am. The term for your communing with nature is ‘Recreational Hunting’. So, fine, you don’t kill for entertainment, but you kill for recreation. Big difference.”

Take it easy, Anthony. Don’t piss them off too much.

It has became clear to me that it would be futile for us to try to convert even one of them. Our job here is to rally the already converted into a coherent fighting force. But in terms of this evening’s meeting being a work session, it was unproductive and even counter-productive. The few supporters who showed up either disappeared or were too intimidated to sign up, at least in the presence of the hunters.

But not all is lost. The important thing is that a reporter from the Alberni Times was present, and from the readers of his article may emerge a certain number of volunteers who did not attend the meeting, although I would think that those few who did attend would be the most gung-ho of them all. And yet, two or three of them, under hunter intimidation, did slink away part way through the “meeting”. Partly because of the presence of the journalist, the hunters at least maintained a sense of restraint, but only in terms of physical violence, at least for as long as the reporter was around. They seemed determined to give him something dramatic to report about their nature without resorting to fists or worse, and I think they did an admirable job in that.

The meeting did not end until the hunters have spent their fury. Still, they left the room in a huff, with lethal parting-glares aplenty. Unexpectedly, the “honey woman” came to me and said quietly, “You have guts. I’ll give you that much.”

While packing and cleaning up with our hosts, one of the few women echoed “honey woman” unknowingly, except that her word was “brave”. Maureen said in front of the others, “Anthony, now I have full confidence that you can talk your way out of any situation.”

Well, debating is one thing. Putting the pedal to the metal is another. While loading my car, I noticed a truck parked in the shadows on the same side of the street about half a block back, engine and lights off, but with two people inside. It was too dark to tell its colour, maybe brown. I didn’t lead Erica’s attention to it. As I drove off, it did the same. I made one or two random turns and the truck followed suit, staying about half a block behind. I looked for a police car but couldn’t find any. I looked for the police station and had no idea where it was. I reminded myself that when several Bear Watch women were surrounded and harassed by hunters in Campbell River, the police supposedly did not respond to their call for help. Finally, I took the plunge and got on to the highway due east towards Qualicum, as we had intended to. The truck did too. I could identify it because its right headlight was brighter than its left, and its right parking light was out. I stayed within 10 km/h of the speed limit, and the truck observed the two-second rule, for the time being. Still too close to town; give it ten k or so, I thought.

Erica and I talked for a bit, and she surprised me by saying that she could sympathize with the hunters’ viewpoint, and that maybe we should re-examine our anti-hunting stance. I thought I heard bits and pieces of this talk yesterday at the Tanners’ when she was talking to the reporter. She admitted that she had been thinking along those lines since almost Day 1. She said that if we dropped anti-hunting and just went for anti-poaching, namely to press for a ten-fold increase in penalties, we would get the support of environmentalists and hunters alike, and that we would certainly succeed. She even went as far as to say that she might start her own anti-poaching referendum if WCWC rejected her idea. She acquitted herself by saying that her first concern was the bears, and that if we won the anti-poaching referendum, lots of bears would be saved, whereas if we stayed our course against legal hunting as well as poaching, we would set up the hunters against us and would surely fail and end up with nothing, and that even if we could succeed, we would force many legal hunters to become poacher. So, she’s lost it, at least the original and central principle of the campaign. There suddenly seemed a wall between the driver’s and passenger’s seats.

I listened to her with one ear, and kept an eye on the rear view mirror. Erica reclined her seat and soon fell asleep. The lights in the rear-view mirror drew closer. I increased my speed. The truck did the same. I slowed down to see if it would pass. It drew even closer but did not pass. If it tried, I wouldn’t have let it anyway, not wanting to be blocked; being able to see its license plate number probably wouldn’t do much good under those circumstances. I sped up again, and the truck did likewise, and pulled closer to my bumper the farther we left the town behind. Before long, it didn’t even bother to keep up a pretense and began tailgating. Was this just intimidation? Or was it a real attempt to push me off the highway? I did not test the latter. I’ve been tailgated a thousand times by highway loonies before, but never quite this tightly, and not by road-rage hotheads but by a cold-blooded killer.

I thought again about my options. I had already left the first one behind, not having used the cell phone while in town to call the police. I tried the cell phone now, but we were already outside any service area. I thought about doing a U-turn back to Port Alberni for the police, but the truck had come too close for me to do that safely. Only one thing left to do. I had to out-run it. My car, a 1993 Mazda MX6-LS Mystere, is low-slung, aerodynamic, light and nimble, and, with its sport suspension, it has a 0.86g lateral-g-force tolerance, whereas that of a truck’s is less than 0.70g, which means that my car can take a corner much faster than the truck without losing traction or rolling over. The twisty highway was an advantage to my car over the truck. So I floored it and took the curves near the limit. The truck, probably with a big V8, could probably gain on the straights, but on this highway, its head lights receded, farther and farther until they finally disappeared behind a curve. Did I leave them in the dust? Or in the ditch? I smiled at the thought, but kept the speed up. I tried the cell phone again. Still no service, which strangely was comforting in that neither could the pursuers call somebody up ahead to intercept me. Unless some of their buddies called from Port Alberni, which seemed unlikely. Erica slept through the whole thing. When she woke up, she complained that I was driving too fast. By then, the glow of Qualicum was on the horizon. I kept the chase to myself, even from the Tanners.

Thinking of the chase, which could have turned deadly, and which could happen again farther down the road, and thinking of those incidences where environmentalists were actually killed, I pondered the probability of my survival. Very high, if you could call the1% non-survival probability low.

June 14, 1996, Fri. Alberni Valley Times

by Diane Morrison

Bear hunters confront bare-faced petition to put them into permanent hibernation

Bears, whether Black, Brown, Grizzly or Polar, are not endangered species in North America. Anthony Marr wants to keep it that way.

The campaigner for Western Canada Wilderness Committee was in Port Alberni Thursday night with his effort to ban sport and trophy hunting of Grizzly and Black bears.

It was a very hard sell to the audience of about 70 dominated by hunters and hunting guides that packed into a into small, hot room at the Friendship Centre, made even hotter by the temper flaring up from wall to wall.

The hunters say they are the endangered species. They wanted the distinction between legal hunting and poaching to be clearly recognized. “Go ask the bears, to see if they can,” said Marr. He also said that some hunters and guides make this impossible, because they are themselves poachers.

Marr believes that, with both legal hunting, poaching and conservation officer kills, about 8% of the Grizzly bear population and more than 10% of the Black bear population are being killed each year. He said the province’s Grizzly Bear Conservation Strategy clearly states that the species can sustain no more than a 4% annual mortality before going into decline, and even this, according to Marr, is too high.

Members of the audience disputed Marr’s numbers saying that, on Vancouver Island at least, the Black bear population has been increasing by 15% for the last 10 years. Marr countered that the Black bear populations on southern Vancouver Island, and some in Mid-Island, have been decimated in various locales, citing the Cowichan Lake area as an example, and challenged the hunters to produce written documentation to support their claim, which they did not.

A number of people asked why Marr’s main thrust was to shut down legal hunting when the problem is poaching. Marr replied that both in combination is the problem, and that he has another sub-campaign targeting poachers and traffickers of bear parts. A Chinese Canadian, Marr has taken on both Canadian hunters and the Chinese demand for the body parts of these animals.

After about an hour of cross firing, WCWC campaign assistant Erica Denison finally stood up and said that until poaching can be brought under control, they want to buy time for the bears to recover. One of the hunters pointed at her and said, “Young lady, you are not old enough to teach us anything. Sit down!” Marr pointed at a middle-aged woman in the audience who had been quite outspoken in favour of hunting, saying, “I’ve been listening to this young lady for the last hour. Erica, please continue.”

Marr needs to get hunters on his side, the woman said, not slam them, because hunters also want to stop poaching.

Some audience members said it is organizations such as WCWC, advertising the fact that bear parts are worth so much on the black market, that is increasing poaching. Marr scoffed at this as an “ostrich attitude”.

They objected to being told that they can’t legally hunt bears, but bears that get into garbage and smash bee hives can be killed for being a nuisance. Marr said, “The bears you kill are not nuisance bears, and that killing nuisance bears is not your job.”

When shown a picture of a bear shut in a small cage with a tube leading out from its gall bladder to extract bile, one man said that countries that treat animals like that are not democratic and so they have no conscience. Marr countered that lots of capitalists have no conscience either.

Another man was convinced that if WCWC is successful in shutting down bear hunting, it will try to shut down all hunting. Marr said, “If another hunted species becomes threatened or endangered, I would champion its cause as well.”

Back to poaching, Marr said that when an animal such as the tiger and the rhino is declared endangered, the demand and price, and so the poaching, skyrocket, hastening its slide into oblivion. “It is a very vicious cycle, and the purpose of this campaign is to try to keep our own bears out of it.” . . .

1996-06-15-6 The News, Parksville/Qualicum

by Chris Beacom

[Bear Referendum meeting Friday]

… Anthony Marr and (campaign assistant) Erica Denison are visiting every town in the province to drum up support for a petition urging the government to hold a referendum on outlawing bear hunting… “We’ve had tremendous support on the island so far,” Marr said, adding that 10% of all registered voters must sign the petition for a referendum to be held.

1996-06-18-2 Nanaimo Times

by Kim Goldberg

[Easy to bag – Let’s vote on bear hunting]

… In the biggest and boldest campaign of its ecophilic history, the Western Canada Wilderness Committee has launched a referendum initiative which, if successful, could ban all sport and trophy hunting of bears in BC…

1996-06-18-2 Times Colonist, Victoria, BC

by Malcolm Curtis

[Crusader wants everyone to vote on the future of bear-hunting]

… “It’s going to be difficult up north and in places like the Chilcotin, but in the urban areas we see no problem,” Marr said Monday…An Angus Reid poll last year showed that 78% of British Columbians oppose sport and trophy hunting of bears…Marr will give a presentation at the University of Victoria on Thursday night at the Begbie Building, Room 159, starting at 7 p.m.. Admission is free.

1996-06-19-3 The Paper, Parksville/Qualicum

by Valerie Baker

[Anti-hunting referendum proposal generates debate]

… Marr was at the Qualicum Beach Civic Centre… (He) is on an eight-week province-wide road tour of BC’s 75 electoral districts…

1996-06-20-4 Times Colonist, Victoria, BC

by Malcolm Curtis

[Bear hunters shoot back]

Bear hunters are in a growlly mood over an environmental group’s bid to force a public vote on their sport… “That’s just garbage,” Saanich hunter Terry Anderson said Wednesday, responding to a Times Colonist report about Marr’s referendum drive. “Your newspaper did not do justice to the cause of ethical hunters.”…Marr, meanwhile, is holding a meeting tonight at U.Vic.’s Begbie Building, Room 159, to promote his campaign.

1996-06-22-6 The News, Parksville/Qualicum, BC

by Chris Beacom

[Crusade to end bear hunting hits Qualicum Beach]

The system. Difficult to change and more frustrating even to try. Anthony Marr is finding out first-hand how far the provincial government needs to be pushed before change ensues… At the meeting the Chinese-born Marr was questioned by bear hunters for not cracking down on illegal Asian poaching instead of focusing on legal hunting… Denison expects battles ahead, especially in towns like Williams Lake. “They already know we’re coming. They have a front page headline saying ‘Bear hunting isn’t wrong”, and a hunter there just got killed by a bear near town. It could be tough,’ she said… Anyone interested in helping out with the cause can contact the WCWC at 1-800-661-WILD.

1996-07-03-3 The North Island Gazette, Port Hardy, BC by Rob Giblak

[Group wants bear hunting banned]

… Anthony Marr visited the North Island recently to enlist volunteers…

1996-07-03-3 The Northern Sentinel, Prince Rupert, BC by Mary Vallis

[Bear hunt ban call]

… “It is perverted for people to kill for fun,” Marr maintained, “particularly if adults take their kids and teach them to kill.”…

1996-07-03-3 The Daily News, Prince Rupert, BC

by Heather Colpitts

[Bear petition circulated]

… “More than two decades ago, India banned tiger hunting and Kenya outlawed lion hunting. We have a moral obligation to lead the world, not straggle behind other countries,” said Marr…

1996-07-05-5 The Daily News, Kamloops, BC

by Mike Cornell

[Environmentalist calls for bear-hunting ban]

A controversial environmentalist will talk Monday at the PPWC hall, 427 Lansdowne St., at 7:30 p.m., about why he wants to see bear hunting banned in BC…

1996-07-05-5 The Prince George Citizen

by Gordon Hoekstra

[Fur flies at meeting to ban bear hunts]

It was barely civil and sometimes downright ugly. In the end, it took a representative of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee close to two hours to deliver a plea for help to ban bear hunting in BC. Anthony Marr was interrupted, shouted down, and generally abused by hunters in an audience of more than 100 that spilled out of the conference room at the Civic Centre Thursday evening…Marr had barely begun…before he was attacked…

1996-07-08-1 Alaska Highway News, Fort St. John, BC by Tania Wilson

[Banning bear hunting may help preserve the species: activist]

… Anthony Marr, a wildlife activist, was in Fort St. John last week to meet with local residents, and try to gain support for a referendum to ban bear hunting…

1996-07-09-2 The Daily News, Kamloops, BC

by Michelle Young

[Activist pleads for bear-hunt ban]

With calm and respect, Anthony Marr faced rapid-fire questioning from hunters and threw back a plea for them to stop hunting bears…

1996-07-09-2 Echo/Pioneer, Chetwynd, BC

by Rick Davison

[WCWC wants bear hunting banned]

It will be a tough fight, particularly in these parts, but Anthony Marr of the WCWC is determined to stop the killing of bears in BC… His stand won him the admiration of some and the scorn of others…

1996-07-10-3 The Terrace Standard

by Dave Taylor

[Crusader makes bid for bear hunting ban]

… Marr says he has to go after legal hunting as well as illegal poaching…

1996-07-10-3 The Mirror, Dawson Creek, BC

by Diana Stephenson

[Saving the bears]

… Anthony has been touring across the province for the last month, giving presentations and informing voters on just how much is at stake…

1996-07-10-3 Kamloops This Week

by Michelle Daubney

[Environmentalists and hunters lock horns]

… Marr likened letting hunters manage wildlife to “giving our babies to a known child abuser”…

1996-07-10-3 The Daily News, Kamloops, BC

by Robert Koopmans

[Bear ban sets bad precedent]

The thought of dead bears in the bush, minus their gallbladders and paws, makes me cringe. But there’s something in Anthony Marr’s message that ripples my spine just as much… / It’s not the specifics of Marr’s anti-bear-hunting speech that are troubling, but what his campaign represents. Marr is the thin edge of a bigger wedge, an axe aimed at the heart of sport hunting in general…

1996-07-11-4 The Daily News, Kamloops, BC

by Mel Rothenburger

[Culture greatest threat to wildlife]

Culture and the environment seem to be coming into conflict a lot lately… (Culture) can be a tremendous barrier to positive change… Earlier this week Anthony Marr spoke to a few dozen people in Kamloops… / The prime reason is culture… Marr, who grew up in Hong Kong, understands the culture behind the insatiable appetite for rare animal parts, but devotes his life to fighting it… Lest Canadians get a little pious about the atrocities against wildlife committed in the name of culture in other countries, they should pay close attention to what’s happening in their own backyard.

1996-07-13-6 The Daily News, Kamloops, BC

by Mel Rothenburger

[Impossible to get issue to a vote]

Nobody ever promised democracy would be easy. Anthony Marr, who grew up in Hong Kong, is learning all about that in Canada… Aside from the cogency of his argument, what struck me most about his objective is the near-impossibility of success.

The hurdles are staggering… Marr and WCWC simply won’t be able to get it to a provincial vote…

1996-07-13-6 The Globe and Mail, Ontario

[Bid to end bear hunting to proceed]

The WCWC has cleared another hurdle in its bid to end sport and trophy hunting of bears in BC. Chief Electoral Officer Robert Patterson has announced… that approval in principle has been given to the group’s initiative petition. The 90-day campaign is set to begin September 9…

1996-07-13-6 Times Colonist, Victoria, BC

Canadian Press

[Ban bear-hunt petition set]

… At least 10% of registered voters in each of BC’s 75 electoral districts must sign up during the period. / If successful, the anti-bear-hunting petition would be submitted to the BC legislature to consider a new law or call a province-wide referendum on the issue.

1996-07-16-2 Elk Valley Miner

[Group seeks to ban all BC bear hunting]

… “…Although BC’s bears are not yet considered endangered, at today’s rate of hunting, poaching and habitat loss, they soon will be. We must exercise some foresight and keep them from this terrible fate,” says Marr…

1996-07-16-3 The Times, Terrace, BC

by Jennifer Lang

[A vote for the bears]

… Marr says BC’s wildlife protection laws and policies haven’t caught up with a new phenomenon… commercial poaching… He says there aren’t enough conservation officers in BC to stop poaching, but he believes a hunting ban would make poachers easier to spot…

1996-07-18-4 Alberni Valley Times

by Diane Morrison

[Environmentalists seek referendum to ban bear hunting]

… People representing hunters and guides feel the campaign is more likely designed to raise funds than to protect bears. Wayne Wiebe, a local hunter and guide, said it is a ‘cutesy’ deal for WCWC to get in there and solicit funds by getting ‘nitwits’ to send money…

1996-07-18-4 The Vancouver Sun

[Grin and bear it]

… Paul George, an executive director of the WCWC, in his role as private citizen, has launched an initiative for An Act to Prohibit the Hunting of Bears… Mr. George’s worthy petition would have an uphill battle under the best of circumstances, especially in many rural areas. BC’s absurd initiative legislation dooms it – and any other imaginable challenge to the legislature’s monopoly.

1996-07-19-5 Comox Valley Echo, Courtenay, BC by Fireweed

[Ursine good fortune on Denman]

… On the evening of June 16, WCWC campaign director Anthony Marr shared an enlightening audio-visual presentation in the Denman Hall… In Port Alberni, just before his Denman engagement, a room full of hunting advocates showed up to disrupt Marr’s presentation…

1996-07-18-4 Daily News, Nelson, BC

by Jolanda Waskito

[Stop bear hunt, says Marr]

If wildlife crusader Anthony Marr has his way… Marr, a Chinese-Canadian, said that both the Chinese and Canadian traditions to kill bears for parts or sport should be stopped…

1996-07-19-5 Alberni Valley Times, Port Alberni, The Trail Times, BC

by Jolanda Waskito

[Crusader for bear-hunting ban has tough sell]

… (Marr) is facing a tough task, especially as he tours the East Kootenay and comes up against local hunters…

1996-07-19-5 Alberni Valley Times, Port Alberni, BC

by N.E. Hannaford

[Sportsmen should take bid to ban bear-hunting seriously]

… One suspects that the urban perspective which predominates in the Wilderness Committee – another flaming irony if one thinks about it – just abhors hunting. Thus the successful passing of a law to ban bear hunting might well be followed by similar measures aimed at other species…

1996-07-20-6 The Okanagan Saturday, Penticton, BC

by Maurice Smith

[Hunters bear down on meeting]

The head organizer of a campaign to force a referendum on the province’s annual bear hunt was forced to change venues when a group of hunters crashed his meeting…

1996-07-21-7 The Morning Star, Vernon, BC

by Richard Rolke

[Bear ban shot down]

North Okanagan hunters are afraid that a ban on killing bears in BC could actually increase the slaughter of bruins and put more people at risk… “A misdirected idea.”…

1996-07-24-3 Capital News, Kelowna, BC

by Jean Russell

[WCWC loaded for bear – Petition drive launched]

… about 15 prohunters turned out at the meeting in Kelowna on Friday. / Don Guild, secretary-treasurer of the Okanagan branch of WCWC, said Monday the hunting supporters made it difficult to make progress. “They tried to dispute (Marr’s) figures before he even gave them…”

1996-07-24-3 The Morning Sun, Parksville/Qualicum, BC

by Valerie Baker

[Taking aim at the trade in illegal bear parts]

… “During the next 60 days, we are scrambling to get as many official canvassers as we can,” says Paul George, WCWC Founding Director… Anthony Marr is currently on an eight-week provincial tour garnering support… Since his presentation in Qualicum Beach on June 17, around 30 local people have volunteered to be canvassers… / Not all ridings welcome Marr’s crusade, particularly Port Alberni, Prince George and Kamloops, which he visited recently. Hunters there challenged him on…

1996-07-31-3 The Morning Sun, Parksville/Qualicum, BC

by Valerie Baker

[Taking aim on the illegal trade in bear parts]

Editor’s note: As many of you noticed – judging by your phone calls – our computer managed to muck up last week’s story on the initiative… Here then is the way the story was supposed to read…

1996-07-31-3 The Salmon Arm Observer

by Gordon Priestman

[Seeks local support for bear referendum]

Anthony Marr brought his one-man crusade to Salmon Arm Thursday night… In what seems close to Mission Impossible, Marr has been touring the province since the beginning of June, hold at least one meeting a day and often more, seven days a week… Along the way he’s run into a lot of opposition from organized hunter groups but that doesn’t deter Marr… Marr believes in what he’s doing…

1996-08-01-4 The Shuswap Sun, Salmon Arm, BC

by Dan Odenbach

[Just another meeting Marred by Anthony]

Compared to his other meetings around the province, Anthony Marr’s last stop in Salmon Arm was a tame one. / Marr held an informational meeting, sponsored by the WCWC, in the Salmon Arm Community Centre last week… Organizers wouldn’t release the place and time of the meeting because they feared bear hunters would show up and be disruptive.

“There is no point holding a public meeting if it’s going to be destroyed by all the interruptions. If they have a beef, let them hold their own meeting,” said local WCWC member Alan Bangay…

1996-08 Sing Tao Weekend Magazine (Chinese), global

[When the bear hunt season opens, whose cry will be the loudest?]

… WCWC campaign director Anthony Marr spent June and July visiting over 40 cities and towns to publicize the initiative… He was interviewed by newspapers more than 150 times, and by TV and radio more than a dozen times. Along his route, he also signed up more than 1,500 volunteers…

1996-08 EcoNews, Victoria, BC

by Guy Dauncy

[BC referendum to stop bear killing for trophy and sport]

This coming September, WCWC will be launching a 90 day campaign to collect signatures from 10% of the registered voters in every constituency in BC… WCWC is looking for 50 canvassers in each of BC’s 75 electoral districts, to collect signatures. To be a canvasser, you must be a registered BC voter, have lived in BC for the last 6 months, and must witness each signature collected. If you want to be a canvasser…

1996-08 The Question, Whistler, BC

by Loreth Beswetherick

[Are our bears in danger?]

Early August could see wildlife activist Anthony Marr arriving in Whistler to drum up support for a controversial campaign… / If successful, the WCWC will be the organization in the province to use BC’s new Recall and Initiative Act to launch a referendum since it was passed two years ago…

1996-08-01week The Daily News, Kamloops, BC by Eleanor Kohnert

[Save the bears]

Editors: Anthony Marr from the WCWC is not alone… Organizations and an ever-growing number of individuals are supporting his endeavour. However, a huge hunting guiding and gun lobby will use all the firepower in their possession to defeat the proposal… Even if WCWC’s efforts… fail… the issue will be moved into the political arena… The concession to First Nations of allowing Grizzly bears to be killed for ceremonial purposes (however) is ludicrous…

1996-08-01week The Georgia Straight, Vancouver, BC by Charlie Smith

[Hunters target Marr]

During a recent province-wide tour, WCWC wildlife campaigner Anthony Marr discovered how difficult it will be to achieve a ban on bear hunting… In public meetings to promote holding a vote on the issue, he was usually hounded by dozens of angry hunters who tried to intimidate him. “In Port Alberni, 60 of them showed up, and there were only five environmentalists,” Marr said. “They are organized and they are hostile, and when they show up, it’s 10 to one – ten of them to one environmentalist.”… Marr will speak about this issue on Thursday (August 8) at the H.R. MacMillan Planetarium at 7:30 p.m.- and he expects to see angry hunters in the audience. “I’m beginning to enjoy confronting them,” he chuckled.

1996-08-02-5 The Vancouver Sun

by Larry Pynn

[Activist angers hunters with campaign to outlaw bear hunt through referendum]

Anthony Marr is on almost every hunter’s hit list for his efforts to get bear hunting banned in BC… Marr has just completed a seven-week-tour of more than 50 BC communities… It hasn’t been easy for Marr, who has been dogged by hunters equally determined to kill his campaign before it gets off the ground… ‘I know some gung fu, but I can take on only one unarmed hunter at a time,’ he says with a smile…

“Deep down inside, it's a moral issue,” says Marr, who estimates that at least 90 per cent of hunters shoot bears for the trophy and that 65 per cent actually come from urban areas.

“It's immoral to kill for entertainment. And abominable that adult teach their children to kill for fun.”...

The BC Wildlife Federation has set aside $40,000 so far to counter the environmentalists. The hunter lobby will place ads, and attempt to shadow petition canvassers as they make their way door to door...

“We have a moral obligation to lead the world,” he said. "I feel it will get much worse before, and if, it gets better.”...

Marr... was born in China in 1944 and fled to Hong Kong with his family during the Communist revolution in 1949. He moved to Canada in 1965, first to Winnipeg and then to Vancouver, eventually receiving his bachelor of science degree from the University of BC.

He... worked as a geophysicist in the northern wilderness for mineral exploration companies - 'that's when I became bonded with nature' - before joining WCWC as a campaigner last year...

1996-08-06-2 Salmon Arm Shopper Guide

by Ruth Keskinen

[Bears possibly endangered in BC in the future]

Anthony Marr, who grew up in Hong Kong, has a message for Canadians. Our Grizzly bears may become endangered within a few years, and our Black bears may be under similar pressure very soon after that since the Chinese have nearly completely wiped out their own Asiatic Black bear population.

1996-08-08 The Valley Voice, New Denver, BC

[Bear Protection Act campaign gets under way]

Anthony Marr, lead campaigner for the WCWC, has received approval for $75,000 from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) for his tiger conservation work…

1996-08-09 Pique Newsmagazine, Whistler, BC by David Gowman

[Letter to the Editor]

… The extreme positions taken by environmentalists such as Anthony Marr are telling us all to wake up and smell the coffee before the pot boils over…

1996-08-17-6 The Vancouver Sun,

[Westcoast People]

by Mia Stainsby

[Caught at cultural crossroads – Chinese-Canadian environmentalist upsets some Asians and Caucasians alike as he fights against the use of animal parts as Chinese medicines, among other traditions]

Anthony Marr, the man who's threatening to take all the fun out of bear hunting... is in a show down with hunters, who aren't taking too kindly to his quest... The winding path that brought him to this juncture appeared before him unexpectedly.

In truth, Marr would rather be with his “baby”, a book over 800 pages long, called [OMNI-SCIENCE - A New Cosmology], which he began writing in 1978.

“So, what is he doing in conflict over bear hunting, after spending decades writing about cosmic harmony? On a recent tour of 40 BC interior communities, he faced roomsful of angry hunters and has a fistful of press clippings about the dust-ups. On the other hand, he also found supporters in these communities.

Being Chinese-Canadian has almost everything to do with Marr's environmental activism. The more he heard about the Chinese use of animal parts, especially parts from animals on the endangered species list, the more he felt compelled to speak up.

“Something's got to be done about this,” he said to his (mostly Caucasian) friends. “And I think a Chinese person should do it. And I think you're looking at him.” That was three and a half years ago...

“I was going to finish my book last year, but all of a sudden my time was usurped. Saving endangered species. It was more urgent, but the book, whenever it comes out, will remain the central core of my achievement.”

His book, he says, is an integration of all the sciences and -ologies into a single body, which he calls Omni-Science. “I look at nature from all angles at once, which gives forth a new philosophical system where we human beings find a place...”

Love may have something to do with Marr's critical take on Chinese culture. “My first true was a Chinese woman, but her family forced her to break up with me or suffer the pain of being disowned,” he recalls. “That is a fate worse than death for a Chinese girl, and so she acquiesced. Her parents felt our two families’ social positions didn't match. That was in 1967, and I became very disenchanted with the Chinese culture because of it. I've never dated a Chinese woman since,” he said.

The Chinese reaction to Marr is mixed. At schools, where he gives talks on the Asian use of animals, he gets enthusiastic support from students (many of whom being of Chinese descent).

… “When I’m on Chinese radio talk shows, two of the most common questions are: “Why are you trying to blacken the Chinese reputation?” and “What is more important, humans or animals?”

“My answer is that, on the contrary, I'm trying to save the Chinese reputation from eternal damnation, because if we carry on the way we have and drive some of the species to extinction, then our reputation will be forever mud, and we can never regain respect in the eyes of the world. I tell them that I'm working for human beings too. What kind of world are we passing on to our kids?”...

1996-08-21-3 The Express, Nelson, BC

by Ethan Baron

[Group seeks beat hunting ban]

… “We’re focusing on bears and bears alone because of the recent huge escalation of poaching of them for gallbladders and other parts for the Asian market,” said Anthony Marr…

“ The only thing we can achieve in very short order is to eliminate that four percent legally hunted, to slacken the pressure on them, to buy some time…”

1996-09 The Common Ground, Vancouver, BC by Sue Fox, WCWC

[BET’R vote yes in Bear Referendum]

… “…BC has the potential to become the ecotourism capital of the world, if we start conserving our natural resources right now,” Anthony said… Anthony’s road tour drew numerous highly dedicated volunteers and widespread media support as well as audiences of hostile hunters…

1996-09-09-1 The Province, Vancouver, BC

by John Bermingham

[Bear-hunt opponents seek referendum]

… “The deadliest enemy is not the hunters, but the apathy of the ‘silent majority’,” said Marr…

1996-09-09-1 The Globe and Mail, national

by Craig McInnes

[All in favour of saving bear, vote yes – BC tests referendum law]

… the critics say the hurdles set by the law render hollow the promise that people will be able to take matters into their own hands if politicians refuse to act as citizens believe they should…

1996-09-10-2 The Province, Vancouver, BC

by John Colbourn

[Poaching won’t be tolerated – Ramsey]

… “I respect the people who have brought this (petition) forwards,” said (Environment Minister Paul) Ramsey. “Whether or not banning hunting is a part of preserving the bear population is something the public is going to have to decide.”…

1996-09-10-2 Sing Tao Daily (Chinese), international

[Anti-bear hunt petition launched]

… Ma Seeu Sung urges the Chinese community to stand up and speak out…

1996-09-10-2 Ming Pao (Chinese), international

[Battle for the bear commences]

… Hunter Med Crotteau rebukes Ma’s campaign as being insulting to the Chinese community…

1996-09-17-2 The Daily News, Kamloops, BC

by Michelle Young

[Bear crusader says pro-hunting side well organized]

An anti-bear-hunt crusader says he wasn’t surprised by the response of callers to his appearance on a Kamloops radio talk-show Monday morning.

Anthony Marr of the WCWC said the show, hosted by Daily News editor Met Rothenburger on JC-55, drew 19 callers in favour of the hunt, five against.

The pro-hunting side is well organized and plugged up phone lines, he said about his appearance against BC Wildlife Federation president John Holdstock… “The 5 versus 19 call-ins illustrates that the silent majority is still silent,” he said…

1996-09-18-3 The Daily News, Kamloops, BC

by Michelle Young

[Bear-hunt ban campaign strains ties between wilderness allies]

… BC Wildlife Federation president… John Holdstock said the WCWC’s effort …has already upset his group’s members.

“I’ve never seen our membership so angry,” he said. “An initiative like this goes to the core of what we do and what we believe in.”… “Anthony Marr has been trying to sell it as an anti-poaching issue. It’s a pro-poaching issue.”…

1996-09-20-5 Victoria News, Weekend Edition

by Anthony van der Guglen

[WCWC on its own bear hunt]

…Behind the campaign is the premise that the province’s bear population is threatened by hunting, poaching and habitat loss…

1996-09-25-3 The Vancouver Sun

by Larry Pynn

[BC Wildlife Federation forced to apologize for accusing WCWC of terror tactics]

The BC Wildlife Federation … has pulled the fall issue of its magazine off newsstand shelves because it contains defamatory statements against the WCWC.

As well, in ads appearing in The Vancouver Sun and Province newspapers, the federation makes a public apology for describing the environmental group, which prides itself on adopting legal tactics, as terrorists… In his editorial, (BCWF executive director Doug) Walker likened the WCWC to ‘terrorists groups who threaten human lives, burn houses, send razor blades in the mail or kill family pets to get attention…’…

Wilderness Committee director Paul George said in an interview the recall of the magazines and the apology in the Vancouver dailies is only a first step. The Federation must also apologize in smaller papers throughout the province and agree to pay all the Committee’s legal costs in launching the BC Supreme Court libel suit against the Federation, Walker and president John Holdstock…

1996-09-26-4 Terminal City, Vancouver, BC

by Paul Johnson

[Ban bear hunting]

… One of BC’s foremost environmental organizations has discovered just how difficult the process surrounding citizens’ referendum can be. The WCWC is seeking to…

“The rules are just about unworkable,” says WCWC’s Anthony Marr. Their first problem is that referendum rules stipulate that there can be only one proponent for a referendum, but an unlimited number of opponents. In this case, Marr says, it’s WCWC against 107 parties: 69 organizations and 38 individuals… WCWC is also bogged down in the mechanics of the process… Marr points out that while referendums are common in many American states, “in BC things are so tough that no one has been successful in organizing a referendum.”

1996-10-05-6 Daily Free Press, Nanaimo, BC

by Mark Brett

[Bear poaching on increase locally]

… Conservation officer Ron Heusen…said,… “We’ve had four kills in the last month right in the Nanaimo District area. In six years I’ve heard of maybe four carcasses poached for parts, and in one month, we’ve had four go down. There is no doubt it’s increasing.”… Meanwhile, Anthony Marr… is on his second road tour of BC…

1996-10-07-1 Macleans Magazine, national

[Hunted down by the law]

It was a case of ready, fire, aim for the BC Wildlife Federation, a group representing hunters in BC. With 25,000 copies of the September/October issue of its magazine, Outdoor Edge, already delivered to their BC members, the BC group had to abruptly cancel the remainder of its distribution, pull 60 copies from store shelves, and print a public apology in Vancouver newspapers last week. At issue were remarks that the cancelled edition contained about the WCWC…

1996-10-08-2 The Northerner, Fort St. John, BC

by Richards

[Peace River Regional District takes a stand against ban on bear hunting]

… The BC Wildlife Federation is mounting its own campaign to counter WCWC’s. Doug Walker, executive director of BCWF, rallied members in his column in Outdoor Edge magazine. The Federation is hoping to raise $500,000 for radio and TV air time and newspaper space in order to overshadow the petition. Walker is asking members to donate about $25 each to help with the cause. ‘I think we can all give up one box of shells or a tank of gas to preserve our hunting heritage,” he wrote……

Marr is stuck in a very hard place. If he only demands higher penalties and more protection for animals against poachers, he has hunters on his side, but as soon as he turns around and addresses the other side, he is met with complete opposition.

“Hunters go for the head and hide and poachers go for the gall and paws; they are all after bear parts…” Marr said...

1996-10-12-6 The News, Parksville, BC

by Bruce Whitehead

[Bear Crusader takes man on the speaking tour from hell]

No matter how open-minded you are, you likely wouldn’t pick Anthony Marr out to be an environmental activist - let alone one that some have called “the most hated man in BC”.

But the…Chinese-Canadian physicist has almost single-handedly managed to fire up emotions in every corner of the province…

1996-10-12-6 The Saturday Okanagan, Kelowna, BC

[Anti-hunting campaign rolls into valley]

Anthony Marr is in the Okanagan this weekend organizing supporters to gather signatures against bear hunting… At least 20 local volunteers have applied with Elections BC to be registered canvassers. But so far, the necessary paperwork has not come through, Marr said…

1996-10-13-7 Prince George This Week

[Apathy ‘greatest opponent’ to bear referendum]

… WCWC’s ambitious attempt… “Our biggest problem isn’t the law, it isn’t the hunters – it’s the apathy of the silent majority,” said Anthony Marr. “Apathy is our greatest opponent.”…

1996-10-15-2 Times Colonist, Victoria, BC

by Malcolm Curtis

[Anti-hunt activists face uphill battle for vote]

In areas where hunting is as common as walking the dog, canvassing for signatures is not for the weak-hearted.. In a 12,000-km road trip to promote the referendum last summer, Marr often found himself confronting hallsful of angry hunters… The volunteers – 50 are already signed up in the Capital Region – have to be registered with the provincial government in a time-consuming process that involves 5 mailings…

1996-10 Mainstreet, Crawford Bay, BC

by Susan Hulland

[The Ban Bear Hunting Initiative, an exercise in democracy]

… This initiative is part of a larger global process called the BET’R Campaign. Launched in 1995 and founded by an Asian named Anthony Marr…

The really interesting thing about this initiative is that there’s more at stake here than first meets the eye. Some hunters believe this is the first step in the total ban on all hunting…

Understandably… the big guns will be coming out of the bushes representing all sides of the issue. Also, the gallery is filling up quickly with interested parties who stand to lose or gain in some way depending on the final result.

Hunters and hunting support groups such as guides, outfitters and taxidermists are lining up on one side with lots of ranchers and pro-gun lobbyists. Supporters of the hunting ban are being joined by numerous scientists concerned for species diversity, animal rights proponents, and pacifists of all kinds.

You can be darned sure the bad guys are watching, too. Irrespective of the final outcome..., heightened public awareness about bear hunting issues will affect their way of doing business. This will reverberate throughout the community of those who prosper from both the legal and illegal killing of bears, from our local community poachers to the sophisticated international criminals who deal in the animals parts commodities market.

You can also be sure the politicians are watching this process. And… also lots of other public advocacy groups…

1996-10-16-3 The Morning Sun, Vernon, BC

by Richard Rolke

[Bear hunting ban under the gun]

… Marr said that while only one proponent – the WCWC – can push for the referendum, and unlimited number of opponents – in this case 107 hunting groups – can fight the petition campaign. “Further, the single proponent must work all 75 districts to ensure all succeed, whereas the 107 opponents need concentrate on one district. If we fail in just one district, the whole project fails. The rules are stacked against us.”

1996-10-16-3 The Vancouver Sun

by Larry Pynn

[Victim of bear attack back campaign to end hunting]

Chilliwack – Just two months after he was mauled while camping, Jackson Brown would seem an unlikely person to sign a petition against bear hunting.

But Brown says he holds no grudge against bears…

1996-10-16-3 The Penticton Herald

[Campaign to ban bear hunt seeks help]

… Anthony Marr said he has about 15 people in the Penticton area so far to collect 3,200 signatures… Marr said about two-thirds of some 2,000 volunteers have so far been approved…

1996-10-16-3 The Beachcomber, Saanich, BC

[Bear hunt protestors seek petition support]

… The group says that, on a global scale, bears are in decline. Four of the world’s seven bear species are endangered, and Grizzly and Polar bears are in decline. The America Black bear is the only species still doing relatively well… “We must act now to save BC bear from endangerment. Our BC bears are faced with the same threats as the Asiatic Black and Russian Brown bears,” said the bear initiative co-ordinator for Greater Victoria, Liora Freedman.

1996-10-17-4 The Sun, Vernon, BC

[Bid to ban bear hunting spreading]

Despite the odds, Anthony Marr is bearing down… “Even though we may not succeed in the petition, we’ll have launched a powerful educational campaign,” he said…

1996-10-18-5 The Trail Times

by Lana Rodlie

[Shooting to ban bear hunting]

Anthony Marr knows his chances of getting a provincial referendum on banning bear hunting is about as probable as a snowflake’s chance on a hotplate, but he’s trudging along getting signatures anyway… “Every observer says we can’t do it,” Marr said… While touring the province… he has been scorned, yelled at, intimidated, threatened and slandered.

In Penticton, 50 hunters showed up to disrupt a meeting… More hunters overran a similar meeting in Prince George and in Kamloops.

In Campbell River, he was told by one hunter that he saw Marr on TV, and the price on Marr’s head “just went up $10,000”, and another cited Marr’s Chinese Canadian heritage as “doing damage to our culture”. In Port Alberni, 60 hunters…

Marr doesn’t care if he is up against insurmountable odds, he still hopes to get his message out… One of the most frequently asked questions by hunters is why they are being persecuted when the real culprits are poachers. Marr said that they are both culprits, and the difference between a hunter and a poacher is irrelevant if you’re a bear.

When told that hunters could help by watching for poachers, Marr said that was like “wolves keeping coyotes from sheep.”…

1996-10-18-5 Victoria News

by Wendy Cook

[Anthony Marr targeted by angry hunters in the north]

… Marr says BC hunters seem to be short-sighted in their vision of the potential crisis. “They don’t accept the global scene. They say ‘This is BC, don’t talk about Asia’ but the world is getting pretty small. What happens over here has an effect over there and vice versa,” he says.

BCWF’s Doug Walker does not agree. “To say expansion in China will increase the use of bear parts here is unfair…,” he says…

1996-10-21-1 Nelson Daily News

by Bob Hall

[Hunting opponents struggle]

Anthony Marr admits it is a daunting task, but has vowed to go the distance in the effort to ban bear hunting in BC… “Pessimists say it is possible but very difficult and optimists say it is very difficult but possible,” said Marr, who was in Nelson over the weekend to rally support of volunteers who are collecting signatures. “We’re saying the latter and have to work on that premise to just keep going…”

1996-10-23-3 Peninsula News Review, Saanich, BC

by Brian Dryden

[Bear opponents hunting for Peninsula support]

… One of the canvassers in Sidney set up tables in front of local grocery stores to give the campaign high visibility…

1996-10-24-4 Summerland Review, Summerland, BC

[Group bears legislative flaws]

… numerous legal obstacles… In each riding a different set of petition is used… If signatures in even one riding are less than 10% of eligible voters, the whole petition becomes invalid. / Another obstacle is that the petition must be completed by Dec. 9, or 90 days after it was started…

1996-11-04-1 The Trail Times

by Lana Rodlie

[Petition booth axed after threats to mall]

… The problem stemmed from a visit to Trail several weeks ago by Anthony Marr… Although Marr said he was scorned, yelled at, intimidated, threatened and slandered in other parts of the province, no one thought such tactics would be used here.

Unfortunately, for John and Rachel Kratky, intimidation raised its ugly head after Marr left.

The Kratkys volunteered to help Marr’s cause by locally obtaining signatures. They approached Waneta Plaza and asked if they could set up a table in the mall.

The mall manager saw no problem and said it was alright. However, the decision was quickly reversed.

“We were told that we couldn’t set up because the mall had received a bunch of phone calls from people threatening to picket,” said Rachel Kratky… Waneta Plaza manager Linda MacDermid confirms… MacDermid said this is the first time anyone has ever called with threats over a proposed petition campaign or anything else.

“We’ve always had all sorts of groups with petitions. Even when we had Pro-Choice people, we’ve never had any calls. Yet…”…

1996-11-12-2 The Citizen, Prince George, BC

by Gordon Hoekstra

[Bear hunt opponents bring the campaign here]

The WCWC is sending a swat team to Prince George in a last ditch effort… Expected to arrive this Friday for a three-day stay, the team is to roll into town with a caravan of two or three vehicles – at least one of them highly decorated with banners – and set up shop, said bear protection campaign manager Anthony Marr from Vancouver… This summer, prior to the launch of the 90-day petition campaign, Marr received a less than warm reception from hunters at an information session here.

Marr said he expects it will get even hotter this time. “We’re in the home stretch, and we’re fighting.”…

The WCWC would be better off directing its attention to curtailing the Asian market that deal in bear parts, says groups like the BC Wildlife Federation…

1996-11-13-3 The Citizen, Prince George, BC

by Gordon Hoekstra

[Malls turn away bear hunt opponents]

Unable to get permission to set up their ban-bear-hunting petition drive at any of the malls here, a Lower Mainland preservation group will try to gather signatures near the Civic Centre starting Friday.

In general, the malls told him that they didn’t want to alienate anyone, Anthony Marr said Tuesday… Marr believes many more people would have become bear petition canvassers in rural areas, but they’ve been intimidated by a strong counter reaction to the ban-bear-hunting campaign, especially in the Central Interior…

But he added, “We’ve got a job to do, and we’re giving it our best shot.”…

1996-11-13-3 The Globe and Mail, national

[Bear-hunt ban sought]

The WCWC is sending a team of environmentalists to Prince George in a last ditch effort to gather signatures to ban bear hunting in BC. The group will set up near polling stations during the civic elections on Saturday, said campaign direct Anthony Marr… Only 20,000 signatures have been turned in to the Committee (to date).

1996-11-14-4 The Free Press, Prince George, BC

by David Plug

[City won’t block bear banners from polling stations]

… A mobile campaign by the WCWC sets up shop in downtown Prince George tonight, and organizer Anthony Marr says local polling stations will be key sites for their petition for a referendum on bear hunting.

While municipal campaigners won’t be allowed within 100 meters of the polls, no such restriction applies to the WCWC canvassers.

“… There’s nothing in the Municipal Act that prohibits it as long as they’re not interfering with the election process or campaigning for a candidate,” says Joni Heinrich, Prince George’s deputy city clerk.

Of some concern is how heated encounters between canvassers and hunters will become… When asked if he expected some sort of fireworks when canvassers and hunters meet face-to-face, Marr replied, “No doubt, but we are willing to deal with it when it happens. We would like people to know that this is a totally legal process and totally democratic. We are playing by the book and hope the opponents do the same.”…

Their mobile campaign will travel to the Peace River region next week and could return here again on their way to Prince Rupert… (Marr) has arranged radio interviews for tomorrow morning on CBC-AM and CIRX/CJCI but not with CKPG’s Ben Meisner. “I’ve had two encounters with him and neither one was enjoyable,” said Marr…

1996-11-14-4 Island Tides, Victoria, BC

by Serena van Bakel

[Bear Care on election day – first citizen initiative]

… Paul George, Founding Director of WCWC, is the first person (by law, a proponents must be a person, not an organization) to seriously attempt to use BC’s new Recall and Initiative Act to bring forward citizen-generated legislation…

1996-11-15-5 Times Colonist, Victoria, BC

by Malcolm Curtis

[Organizers of ban on bear hunting face another hurdle]

… Organizers of the Ban Bear Hunting Initiative planned to collect signatures… outside more than 50 polling stations in the Capital Region on Saturday, municipal election day.

However, BC law bans canvassing within 100 meters of any polling station…

1996-11-15-5 Victoria New, Weekend Edition

by Brian Dryden

[Bear activists piggyback on polls]

… To hit the target in the Capital Region, (WCWC’s Victoria campaign coordinator Liora Freedman says the blitz of municipal election polling stations will involve more than 80 canvassers who are registered to collect signatures.

John Marshall, deputy chief electoral officer for Victoria’s municipal election, says…, “As long as they are not connected to any candidates then they can do that…”…

1996-11-16-6 The Citizen, Prince George, BC

by Gordon Hoekstra

[Bear ‘ban-wagon’ gets cool reception]

… Battling the wind and -10C temperatures, WCWC canvassers from Vancouver set up tables Friday at the intersection of Victoria Street and Seventh Avenue to gather signatures… Hunter Brad Davis stopped to protest the bear skin propped on top of the 24-foot, banner-decorated motor home, which he thought was in bad taste…

“It takes a lot of guts to be out here, and they need all the support they can get,” said Chris Leischner, an avowed environmentalist who signs the petition…

The 11-person caravan came to the North because the petition has struggled here…

1996-11-16-6 Times Colonist, Victoria, BC

by Malcolm Curtis

[Bear canvassers will go ahead]

… Victoria’s chief electoral officer John Marshall said this week that the bear referendum advocates cannot collect signatures within 100 meters of any polling station… Municipal Affairs spokeswoman Karin Harris said it will be up to electoral officers to interpret provincial legislation that regulates permitted activity outside polling stations.

But Greg McDade, lawyer for the Sierra Legal Defence Fund, said there is nothing wrong with people collecting signatures for a petition outside a polling place.

The Municipal Act prevents people from soliciting votes or other activities designed to influence a municipal election (wearing signs, carrying flags or leafleting) with 100 meters of a polling station.

Terry Kirk, chief electoral officers for Saanich, said his municipality will not be preventing bear referendum supporters from gathering signatures…

1996-11-16-6 Times Colonist, Victoria, BC

by Malcolm Curtis

[Hunting foes target voters in bid to force referendum]

… Organizers of the Ban Bear Hunting Initiative say they will have canvassers outside 53 of 57 polling stations in Greater Victoria on voting day, in a bid to gather more than 20,000 signatures.

“We are quite shy of our goal,” says Liora Freedman of WCWC… As of Tuesday, the group said it had collected fewer than 3,000 signatures from the 7 provincial ridings around Victoria.

“That’s misleading,” said Freedman, noting that many canvassers have collected more signatures, but have not yet mailed them in…

1996-11-17-7 The Free Press, Prince George, BC

by David Plug

[Act needs revision to deal with referendum problems]

…supporters of a ban on bear hunting were allowed to (collect signatures) outside polling stations in some cities and not others…

“There’s nothing that prohibits them from being there. The petition has standing under the Recall and Initiative Act…,” says city clerk Allan Chabot. “As long as their campaign doesn’t take on local flavour or begins to implicate one candidate or another, and it remains peaceful, we don’t have the authority to do anything.”

In Vancouver, they took a different track and told canvassers to stay away from polling stations…

1996-11-19-2 Alberni Valley Times, Port Alberni, BC

by Diane Morrison

[Physician takes up cause of wild bears in valley]

Mike Barrett would rather see Black bears used as a natural resource to attract tourists than to see them used as an attraction for hunters to kill… Dr. Barrett is one of the volunteers collecting signatures…

“Eco-tourism, and soft adventure tourism, is the biggest growth area in the economy on the West Coast…,” he said…

1996-11-20-3 The Vancouver Sun

Canadian Press

[Bear-hunt foe threatens to sue]

Prince George - … Barney Kern of the WCWC was collecting signatures in the Civic Centre on Saturday while voting took place.

He said he was ordered to leave by chief electoral officer Allan Chabot and city manager George Paul. “We do not need permission to collect signatures in a public place,” said Kern…

1996-11-20-3 The Mirror, Sooke, BC

by Mitch Moore

[Bear hunting protestors cry foul]

… Kerry Fedosenko, the returning officer at the Saseenos school polling station, said she was instructed by the chief electoral officer Thomas Moore to ask a lone canvasser to move from the school… The canvasser, Jefferson Bray, complied

Later, however, Bray and two other supporters moved back closer to the entrance and Moore contacted the Sooke RCMP.

Bray said he reluctantly complied until he was told by other ‘Bear Day’ volunteers that Fedosenko had no authority to ask him to move.

“I was told that I was well within my rights to be there. I wasn’t blocking people’s access and I was not representing any of the candidates… He refused to move when asked by RCMP officers. They eventually let him stay…

1996-11-21-4 The Tribune, Williams Lake, BC

by Jonathan Desbarats

[Bear campaign confrontation]

A group campaigning to ban bear hunting in BC was turfed out of Boltanio Mall yesterday after a confrontation with the president of the Williams Lake Sportsman’s Association…

1996-11-21-4 The Daily News, Kamloops, BC

[Bear Care-A-Van parked for petition]

… while (Marr) was in Prince George, one man threatened to punch him in the face and another deliberately bumped his shoulder while walking past… hard enough to spin Marr around.

But in two days, 1,700 signatures were gathered in Prince George…

1996-11-22-5 Kamloops This Week

by Jennifer Muir

[Hunting protest in homestretch]

WCWC volunteers Barney Kern and Jon French do their best to stay warm while collecting signatures on the ban the bear hunt petition at the corner of Third and Victoria Thursday… WCWC spokesman Anthony Marr says at present the organization has up to 40,000 signatures…

1996-11-22-5 The Daily News, Kamloops, BC

[Bear-ban campaign passes through city, collects 450 more signatures on petition]

… You couldn’t miss Gloria Fraser, decked out in a hot pink snowsuit as she asked passersby if they wanted to put their names to a petition to stop bear hunting in the province.

“I have watched the demise of our wildlife for over 50 years,” she said….

1996-11-24-7 Ming Pao, global (Chinese)

by Eric Chan

[Ma Shiu-Sang incites Chinese Canadians to sign anti-bear-hunt petition]

… Ma Shiu-Sang and his volunteers gathered several hundred signatures at the Aberdeen Centre yesterday…

1996-11-25-1 The Trail Times

by David Wilford

[Shoot surplus bears and cougars]

To the Editor: … The next enemy we have is a guy called Marr…

1996-11-26-2 The Penticton Herald

[Sights set on saving bears]

… Barney Kern… At his own expense, he took time off work and rented a motor home to collect signatures for the Ban Bear Hunting Initiative…

1996-11-29-4 The Free Press, Prince George, BC

by B. Elliott

[Bear hunting ban signers should be proud]

I was not surprised by the intimidating, dirty behaviour of some wildlife killers during Western Canada Wilderness Committee’s visit… Some wildlife killers and their supporters carried over their violent actions from defenseless animals to non-violent animal supporters, going so far as to tear up a petition sheet with signatures…

1996-11-30-6 The Vancouver Sun

by Ian Graysom

[Who cares about bears?]

… Marr… says while Kenya and India had outlawed lion and tiger hunting respectively, “Canada is still quagmired in the ‘Great White Hunter’ tradition.”…

1996-12-02-1 Salmon Arm Shoppers’ Guide

[Bear Caravan stops in Salmon Arm]

…according to (WCWC volunteer) Jon French… a small percentage of people exhibited very childish behaviour, swearing, and even shouting racial epithets as they passed by. These racial slurs were directed at Anthony Marr, who is Chinese Canadian. He has led the drive to prevent bear hunting…

1996-12-04-3 The Courier Islander, Campbell River

by Dan MacLennan

[Anti-bear hunt backers get cool local reception]

Supporters of a total ban on bear hunting collected signatures in Campbell River Monday despite some less than friendly responses.

“We got kicked out of the Tyee Plaza around 11:30 even though we had permission,” (WCWC Bear-Care-a-Van member) Steve Quattrocchi said...

1996-12-04-3 The Mirror, Campbell River, BC

by Matthew Plumtree

[Protesters, hunters clash]

Chilly temperatures and a posse of hunters… made life difficult for those seeking signatures… “I was trying to be a dink, but after all these years, it sure feels good,” said (local hunting guide David) Fyfe…

1996-12-04-3 The Times, Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows, BC by Corinne Jackson

[Bear petition on the hunt for names]

…There are about 20 people gathering names locally… Mike Gildersleeve said he’s collected about 400 himself… The response has been “really positive”, he added. “People that have seen me come marching up and ask ‘Where can I sign?’”…

1996-12-07-6 The Vancouver Sun

by Herb Gilbert

[Who cares about bears? Quite a few readers.]

… I hope more people will come to see the big picture of what is happening to planet Earth. And when the light goes on in their minds, they will turn green, like the Paul Georges and Anthony Marrs of this world.

1996-12-07-6 The Vancouver Sun

by Larry Pynn

[Bear-hunting petition falls short]

… (WCWC founder Paul) George said efforts to collect signatures were hampered on a number of fronts - canvassers were frequently denied permission to operate in rural shopping malls, hunters shadowed canvassers and intimidated citizens who might have otherwise signed…

1996-12-07-6 Times Colonist, Victoria, BC

by Malcolm Curtis

[Anti-hunting effort falls short]

BC’s referendum law needs to be rewritten, otherwise the public will never have a chance to vote on any initiative… Anthony Marr acknowledges Friday the group’s bid to force a referendum on the hunting issue will fall short… In Washington state, where voters last month approved an initiative to ban hunting of bears using dogs and bait… The Washington referendum system has more relaxed rules…

1996-12-10-2 The Province, Vancouver, BC

by Charlie Anderson

[Drive for bear-hunting referendum falls short]

Supporters of a ballot on bear hunting are bloody but unbowed… “The law itself is an ass,” said (WCWC founder Paul) George, who favours referendums based on the U.S. model. “No issue, no group could ever get that amount of signatures all sorted by electoral district.”…

1996-12-10-2 The Province, Vancouver, BC

by Michael Smyth

[Law "designed to fail"]

… Critics then and now have attacked the Recall and Initiative Act as unworkable, phony legislation.

And now we have proof… The group had an emotional issue, apparently broad public support, hundreds of volunteers and one of the environmental movement’s best-organized, well-financed public relations machine at its disposal.

Despite these resources, the group’s BC-wide petition drive fell far short…

1996-12-10-2 Times Colonist, Victoria, BC

by Malcolm Curtis

[Bear protest claims victory in defeat]

They gained about half the names they needed, but says they raised the profile of their fight…

1996-12-17 Positive Action News, Victoria, BC by Nicholas Ford

[The fight to help bears through the tool of law]

… Anthony Marr is October’s hero… He has bravely faced up to repeated intimidation from hunters and debates them on lecture tours. He is a man with a vision… (His) activism in BC on bears is based on excellent foresight…

1996-12-18-3 News Leader, Burnaby, BC

by Rob Gerein

[Bear hunters come under fire]

… The majority of the population doesn’t like guns, doesn’t like trophy hunting and, increasingly, they don’t like hunters…

1996-12 Sing Tao Daily News (Chinese), global

[Three Chinese-Canadian eco-warriors]

… Anthony Marr’s prime motive is to ensure a healthy and beautiful world for our children… He plans to go straight into the tigers’ homelands - India, China… to save them where they live…

1996-12-28 The Vancouver Sun, West Coast People

[1996’s Top 10 - The leaders who made a difference]

… Anthony Marr…has been in a showdown with bear hunters, who aren’t taking kindly to his quest…

1996 The Western Canada Wilderness Committee

Bear Referendum Road Tour '96

Hunters pose with trophy black bears. Photo: Animal Alliance of Canada files.

"Anthony Marr is on almost every hunter's hit list for trying to get trophy hunting of Black and Grizzly bears banned in B.C..." Vancouver Sun, August 2, 1996, page B4.

"They are organized and hostile (the hunting lobby), and when they show up, it's ten to one - hunters to environmentalists..." Georgia Straight, August 1-8, 1996, page 7.

"It was barely civil and sometimes downright ugly... Anthony Marr was interrupted, shouted down and generally abused by hunters in an audience of more than 100 that spilled out of a conference room..." Prince George Citizen, July 5, 1996, page A1.

"With calm and respect, Anthony Marr faced rapid fire questioning from hunters..." Kamloops Daily News, July 9, 1996, page A3.

These are just a few of the many highlights in the more than 100 newspaper articles generated during the eight-week-long province-wide road tour by Anthony Marr this summer. The purpose: to educate people about endangered animals especially the BET'R species (Bear, Elephant, Tiger and Rhinos) as well as explain the Initiative to prohibit the sport and trophy hunting of bears in British Columbia to prevent B.C. bears from becoming endangered and imperiled with extinction.

Despite the many stormy meetings, Marr returned to Vancouver in good spirits. One big reason was the great care and support provided by environmentalists along his 12,000 kilometers journey. Marr never had to camp out alone or stay at motels even once. Many of those who billeted him and attended his presentations generously donated funds, food and even long-distance phone calls to the project, as well as took him on hiking, kayaking, 4-wheeling, bear watching and even horseback riding expeditions.

Marr wholeheartedly thanks everyone involved for making this tour a fruitful and enjoyable one and invites everyone he contacted and their friends to actively participate in Initiative I96001 to bring about an end to the sport and trophy hunting of bears in B.C. and greatly increase the penalties for poaching and trafficking.

He also thanks Bonita Charette and Lisa Moffatt, bear referendum campaigners, and the staff at WCWC for their very capable assistance in making this road tour a success. By the end of the campaign, some 1,800 volunteer canvassers had applied to collect signatures on the Bear Protection petition.

1997-01 Wildlife News and Views

by Andrea Stevens, North West Wildlife Preservation Society

[Seeking an end to Bear hunting in BC]

… Motivation for attempting the huge petition came from a 1995 Angus Reid poll which showed that 78% of those polled support banning trophy hunting of black bears in BC…

1997-01-11-6 The Review, Richmond, BC

by David DaSilva

[Hunting presentation called off in latest enviro-hunting clash]

… Students in an environmental club at Palmer Secondary School arranged to have Anthony Marr… speak… But when Doug Walker of the BC Wildlife Federation heard about it, and (told the school to either cancel out on Marr or give them equal time), the event was (suspended)…

1997-01-17 Daily News, Nanaimo, BC

by Anthony Marr

[Vanderhorst misled with numbers]

… WCWC’s stand on the anti-hunting campaign is to start and end with the bear, but for once, Vanderhorst is right about me. I am against recreational and trophy hunting… of any species… Ultimately, everything has to do with one species - our own, regarding how civilized we truly are.

1997-03 New Internationalist magazine

by Ross Crockford

[Bad Medicine –

Ross Crockford tells the story of a man who has stepped on toes from Campbell River to Hong Kong to stop a pernicious trade…]

Anthony Marr knows what it feels like to be endangered. Last summer the Vancouver environmentalist was touring small towns in British Columbia... Often the reception he got was downright hostile. Many people in the countryside claimed he was trying to destroy their livelihood and their heritage...

Now, Marr is taking his campaign around the world... He knows there will be some risk; organized crime is directly involved in the endangered species trade... But after tangling with British Columbia's hunters, he should be ready.

1997-spring/summer WSPA News

[BC Petition to ban bear hunt fails]

… Anthony Marr has said that the failure to collect enough signatures should not be seen as a reflection on how well they ran their campaign. Nor should it be seen as a reflection of public sentiment about bear hunting…

1997-05 Common Ground Magazine

Making BC's Referendum Act Workable

by Anthony Marr

BC's Recall and Initiative Act for citizen initiated referendums does not work.

Anthony Marr found that out the hard way, working for six months on a Bear Referendum that failed. Compared to California and Washington state, our act is designed to fail and does not serve the public. Here is a proposal to make the act workable.

In June 1989, thousands of Chinese students died in Tienanmen Square for democracy, some shot, others crushed in their tents by tanks. Had my family never escaped from China, I would likely have been in their midst. Living instead in Canada, I do not take my freedom for granted. I safeguard it with my life, and make sure I use it to its fullest extent towards making the maximum difference for as long as possible.

This is why, seeing that BC is the only Canadian province with the provision for citizens to launch referendums through the Recall and Initiative Act, I expended six full months of my life on Western Canada Wilderness Committee's (WCWC) Bear Referendum campaign last year. This is why, after the exercise in futility, I have come to abhor the true lack of full and real democracy in BC, and therefore in Canada.

What we have here is at best semi-democracy, if not downright pseudo-democracy. We have the right to vote for politicians who are usually little more than the least of several evils, who then behave more like dictators than democrats. Most of all, the Recall and Initiative Act is all semblance but no substance.

On July 13, 1996, the Editor-in-Chief of the Kamloops Daily News, Mel Rothenburger, wrote: "Nobody ever promised democracy would be easy. Anthony Marr, who grew up in Hong Kong, is learning all about that in Canada. Marr was in town this week as part of a tour of BC cities setting the stage for what he hopes will be a provincial referendum on bear hunting. Aside from the cogency of his argument, what struck me most about his objective is the near-impossibility of success . . ."

Having traveled 20,000 km from city to city debating trophy hunters by the hundreds face to face and on various media, generating some 200 newspaper articles around the province, working hard with some 2,000 volunteers in the Initiative Petition phase of the Referendum campaign in sleet and snow, and still ending up short of the impossible goal set by BC's Attorney General Ujjal Dosanjh, I declare the process unworkable-by-design, and the government's purported wish to share legislative power with the people totally insincere.

How our Act compares to those of California and Washington State
The fact that no other Canadian province has even BC's pretence of a citizen-launchable initiative makes Canada a less-than-first-class democracy. First, let me recap the current rules and regulations in Election BC's Recall and Initiative Act, and compare and contrast it against other proven, workable systems around the democratic world whenever possible:

To force a province-wide referendum, the Proponent must first collect signatures from at least 10% of the registered voters in each and every one of the 75 electoral districts in the province, which should total about 220,000 province-wide. If only one electoral district falls short by even 1%, all is for nought. In contrast, California and Washington state, for example, require only 5% of the number of voters who actually voted in the previous election, which given a 60% turnout is equivalent only to 3% of the registered voters, and at that from anywhere in the state.

The BC signatures must be collected by government approved and registered “volunteer canvassers”, who must themselves be registered voters. To register a canvasser according to Elections BC protocol requires five stages of mailing, spanning about three weeks. California and Washington state, on the other hand, have no such requirement; petition forms can be displayed, distributed and circulated by anyone.

75 different sets of petition forms are issued by Elections BC, one for each electoral district. This means that canvassers have to carry around multi-sets of forms, in case some of the people they approach in a certain electoral district, or who approach them, have come from another district. This also means that many people from other districts would have to be turned away if the canvasser happens not to have the right petition form.

In Vancouver and Victoria in particular, canvassers have to carry all 75 sets of forms, which makes the exercise extremely tedious, awkward, expensive and time consuming. California and Washington state, on the other hand, issue only one set of petition forms, applicable to every corner of the state.

BC's Proponent has only 90 days to collect the signatures of 10% of all registered voters, whereas California's and Washington's proponents have 150 days to collect the signatures of 5% of those who voted in the last election.

In BC, there can be only one Proponent, and at that it must be an individual instead of an organization, whereas there can be any number of Opponents, who can be organizations as well as individuals. In the Bear Referendum's case, there were 107 registered Opponents, comprising 38 individuals and 69 organizations headed by the 35,000-members-strong BC Wildlife Federation (a misleading title which should be more truthfully renamed BC Hunting Association).

This obviously is biased in favour of the Opponents in terms of fund raising and networking potential.

The disparity is made even more pronounced by that whereas the Proponent needs to work on all 75 electoral districts to ensure that they all succeed, the Opponents need concentrate on only two or three to ensure that at least one fails (see point #1).

While debating hunters, one of their arguments is:

"Who are you, from Vancouver, to tell us up here what to do?"

First, if the referendum succeeds, it would be the entire BC electorate's decision, not just the people of Vancouver. I can understand that some measure of regional representation is fair, but if hypothetically 74 districts get enough signatures, who is the one dissenting district to derail all the rest?

It would be fair, in my opinion, that the electoral districts also follow the democratic principle of a simple majority, namely that 38 out of the 75 should suffice.

In BC, unlike in California and Washington state, the success of the Initiative Petition does not automatically guarantee a referendum vote. In fact, the legislature still has the power to trash the petition as it sees fit.

When it comes to the referendum vote, California and Washington state requires the usual simple majority of those who turn out to vote, whereas in BC, a majority of the registered voters is required. In other words, if 50% of the registered voters turned out to vote, and 100% of them voted for the proposal, the Referendum would not pass. It would fail by one vote.

Even if the referendum vote is won, it still goes back to debate in legislature which still has the power to trash the vote, whereas in California and Washington state, legislative change is automatic.

Although there is a provision to prohibit direct interference by the Opponents in the Initiative Petition process, such as intimidating those who came to sign, which some Opponents did violate, there is no provision to prohibit indirect interference, such as the Opponents threatening to picket and boycott those malls that allow the Proponent to set up booths, which the Opponents took full advantage of.

Since the Recall and Initiative Act originated as a provision for citizens to recall politicians in whom they have lost confidence, the government sees itself being naturally in the Opponent camp, which in part explains the above anti-Proponent bias.

When Mr. Dosanjh was challenged by provincial Liberal leader Gordon Campbell on the unworkability of the rules, he cited the $18 million cost for a referendum vote as justification for the difficulties imposed to rule out wanton launches of referendums on “trivial issues”, which the bear-hunting issue certainly was not.

Indeed, as a lone-standing event, an Initiative Vote would be exceedingly expensive -cranking up the entire voting machinery throughout the province in terms of voter registration, setting up and manning polling stations, publicizing the event, counting of votes, etc.,

etc.

But this is circular argument in his own favour. It was Mr. Dosanjh himself who caused the process to be expensive by making the Initiative Vote a lone-standing event in the first place. In contrast, referendums in California and Washington state are appended to political elections at minimal cost, and there is no disadvantage to it.

Coinciding with BC's bear referendum, there was a bear referendum in Washington state in their last political election on banning the use of bait and dogs in bear hunting, and their referendum was won.

I congratulate them, especially considering that they would have lost had Washington state's rules been the same as BC's.

Conversely, had BC's rules been the same as Washington state's, we would have succeeded

If the comparison is still found unconvincing, I can cite the case of Switzerland, where for the last 130 years, the signatures of only 1% of the registered voters are required to force a referendum vote to challenge any existing policy or law, and only 2% for the proposal of new laws.

Citizen-generated referendums are tools for truly democratic governments to place the power with the people. It is the way public servants live up to their true calling in a truly democratic society, however much remuneration and prestige they deem fit to reward themselves. If this province's Attorney General is truly sincere in elected government sharing legislative power with the people, he will change the referendum rules to be more democratic.

We need to change the Act. To this effect, WCWC has prepared a petition to the BC government outlining 12 realistic points to make BC's referendum act workable. We encourage you to obtain a copy, sign it, gather more signatures, and take part in the democratic process of changing our referendum act.

Petition to Change the BC Referendum Act

We, the people of British Columbia, wish to amend the current Recall and Initiative Act as follows:

The Initiative Petition to call a referendum shall require signatures from at least 3% of the registered voters province wide.

The provincial total shall include signatures from at least 3% of the registered voters in at least 38 of BC's 75 electoral districts.

The time frame provided for the gathering of these signatures shall be 150 days, which will begin on a date jointly decided upon by the Proponent(s) and Elections BC.

There can be any number of Proponents and Opponents.

Both Proponents and Opponents can be individuals as well as organizations.

There shall be only one set of Initiative Petition forms instead of the current 75 different sets.

Signatures can be collected by anyone regardless of his/her being a registered voter.

Opponents shall not use intimidation tactics to directly or indirectly interfere with the signature collection process.

A successful Initiative Petition shall automatically bring about an Initiative Vote.

The Initiative Vote shall be appended to the first provincial election after the conclusion of the Initiative Petition.

The Initiative Vote shall be won by the Proponent(s) with a simple 50%-plus-one-vote majority of popular votes province-wide, and simple 50%-plus-one-vote majorities of the popular votes in at least 38 of the 75 electoral districts.

The proposed amendment or removal of an existing law or policy, and/or introduction of a new law or policy as stated in the Initiative Petition, shall automatically take effect in legislature upon the winning of the Initiative Vote by the Proponent(s).

1997-05-15

Korea Leads Illegal Trade in Bear Parts

LONDON -- (ENS) -

In a report released this week, an international coalition of wildlife organizations, including the London-based World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), expose South Korea92s leading role in the illegal trade in bear parts. The report , “Killed for Korea” concludes that “South Korea and Korean people abroad represent the bear92s worst enemy after habitat loss.”

Undercover film recently taken by animal campaigners shows Korean-sponsored bear poaching and gallbladder smuggling on an international scale as well as the killing of endangered bears for South Korean restaurant-goers.

The bears are desired for bear paw soup, a highly prized delicacy in South Korea. Diners will pay in excess of US$1,000 for a bowl of bear paw soup.

WSPA, together with the Korean Federation for the Environment Movement (KFEM), Humane Society of the US/Humane Society International (HSUS/HSI) and the Global Survival Network (GSN), is lobbying the US government to sanction South Korea over the illegal trade in bear parts. The organizations, with a total membership of over four million people worldwide, are considering an international boycott campaign of Korean goods, if their current approaches to Korean authorities are unsuccessful.

Anthony Dickson, WSPA chief executive, said, “Consumption of bear parts is a national disgrace for South Korea. We are trying to persuade the Korean authorities to stop this illegal trade which is pushing Asian bears towards extinction.”

WSPA92s campaign is being backed by the Korean Federation for the Environment Movement (KFEM). Kwon Heanyol, spokesperson for KFEM said, “This outdated practice is a slur on our national reputation. It makes us look cruel and barbaric. Herbal, synthetic and Western alternatives exist for bear gallbladder. Why can92t all Koreans use these instead of continuing to torture and slaughter bears?”

Anthony Marr, organizer of Bears, Elephants, Tigers, Rhinos (BETR), a conservation group based in Vancouver, British Columbia, confirms that South Korea is the world's leading consumer of bear parts. Marr says, “South Koreans sometimes import black bears on the pretext of using them for zoo exhibits, then they have them killed in front of restaurant customers to prove authenticity and freshness.”

Marr says he has read reports of caged bears lowered live onto hot coals to have their paws cooked. This procedure is supposed to guarantee freshness, authenticity and entertainment for the customer.

Marr has a video showing a 1989 restaurant menu from the posh Hilton hotel in Seoul offering “bear palm soup. Price - current.”

Bear paws are considered a delicacy, not a medicinal, but bear gall bladders are prized for their medicinal effect.

The powdered bile taken from the bear galls has a whole range of uses, primarily for digestive healing and intestinal illnesses including parasites and bacterial infections. The powdered bile is used as an anti-spasmodic, a pain-killer, tranquillizer, an anti-allergenic, and a cough remedy. It is also considered to be a general purpose body tuning tonic. Bear bile is even said to restore a liver damaged by overdrinking.

Unlike tiger bones and rhino horns which have no real medicinal value, bear galls do contain ursodeoxycolic acid which does have a medicinal effect. This acid was patented as a synthetic in Japan in the 1930s. Today, 150 tons are used annually worldwide.

There are seven species of bears in the world, excluding the panda and koala, which are not considered to be true bears. Three bear species are endangered, particularly the Asiatic black bear, which used to be the main source of galls. The Asiatic black bear is now almost completely wiped out in China and Korea.

To meet the demand from Korea and other Asian countries, poachers have been taking bears from Russia and North America. Marr says poaching is “huge” in North America. Poachers have been caught in British Columbia recently, but provincial laws have no teeth, as the indigenous bears are not yet listed as endangered.

The penalty is very light when poachers are caught in B.C. Marr says, “Someone recently caught with 90 galls, which would easily sell for US$250,000 thousand in Korea, was fined $3,500 bucks, not even the price of one gall in Korea. For every batch of poached bear parts discovered by law enforcement officers, 49 get away. Customs officials estimate they can check only 2-3% of what goes out of Canada.”

Marr estimates that between 20,000 and 40,000 bears are poached in Canada yearly. Legal trophy hunting kills 22,000 more.

In London, the WSPA is offering broadcast quality undercover footage showing the killing of endangered bears for South Korean diners and the farming of bears in China, some of which are destined for the Korean market

(From the Environment News Service: http://www.envirolink.org/environews/ens/)

1997-05-18-3 The Free Press, Price George, BC

by David Plug

[Poaching for gall-bladders –

Asian demand pushes up numbers, says conservationists]

Animal advocates and wildlife officials agree that most poachers of bear parts are never caught, but differ wildly on the scale of the problem in the north,

To Anthony Marr… last week’s laying of 67 charges for unlawful possession of bear parts against a Prince George resident is just the tip of the iceberg…

1997-05-25-1 The Vancouver Sun

by Anthony Marr

[Unbearable bear facts]

Recent radio ads (by the BC Wildlife Federation) portray deliberate misrepresentations of truth…

“96% of BC’s residents rejected” last year’s Bear Referendum objective, citing that only 4% of BC’s residents signed the petition…

… the ad itself is a demonstration of the usual illogic and dishonesty of the trophy hunters, and shows that the BC Wildlife Federation is worried. If they really believe that 96% of BC’s residents support trophy hunting, what do they have to worry about?

1997-09 Video production

by Terry Brooks

[Unbearable] –

on Anthony Marr’s BET’R Campaign

Winner of: Global Vision Award / 1997 Cascadia Festival of Moving Images, Award of Excellence (3^rd) / 20th Annual International Wildlife Film Festival (2nd) / International Film & Video Festival, Silver Seal Award, Merit Award for Conservation Message.

1998-01-21-3 The Vancouver Sun

by Stephen Hume

[Bear hunting foe attacked in city]

BC environmentalist Anthony Marr is recovering after being beaten by a burly man who said, “Let this be a lesson to you.”

[Photo] Caption: Beaten but unbowed – Anthony Marr says he is undeterred in his campaign despite beating.

An environmentalist known for his opposition to bear hunting and the black market for animal parts was recovering Tuesday after being attacked in Vancouver’s West End.

Anthony Marr said he was waylaid about 7:30 p.m. Monday in the 1600 block of Haro Street as he made his way to his car after a dinner with his parents at their home.

Environmental groups have been complaining about a sharp increase in threats of physical violence directed at their members…

“I was parked in the lane”, Marr said. “There was this guy waiting for me by my car. He advanced a few steps and said, ‘Are you Anthony Marr?’ I said yes and he immediately attacked me.”

Marr… said his assailant was “over six feet and around 200 pounds” and rained blows upon his head and face, fracturing facial bones and damaging his eye socket.

“Then he said, ‘Let this be a lesson to you,’ and walked off,” Marr said.

The University of British Columbia Hospital confirmed that Marr was admitted and treated in the emergency ward shortly after 7:30 p.m.. Vancouver city police confirmed receiving his report of the attack about 8:40 p.m..

Marr recently led a controversial and widely publicized Western Canada Wilderness Committee campaign to have bear hunting banned in BC.

He has also been active in successfully pressuring government for controls in the black market on endangered species parts in the Asian community…

Marr’s silver 1993 Mazda sports car and its license plate became well known during the anti-hunting campaign, he says.

Marr drove 12,000 kilometers and visited almost every significant community in BC during the summer of 1996, holding public and private meetings that laid the groundwork for a province-wide initiative petition towards driving a referendum vote on banning bear hunting.

Campaigners obtained 93,000 signatures in a 90-day blitz that mobilized 1,800 volunteers, but fell well short of the 250,000 or 10 percent of the electorate - needed to force government action under recall and initiative legislation.

The petition campaign, however, gave Marr a high media profile.

He said he was constantly harassed by pro-hunting (forces). Pickup trucks tailgated his car and he received anonymous threats of violence by phone.

“My reaction is that it merely strengthens my resolve to continue with this campaign…”

Paul George, a director of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, described the attack on Marr as “deplorable” and said it was time for police and government to take seriously the “threats of violence and all the rhetoric that our people are subjected to.”

“I think this [violent rhetoric] unleashes hate against environmentalists just as much as it does against Jews or people of a different sexual persuasion or anything like that,” George said.

Newspaper photo

1998-01-21-3 Ming Pao Daily News (Chinese), global

[Marr Seeu-Sung assaulted]

… Around 7:30 yesterday evening, when Marr was returning to his car after a dinner with his parents, a man approached him and asked if he was Anthony Marr. When Marr said ‘Yes’, the man launched his fist attack…

“It was so fast and sudden I didn’t even have time to turn the other cheek,” Marr added with a wry grin…

1998-01-22-4 The WestEnder, Vancouver

[Protector of bears mauled by attacker]

… Anthony Marr received a flurry of blows to the face and head, resulting in a fractured cheekbone and damaged eye socket…

1998-01-26 Canadian Firearms Digest

From: H. Roy Stephens

Subject: Anthony Marr

As it was reported here, he suffered broken facial bones including damage to the orbit of one of his eyes. That is hardly a “bloody nose”. Furthermore, in light of the fact he WAS the target of verbal threats regarding bodily harm from some of the more brain dead and irresponsible alleged members of the hunting fraternity, it becomes quite obviously newsworthy.

Emotional issue + verbal threats + serious assault = the news. Simple.

Not so simple I'm afraid. His injuries when reported in medical terminology sound impressive indeed. However, they weren't. Moreover he makes it his business to command attention by whatever means to promote his cause. Further more, regardless of who made the threats, (assuming they were in fact made - I'm more of a skeptic each day) there is not a shred of evidence to connect anyone or any group with his misfortune. To convict the hunting fraternity in absentia & by implication is only newsworthy if you don't have a critical bone in your body, and I stand by my assessment of the CBC Afternoon Show interviewer in that regard.

Now that he has been beaten up - whether by a hunter or by somebody involved in the illicit animal parts trade - the yapping of the idiots will come back to haunt hunters. A very tiny minority threatened to physically harm him, and now he has indeed been seriously beaten. How does this make us look as hunters to the non-committed citizen out there - most of whom get their view of the world from the mainstream media?

Whoever is responsible did hunters a major disservice.

Just to put it in perspective he was not seriously beaten. As he stated he was punched in the face a couple times and was fine from the neck down. He walked away after the incident. I agree that the yapping will come back to haunt hunters. If you were in his shoes that is exactly what you would want! Again, we do not know if a hunter or poacher was involved. Don't fall into their trap. For all we know he has other enemies. He says he has none, but are you willing to take his word for it? This is a man who deliberately tells lies to further his agenda.

>> That the CBC unwittingly has been aiding Mr. Marr is very much to its discredit. Where is the balanced coverage?

I don't think covering a serious criminal assault after the man was publically threatened is exactly unbalanced coverage. He claims the assailant said it was for his stand on bear hunting - should CBC feel obligated to not report what a victim says his assailants said?

I listened to the CBC interview and Marr clearly stated that the only thing his assailant said was, “Are you Anthony Marr?” Serious criminal assault? I guess it's all relative. I don't see it that way.

It is necessary in my view to rigorously question everything people like Marr say and do. They are masters of manipulation, and worse, believe that it is morally acceptable to lie in order to gain their objective(s).

1998-01-29-4 [email protected]

From: Rick Lowe

Subject: Anthony Marr

Re.: “I have watched this thread develop and I am a cynic. I do not think it is beyond the realm of possibility that this was a staged beating to garner sympathy from the public.”

Well, perhaps the doubters are right and I am wrong. Perhaps Marr did arrange to have himself beaten to the point where he suffered facial fractures which had the potential to damage his eyesight, threaten his life, or even kill him.

Maybe there is something for us to learn here - we have much in common. Marr has been fighting a losing battle to have legislation allowing bear hunting thrown out. We have been fighting a losing battle to have legislation which bans and prohibits firearms thrown out. I guess the only question that remains is if we can meet the dedication that Marr has apparently demonstrated in arranging the beating he took.

So... we need a few volunteers willing to undergo a beating severe enough to inflict some skull fractures in hopes of getting a sound byte on the news some night. Hands up please, volunteers... line forms to the right.

Come, come, surely some of us can meet the same level of dedication as that shown by a contemptible, lying anti hunter like Marr. If he can “take the bullet” to the extent he did to further his cause, then it seems that hunters and shooters as dedicated as we are would be willing to just as eagerly step forward for a similar beating. The chances are reasonably good that these injuries will heal with no permanent effects - Marr apparently lucked out, and our volunteers probably will as well...

For myself, I reluctantly admit that I'll stick to letter writing, informing others, legally monkey-wrenching the system, and bugging my MP. I don't have the courage that Marr and our volunteers have, to willingly submit to those kind of injuries in hopes of getting a one day sound byte in the news.

Date: Sun, 1 Feb 1998 12:06:43 -0600 (CST)
From: Roger Walker
Subject: Re: Anthony Marr
Rick Lowe writes:
     >Well, perhaps the doubters are right and I am wrong. Perhaps Marr did arrange to have himself beaten to the point where he suffered facial fractures which had the potential to damage his eyesight, threaten his life, or even kill him.
     >Maybe there is something for us to learn here
[...]
     >I guess the only question that remains is if we can meet the dedication that Marr has apparently demonstrated in arranging the beating he took.
[...]
     >For myself, I reluctantly admit that I'll stick to letter writing, informing others, legally monkeywrenching the system, and bugging my MP. I don't have the courage that Marr and our volunteers have, to willingly submit to those kind of injuries in hopes of getting a one day soundbyte in the news.
     One major difference between "us" and "them" is that we are
coming from a position that is both morally and (through various items
such as common-law, bills of rights, constitutions, etc.) legally strong,
whereas our opponents do not. Generally, those with the moral/legal high ground do not stoop to deceit, whereas with our opponents, without a logical leg to stand on, can rely on nothing but.
     Unfortunately, there sometimes comes a time when we feel that we
MUST stoop to the same level as our opponent, as that is all they will
understand. If it were not so, there would be no reason to carry a
firearm for self defence. Again, the difference is that we are more
likely to keep things "civilized" for as long as possible.
     Roger Walker                       Voice/Fax (403) 440-2685
     Director & Senior Consultant,      Pager (403) 470-1808
     ROSCO Associates Technology
     Staffing Ltd. (RATS!)
                         BLACK RAT

1998-05-13-3 The Vancouver Courier

by Gudrun Will

[Beating no bar to bear pal - Marr back on the road in defence of grizzlies]

Animal conservationist Anthony Marr is anything but intimidated after getting a fist in the face in a West End alley, delivered with the not-so-cryptic message: “Let this be a lesson to you.”

The January attack by an unknown assailant broke his nose, cracked his cheekbone and damaged his right eye socket. Rather than shutting him up, it inspired him to undertake another road trip to stop the grizzly bear hunt in BC…]

1998-05-22-5 Capital News, Kelowna, BC

by John McDonald

[Grizzly hunting under fire]

Hunters and anti-hunting activists came face-to-face last night at a forum to discuss a campaign to ban the harvest of grizzly bears…

Veteran anti-bear hunt campaigner Anthony Marr was in Kelowna hosting a multi-media presentation…

1998-05-25-1 The Daily Courier, Kelowna, BC

by Chuck Poulsen

[Protecting the Grizzlies - Project aimed at ending hunt]

Environmentalist Anthony Marr… was in the Okanagan recently as part of a six-week campaign that will take him throughout BC handing out cards that he hopes hunting foes will mail to Premier Glen Clark…

“…Estimates of the number of Grizzlies in BC vary. Marr says independent biologists put the figure at 4,000-7,000, which on the high side was the government’s estimate in 1979.

“In 1980, the government was charged with over-hunting, (but instead of lowering the limit, the government) raised the population estimate to 10,000-13,000,” he said. “The government and the hunters have been playing up the population and playing down the amount of poaching (to justify continued over-hunting)…”…

1998-05-27-3 The Trail Times

by Lana Rodlie

[Anti-bear-hunting campaigner struggles on]

After failure to get enough signatures in 1996 to force a referendum on the hunting of bears in the province, and after having his face seriously rearranged by someone who doesn’t like his politics, Anthony Marr is back on the road, more determined than ever, to put an end to the trophy hunting of the grizzly bear in BC…

“The BC Wildlife Federation and the government have worked close together since the 1940s to... maintain hunting. It is hunting policy for hunters, by hunters,” Marr said…

1998-05-29-5 Capital News, Kelowna, BC

by Judie Steeves

[Grisly details reveal the awful truth about bear attacks]

… In October 1995, this community was shocked by the deaths of a well-liked Gorman Brothers’ Lumber employee and his buddy who were both killed by a grizzly bear near Radium Hot Spring while they were hunting.

Yet, Anthony Marr… was in town last week calling for a ban on grizzly bear hunting…

1998-05-30 The Daily Courier, Kelowna, BC

by C.W. Holford

[Hunt controls poaching]

To the editor:

It is apparent that Anthony Marr has embarked on another pilgrimage to ensure an ample supply of grizzly bear parts for his countrymen’s medicinal chest…

Though it does generate a great wealth for the few that Marr and his associates seem to be cohesive with, poaching bears generates little if any tax revenue…

1998-06-05-5 West Kootenay Weekender, Nelson, BC

by Darren Davidson

[Profile: Conservationist Anthony Marr bares his stripes]

Being beaten for what you believe in is nothing exceptionally shocking for animal conservationist Anthony Marr…

“I don’t see being beaten up as being a personal sacrifice. It’s a professional risk. It just comes with the job.”…

… In 1996, Marr and WCWC launched one of the most high profile animal conservation crusades Canada has ever seen…

DD: “Your story is certainly one of personal conviction.”

AM: “Well, I have a lot of respect for children. When young children, in elementary school, tell me they think killing animals for fun is wrong, I feel an obligation to champion their cause, because they cannot yet speak for themselves. That is a very powerful motivation for me… I also have my own personal feelings, of course… and I do love these animals that they kill.”

1998-06-14-7 Capital News Weekend Close-Up

by Judie Steeves

[Loaded for bear - Bear hunting under fire]

… Anthony Marr… says that bear-watching eco-tourism can create more jobs and revenue than bear hunting…

1998-06-19-5 Kamloops Daily News

[Group asks public to support ban on grizzly bear hunts in BC]

Environmentalists will try again to get a ban on grizzly bear hunting in BC, this time by going straight to the people.

Anthony Marr said that the latest campaign weapon is a “do it yourself postcard open poll”.

The WCWC will distribute thousands of postcards across BC and Canada, allowing people to say what they think about grizzly bear hunting. The cards allow both hunters and environmentalists to express their opinions.

The “3-part-post-cards” - picturing a live grizzly bear on one part, and a dead one with a grinning hunter on another - are addressed to Premier Glen Clark and the BC legislature…

1998-07 Shared Vision magazine, Vancouver, BC

by Anthony Marr

[Losing our grip on the Grizzly?]

By the time you read this, I’ll probably be debating with a group of a hundred hostile hunters in a lecture hall somewhere in the BC interior, or busy eluding some gun toting 4X4 tailgating my car on a deserted BC back road. Meanwhile, the Grizzly bear hunt continues, and it must be stopped, for the following ten reasons:…

1998-07-03-5 The Globe and Mail, national

[Man set on saving grizzlies]

Vancouver - Anthony Marr is renewing his effort to ban grizzly bear hunting in BC despite a gruesome beating by an alleged critic that left him with a broken nose and eye socket.

The campaigner… hit the road yesterday to visit 30 BC communities to fire up support for a bear-hunt ban that has been criticized by hunters…

1998-07-09-4 The Sun, Vernon, BC

[Activist wants bear hunting banned]

The Canadian grizzly bear population should be glad they have a person like Anthony Marr on their side…

During his 30 city tour… Marr is urging people to sign postcards with an unnerving photo of a dead grizzly bear on its cover…

Marr said over 25,000 of the cards have already been sent out and plans to circulate more than 200,000 by the time he is done his trip…

Canada is seen as a very forward thinking country internationally, but Marr said this country is lagging behind many Third World countries in terms of trophy hunting… The country really does not deserve its pro-environmental reputation, and it’s not a great country of spiritual development until we’ve got rid of trophy hunting.”

1998-07-14-2 Penticton Herald

by Donna Henningson

[Committee targeting grizzly hunt]

Ask Anthony Marr where the light at the end of the tunnel is in his fight to stop the grizzly bear hunt in BC.

“The end of the tunnel is when the grizzly hunt is banned,” said the wildlife campaigner…

1998-07-15-3 The Daily News, Kamloops, BC

by Robert Koopmans

[Bleak future seen for grizzly]

Poaching, habitat loss and trophy hunting will be the downfall of BC’s grizzly bears, environmentalist Anthony Marr told a small group of people Tuesday night…

He frequently compared the grizzly to tigers in India. In the space of a few decades, tiger populations have plummeted from more than 50,000 to virtual extinction. Marr said BC needs to look at the tigers and take steps to prevent a similar catastrophe with the grizzlies.

One man in the audience challenged Marr on his statements about hunters’ reasons for killing grizzlies. Marr asked the man why he would want to kill a grizzly anyway…

1998-07-16-4 The Shuswap Sun, Salmon Arm

by Daniel McHardie

[Activist continuing fight to save bears]

… Anthony Marr was in Salmon Arm to continue the fight against the killing… He said that of the eight species of bears in the world, five have been hunted to the brink of extinction, and the remaining three (the Grizzly bear, Polar bear and American Black bear) are largely in Canada… “… but the Grizzly will be next, unless we take steps to protect them now.”…

1998-07-17-5 Kamloops This Week

by Elizabeth Duurtsema

[Anthony Marr: Halt bear hunt]

Cutting both the supply and demand for endangered animal parts is key to saving bears, tigers, elephants and rhinos, says a Vancouver-based environmentalist.

Speaking in Kamloops on Tuesday night… Anthony Marr says he has addressed 32,000 students of all ethnic origins… “For me, it’s an emotional drive to protect the animals I love. I’ll keep doing this as long as one person sits and listens…”…

1998-07-17-5 Comox Valley Record

[Grizzly defender speaks]

Anthony Marr… is returning to the Comox Valley on Thursday July 23 at 7 p.m. at the Lower Native Sons Hall…

This man has endured the threats and harassment of hunters across BC, and survived a back alley attack in January of this year, all on account of his opposition to recreational hunting of bears…

1998-07-18-6 The Daily News, Kamloops, BC

by Mel Rothenburger

[Saving BC’s grizzly bears a daunting task]

Anthony Marr has one of the toughest challenges on earth. In a world that values the preservation of cultural traditions, he is trying to erase one of the most powerful. In the process, he hopes to save several major animal species from extinction.

An ambitious goal to say the least. Despite devoting himself to it full time for the past several years, he has obtained only limited success. But that hasn’t discouraged him.

Marr became a fairly well known media figure two years ago (and a despised one among recreational hunters) when he championed an attempt to ban all bear hunting in BC. He and WCWC failed… but he’s back at it with a brand new strategy…

I doubt that any policy will be changed this time either, but I admire Marr’s determination…

He has a plan to pose as a wealthy Chinese businessman and secretly video-tape the killing of a captive bear at a Korean “bear banquet”, “where they sometimes lower a bear in a cage on to a bed of hot coal until their paws are cooked, for maximum freshness and perhaps extreme entertainment,” said Marr.

It’s a long way from China or Taiwan or Korea to the backwoods of BC where trophy hunting takes place, but Marr is convinced that all of the atrocities against bears must be dealt with together…

That of course is where domestic opposition comes in…

A meeting here during the referendum campaign brought out some serious heckling. Almost disappointingly, there was little of that this time around. A debate with hunters is always fun, and often productive, and Marr enjoys it…

Anthony Marr has a huge job ahead of him, and I hope he will one day succeed.

It is strange to me that those who kill animals for entertainment control wildlife policy in this province, rather than those who want to keep them alive. If you doubt that, allow me to point out that the BC Wildlife Federation, which is an organization of hunters, proposed to Environment Minister Cathy McGregor earlier this year that non-hunters should have to buy a license to use the woods.

She said she will seriously look into it.

Realizing that hunters would probably lose a referendum on bear hunting, the Federation knows it must stop the environmentalists now. The hunters will concentrate their efforts in pro-hunting interior communities and leave the urban areas alone.

“The hunters' message is that poaching is not out of control, that bear populations can support hunting and that hunting is a valid way for wildlife officials to manage populations.

“Even if all the logic is on our side, it is hard to counter emotion,” Federation President John Holdstock) said.

Saying that hunters legally kill 4,000 Black bears and 350 Grizzlies a year in BC, Marr argues that the hunting ban will help protect BC bears from inevitable onslaught of poaching to meet the rising Asian herbal-medicine trade in gall bladders.

To that end, Marr is waging a simultaneous campaign to educate the Chinese community.

1998-07-19-7 Salmon Arm Shoppers’ Guide

by Ruth Keskinen

[Bear advocate physically assaulted]

… “Even though I’ve had martial arts training, the attack was so sudden and unexpected I didn’t stand a chance. I didn’t even have time to turn the other cheek if I wanted to,” said Marr…

Anthony Marr has made presentations to over 32,000 students throughout the province, and the vast majority of them have voted with raised hands that the killing of majestic wild animals for entertainment should be stopped…

1998-07-21-2 Comox Valley Echo

[Bear activist speaks here Thursday]

… Local organizer Ruth Masters finds any killing of bears “atrocious” and reminds that one bear is poached for every one legally killed. “And the bears don’t know if the guy pulling the trigger had a license or not. They are still dead.”…

1998-07-24-5 Campbell River Mirror

by Sharon Bennett

[Bear activist hits the road again]

… The attack only stoked Marr’s fiery passion to save the grizzly, and for the month of July he’s touring the province to warn the public of the grizzly’s imminent demise.

… He recounts the story of a South Korean man who was caught in possession of 88 bear gall bladders and four times as many paws - a street value of about $500,000 US… He was fined CDN$3,500, roughly the same worth as one gall bladder.

Marr says he questioned the judge about why the fine was so low, and admitted the judge’s argument makes sense… The trophy hunt is driven by European cultural tradition, the judge said, and the medicinal hunt is driven by Asian cultural tradition. Therefore, Marr says, the judge decided it would be wrong to punish one culture’s tradition while the other culture’s tradition is still legal…

1998-07-24-5 The News Weekender, Parksville/Qualicum

by Jeff Vircoe

[Bearing the controversial issue to QB]

He’s been beaten up for his opinions. He’s been called a turncoat by his own people. And he may be the Grizzly bear’s best friend… A one-man wrecking crew for those who believe hunting Grizzlies is okay, Marr’s controversial stance… has irritated countless hunting enthusiasts…

When hunters say that (bears will turn aggressive if not hunted), Marr says studies in Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks show that bears do not get more aggressive merely because they are protected…

1998-07-28-2 The Daily News, Nanaimo, BC

by Barry Peterson

[Sport Hunting appeals only to coarse bullies]

Being unable to attend today’s presentation (by Anthony Marr) at Beban Park… I wish nonetheless to lend my wholehearted support to the cause…

… that our government actually encourages this pathetically juvenile act of outdated manhood… is a clue to a mentality so philosophically starved it is almost frightening to contemplate…

1998-07-29-3 Comox Valley Record

by Karen Kwan

[Speaker brings shocking story]

The images are disturbing.

On the parched ground, many elephants lie crumpled, their tusks removed, their trunks just bloody stumps where they have been sawed off.

A live tiger is strung upside down in a cage, hanging by his spread-eagled limbs, while people peered between the bars, gawking.

Deep in the woods, a bear cub, who had scrambled up a tree to get away from poachers, was shot four times with arrows…

These scenes weren’t made-in-Hollywood horror stories, but are all too real - some of it happening right here in BC, according to animal conservationist Anthony Marr… who was in Courtenay Thursday evening…

1998-07-29-3 The Westerly News, Ucluelet / Tofino

[Grizzly campaigner to speak]

… Marr speaks at 7.00 p.m. during a slideshow presentation and discussion at the Wickaninnish Elementary School on August 2.

1998-07-30-4 Campbell River Courier-Islander

by Denise Hayes

[WC polls public on Grizzly bear hunting]

… Anthony Marr… believes poaching and legal hunting are both reprehensible because both create the same result - a dead bear…

1998-07-30-4 Nanaimo Daily News

[Bear essentials aired at debate]

When environmentalist Anthony Marr brought his campaign to ban grizzly bear hunting to Nanaimo, his audience listened. Not everyone in the Beban Park meeting room Tuesday night agreed with him, but they all paid attention.

Bob Morris, past-president of the BC Wildlife Federation, and Bill Derby, vice-president of the Nanaimo Fish and Game Protection Association, were two of a party of hunters who came to hear what Marr had to say about bear hunting. And to challenge his conclusions.

Morris didn’t trust Marr’s motives, or those of WCWC.

“Basically their goal is to try and ban hunting altogether, using the grizzly bear as an icon.” Marr replied that that would be a glorious quest, but one too distant for his remaining life span.

Derby said the grizzly bear hunt is “very tightly controlled”, taking fewer bears than die as road kill. Morris said there was no need to ban the hunt, as the grizzly population is rising. Marr replied that grizzly bear hunt victims number about 300, higher than the road kill number, and that even according to the BC government, the grizzly bear population is decreasing in the long run.

Derby said banning hunting might lead to more bears getting killed, because as they got more accustomed to being around people, they would get bolder.

Marr answered that he’s heard all these arguments before. There was no evidence that stopping the hunt would make the bears more dangerous, such as in the Yellowstone and Glacier National Park, where grizzly hunting is not allowed…

Marr’s campaign has won him a variety of enemies…

1998-07-30-4 The Powell River Peak

by Isabelle Southcott

[Activist improves public awareness of grizzlies]

Canadian grizzly bear activist Anthony Marr was in Powell River last week…

Marr’s push to save grizzlies is fueled by his disdain for recreational- and trophy-hunting traditions…

Also, Marr said the maximum penalty of $25,000 (for grizzly poaching) is not enough and should be ten times higher, plus jail time, “Because they can make so much money, the current fine to them is just the cost of doing business.”…

1998-07-31-5 The News Weekender, Parksville / Qualicum

by Rebecca Stevenson

[The facts contested - Anthony Marr’s message alarms conservationists of all stripes]

Anthony Marr has a history of being targeted by hunters, and his presentation to about 30 area residents Monday was no exception.

Marr… was greeted by local hunting advocates with a reaction he calls “typical”…

As a Chinese Canadian, Marr feels he is in a good position to fight (the traditional Oriental use of bear and tiger parts) traditions because of his heritage. However, he has still encountered vicious racism from Caucasian opponents.

“Some say, ‘You should go back to Chinatown and clean up your own mess.’ Another guy wrote a letter-to-the-editor saying, ‘Anthony Marr is trying to ban the bear hunt so his countrymen have more bears to poach,’” said Marr.

The activist has also paid a price for his high-profile campaign. Irate opponents have threatened, insulted, targeted, even assaulted Marr.

That hasn’t deterred Marr from spreading his message…

A downside of hunting is that it is anti-evolutionary, said Marr, because trophy hunters go for the most magnificent specimens in prime breeding condition, leaving the lesser ones to reproduce. Enough of this happening, and the quality of the species declines, he said.

The hunters at Monday’s presentation argued that without their presence as a “conservation force”, more grizzlies would die at the hands of the poachers.

Marr asked, “If the hunters are such effective heroes, why don’t they go and hunt evil poachers instead of innocent bears?”

He said that relying on hunters to watch out for poachers is “like relying on wolves to safeguard sheep against coyotes, with apologies to wolves and coyotes.”…

1998-07-31-5 Times Colonist, Victoria, BC

by Cindy E. Harnett

[Crusade against grizzly hunt reaches Victoria]

Anthony Marr’s renewed campaign to ban grizzly bear hunting will take the high, rocky road to Victoria for a slideshow tonight at 7:30 p.m. in University of Victoria’s law building and a rally at the legislature on Saturday… This stop is one of the last in a month-long, province-wide tour…

Marr’s visits are known to spark fiery debates between hunters and non-hunters…

On a moral standpoint, Marr said this week, “… The moral reason alone… is big enough to ban hunting for entertainment and ego.”

But BC Wildlife Federation immediate past-president John Holdstock said morality has nothing to do with hunting…

1998-07-31-5 The Victoria News

by Stephanie Coombs

[Rally against bear hunt targets legislature]

… Anthony Marr, who will be speaking at the rally… says the government isn’t managing the province’s grizzly bear population appropriately, and that they are caving in (and have been doing so for the last half century) to trophy hunters’ demands. (“Some of them are trophy hunters themselves.”)…

The WCWC says independent biologists peg the provincial grizzly population at about 4,000-7,000, but the BC Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks says its studies place the population at 10,000-13,000.

“The grizzly population is decreasing over the long term - slowly over the last 200 years - but we can’t say by how much at present,” says Nancy Bircher, the director of the wildlife branch at the ministry…

Bircher says about 300 Grizzlies are legally killed each year by people with licenses, another 50 are termed “nuisance kills” - due to conflict with humans - and about 90 die as unreported kills or from poachers.

“The poaching figure is absolutely unfounded and hugely at odds with what international authorities report,” says Marr. “They estimate a continental average of one bear poached for every bear legally hunted. They also estimate that BC is among the most poached amongst all the North American states and provinces. According to this, the poached/hunted ratio should be more than one to one, not one to three.”

He says the province is intentionally skewing the facts to favour hunters.

“They project as high a population number and as low a poaching number as possible to give the general public the impression there are so many grizzlies that not only can they be hunted, but that they should be hunted, otherwise they’ll turn aggressive against humans,” he says. He adds that the no-hunting policy in US parks like Yellowstone and Glacier show that bears do not become aggressive to humans if not hunted…”

1998-07-31-5 Times Colonist, Victoria, BC

by Christopher Genovali

[Grizzly hunting on a par with ivory slaughter]

…WCWC will be holding a rally on Saturday at the legislature, starting at 1 p.m. to raise public awareness regarding the need to end the grizzly bear trophy hunt. Featured speakers will include wildlife campaigner Anthony Marr and WCWC founder Paul George…

…Virtually all grizzly bears could be exterminated in BC by trophy hunters and poachers, while the habitat measurements used by the province would continue to calculate a theoretical potential bear abundance and continue to establish a harvestable surplus…

1998-08 EcoNews

by Guy Dauncey

[Let’s get civilized – No more grizzly hunting!]

OK - so I'm not a hunter, and I've been a vegetarian for 30 years. I still think that it's unbelievably primitive, barbaric, cruel and stupid to hunt Grizzly Bears. Just because they're large, beautiful and non-human, do we have to shoot it ? Back in 1996, Anthony Marr undertook a 12,000 km road tour around BC with the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, gathering 90,000 signatures to trigger a referendum to ban bear-hunting. It wasn't enough, but now Anthony is on the road again in an attempt to get grizzly bear hunting banned, in spite of threats to his life. The grizzly population has declined by nearly half since European settlers arrived. With continuing habitat loss, hunting and poaching, the decline is continuing. Of 8 species of bear in the world today, 5 have been pushed to the brink of extinction. The 6th is the brown bear, of which the grizzly is a subspecies. Anthony is in Duncan on July 29th and in Victoria on Friday July 31st (see Diary), followed by a Rally at the Legislature. If you can help by phoning to tell supporters about the slide presentation and the rally, call Jessica at 388-9292.

1998-08-02-7 The Pictorial, Cowichan Valley, BC

by Peter Rusland

[Grizzly bear save talk draws criticism]

Environmentalist Anthony Marr knows he’s fighting a battle against time to save BC’s grizzly bears.

Statistics, education and media coverage are his weapons against trophy hunting of grizzly bears and illegal bear poaching.

Marr blasted those practices during Wednesday’s meeting in the Cowichan Community Centre where two dozen hunters and preservationists hotly debated the issue…

“All I’m pleading for is for 300 grizzlies to be spare per year. Is this all that much to ask?” said Marr….

1998-08-02-7 The Citizen, Cowichan Valley, BC

by Gerry Giroux

[Grizzly bear presentation draws heated debated from hunters]

Anthony Marr got more than he bargained for when he came to town (Duncan) Wednesday night…

Marr presented a video and slideshow on poaching of endangered animals around the world… filled with staggering facts and statistics about the decline of many of the species especially the tiger…

He tied the grizzly bear situation in with the plight of the tiger. Marr showed reports saying wild tigers will be extinct by 2005 due to poaching, habitat loss and other cause.

If a ban was put on hunting them when their numbers were roughly the same as those of the grizzly today, maybe the tiger would stand a better chance of survival…

The hunters in the audience didn’t like this one bit. Ray Demarchi voiced the loudest opposition. Demarchi is the retired chief of wildlife conservation for the BC government and one of the authors of the provincial grizzly bear conservation strategy that Marr was citing as allowing an excessive hunt of grizzlies…

1998-08-02-7 Times Colonist, Victoria, BC

by Cindy E. Harnett

[Grizzlies attract 150 supporters at rally]

… Main speakers included WCWC founder Paul George and wildlife campaigner Anthony Marr. Many in the audience had helped to gather signatures for WCWC’s 1996 campaign in which about 90,000 signatures were obtained to save BC’s bears.

At that time, Environment Minister Cathy McGregor did not act on any of the organization’s three requests: to stop bear hunting, to further protect bear habitat or to increase fines for poachers. The minister re-stated her commitment to hunters last week.

“Trophy hunting is a concern to some British Columbians, but there are real economic benefits to hunting around the province. In the interior, hunting is very much a way of life and the way in which some areas of our province gain economic opportunity,” she said…

Marr says there are (possibly as few as) 4,000 to 7,000 grizzlies left. He expects in 20-30 years, they will be extinct in almost all of BC if no action is taken.

1998-08-17-1 Times Colonist, Victoria, BC

by Anthony Marr

[Grizzly situation]

…Perhaps most fundamentally, I speak for more than 30,000 school children who have voted almost unanimously that of all the reasons for which bears are killed in BC, including for medicine and profit, that to kill them for entertainment and ego gratification is the most immoral of all…

1998-09-02-3 The Japan Times

by Françoise Giovannangeli

[An unbearable prospect - a Canadian icon faces new and growing threats]

… “Most countries have banned trophy hunting of grizzlies - all except Canada, Russia and the US state of Alaska,” said Anthony Marr. “That is why so many foreign hunters are coming to Canada - because they can’t do it in their own countries where the brown bear has become endangered or been wiped out. It’s the Canadian grizzly that is soaking up and absorbing the pressure of trophy hunting lust from around the world as well as the profit lust of poachers,” he said….

If the pace keeps up, Marr says, the future does not bode well for North American bears. “Asiatic bears were not endangered a couple of decades ago. Today, they have been hunted to the verge of extinction by the demands of Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. The Chinese economy is improving fast, and pretty soon, there will be a huge middle class. I believe that at that point, there will be a huge jump in demand for bear galls far in excess of the current already high level. It may have already started. And the target will be the North American bears this time around.”…

1998-09-18-5 The Globe and Mail, national

by Celia Sankar

[BC won’t end annual grizzly hunt; minister says no harm done to bear population]

The BC government is not about to stop the province’s annual grizzly-bear hunt, despite criticism from environmentalists and dissent from one of its own biologists…

A senior habitat biologist with the BC Ministry of Environment said hunting as administered by the province “has the potential to drive grizzly bear populations dangerously close to extinct. There is no ecological, biological or social justification for continuing to hunt grizzly bears,” Dionys de Leeuw wrote in a private paper widely distributed to wildlife officials within the ministry April.

Mr. De Leeuw argued that the system for issuing licenses for bear hunting “is based on unconfirmed population estimates for grizzly bears” that “substantially overestimate bear abundance.”

Mr. De Leeuw’s paper, copies of which were (confiscated) by ministry officials, was leaked yesterday by the WCWC.

“The Canadian authorities list the grizzly as a vulnerable species and we should not allow it to cross the line and become endangered. We think it is quite close right now,” Anthony Marr said.

Mr. De Leeuw described as “an injustice in the extreme” the situation where the interest of “an infinitesimally small” number of trophy hunters continue to be protected by the government while those who oppose the activity are ignored…

1998-10-02 Victoria News

by Bev Wake

[Grizzly population overestimated]

… In Victoria again last week, Marr looked intent, yet weary, as he held up the leaked document (by Dionys de Leeuw - see 1998-09-1805 Global and Mail article)…

The document backs Marr’s belief that the ministry has overestimated BC’s grizzly bear population…

“We must begin to protect our bears today,” Marr says. “Our objective is to prevent them from becoming endangered… It’s a vicious spiral… It is a double-edged sword for a species to be declared endangered, because it drives up the black market value, thus encouraging more poaching. We can see that cloud on the horizon,” he says…

Part of the problem, he says, is that BC’s hunting policy is set by three bodies - the provincial Environment Ministry, the BC Wildlife Federation and the BC Guide-Outfitters’ Association, all of which, Marr charges, has vested interests in hunting.

Again, de Leeuw’s report backs Marr up, saying “BC’s decision regarding grizzly bear allocation have almost exclusively accommodated the interests of trophy hunters, who make up less than one tenth of one percent of the people.”

1998-10-05 Monday magazine

by Ross Crockford

[Splendor Sine Occasu]

…Saturday morning, I went down to the legislature grounds to hear a speech by Anthony Marr…

I asked Marr whether it wouldn’t be better to allow limited trophy hunting, as they’ve done with elephants in South Africa, and put thousands of dollars in taxes on the licenses and then plow them into regional projects… Marr replied that grizzly viewing was a better option. He knows of a lodge in Knight Inlet that takes foreign tourists to watch bears feeding on salmon, and charges them $700 a day, and employs 22 people. The only problem is that hunters gun down the bears the moment they step out of the tiny protected area around the salmon stream, and the tourists get very upset. The old economy and the new one aren’t mixing very well…

1998-11-07 Toronto Sun

by Michael Clement

[Animal Parts illegally sold here: activist]

A west-coast wildlife activist alleges he purchased three bottles containing parts of endangered species, being sold illegally in a store in Toronto’s Chinatown yesterday…

Marr asked reporters to accompany him to the Po Chi Tong Chinese pharmacy on Dundas St. W. yesterday where he purchased the three bottles. The bottles of pills purportedly contained bear gall bladder secretion, possibly from the endangered Asiatic Black bear, secretions from the musk gland of the endangered Musk Deer, and tiger bone, possibly from the endangered Bengal or Siberian Tiger, Marr said.

“Internationally, endangered species are totally forbidden to be traded, alive or dead, in whole or part,” he said, adding that in June 1996 Ottawa enacted laws “forbidding the sale of anything containing endangered species parts.”

“The point of this exercise is to prove that the law is not being effectively enforced.”…

Anti-bear-hunt demo in New Jersey, 2003

Wilderness Committee Educational Report

Vol.15 - No.13, Fall 1996

The following debate between Anthony marr, WCWC's BET'R Campaigner, and a typical B.C. bear hunter is a composite drawn from actual meetings and radio talks shows in communities across B.C. during Marr's road tour.

TBH - Typical Bear Hunter AM - Anthony Marr, WCWC's BET'R campaigner

TBH: "Your campaign is based only on emotion. There is no biological basis or reasons behind your demand that bear hunting ends"
AM: "Although we believe that the killing of bears for pleasure (recreational hunting) and for vanity (trophy hunting) is morally indefensible, we also have biological reasons for wanting to end the sport hunting of bears in B.C. Grizzly bear populations are declining and the species is now listed as "threatened." Although black bears are not yet considered 'at risk', population estimates are extremely variable and poaching is increasing. Four out of seven of Earth's bear species are already endangered. We must start to protect our bears before they, too, are in such dire straight as, say, the Asiatic Black bear."

TBH: "You are challenging our right to hunt. This is wrong in principle."
AM: "I am concerned about the bears' right to survival. I am focusing on all threats, including habitat loss. I am also challenging the long-standing Oriental tradition and 'right' to use animal parts for medicine, an effort that hunters support."

TBH: "You are lumping us law-abiding hunters in with lawless poachers."
AM: "Do you indulge in bait hunting? (Editors note: putting out food so that those animals attracted to it can be shot at point blank range.)"

TBH: "Of course not. It is illegal, and not right."
AM: "Baiting is legal in Washington state. Does that make it right there? The issue is not one of simply law, which changes with the thinking of society, but what is right given the current precarious state of wildlife on this planet."

TBH: "Hunters are the only true and effective conservationists."
AM: "According to whom?"

TBH: "Former U.S President Teddy Roosevelt, for one."
AM: "Theodore Roosevelt predated the environmental movement by nearly half a century and lived at a time when wilderness dominated the planet. People now dominate the planet and many species have been driven to extinction. Today, conservationists fight to protect wildlife for its own sake, not for theirs."

TBH: "Hunters go after older, breeding-age animals. It's a good way to control population." (Terrance Standard - July 10)
AM: "Unlike other predators, who go after the weakest prey, thus genetically strengthening the prey species, hunters go after the most magnificent specimens, thus weakening the species."

TBH: "If you get rid of hunting, there'll be a bear population explosion."
AM: "Natural biological controls, such as food shortages, lower birth rate and intraspecies competition and predation will keep the population level steady."

TBH: "Why target legal hunters when poachers are the culprit?"
AM: "As far as the bears are concerned, hunters and poachers are all bear-killers. We target both hunters and poachers as well as traffickers and habitat destroyers to ensure that bears will survive over the long term."

TBH: "You should go after the Asians and their use of bear parts, not us hunters."
AM: "Check out the media coverage of our BET'R Campaign over the last year. We have confronted the Asian community's use of bear parts long before the inception of the Ban Bear Hunting Referendum Initiative, and will continue to do so after the Referendum Initiative ends."

TBH: "Hunting is not killing; it goes way beyond that. It's a form of communing with nature. I can't expect you to understand."
AM: "Hunting is not killing? Some humans may buy that argument, but not the bears. It's not necessary to kill in order to appreciate and enjoy nature."

TBH: "Hunters are the anti-poaching field force. We are the eyes and ears for the conservation officers."
AM: "Relying on hunters to watch out for poachers is like letting coyotes safeguard sheep from wolves. We need to add more conservation officers, but there are also other hunters, hunting deer and moose for example, who can keep a watch. Further, without bear hunters, poachers will be much easier to spot, since anyone seen killing a bear or possessing bear parts would be a poacher."

TBH: "Bear hunting is the only hunting with a spring season. Without us bear hunters, there'll be no one out there watching out for poachers during this season when the bears are coming out of hibernation and are so vulnerable."
AM: "Yes, there will be-hikers, campers, mushroom pickers. They now easily outnumber bear hunters a thousand to one. Also the spring bear hunt is so ecologically unsound that 42 of 48 lower U.S.A. states have banned it."

TBH: "WCWC pulls numbers out of a hat. (Morning Sun - July 31) They're playing with figures fast and loose." (Times-Colonist - June 20)
AM: "All WCWC figures are quoted from published writings of internationally recognized bear research authorities, with references given, whereas hunters tend to quote the highest populations estimates available, and the lowest poaching estimates made by some B.C. government employees."

TBH: "Banning bear hunting is WCWC's first step to banning all hunting."
AM: "We have made may public statements to the contrary. In WCWC's 16 years of conservation work, it has always supported subsistence and food hunting as well as aboriginal hunting and trapping rights."

TBH: "Many interior and northern towns economically depend on hunting."
AM: "Bear hunting is only a small percentage of the total hunting activity. Additionally, there is a far greater potential for generating local jobs and revenues through eco-tourism than through the sport hunting of bears."

* * *

1999-01-28

UWO Gazette - Vol 92, Issue 68.htm

Stealing Beauty

Gazette File Photo

THE RESULTING CARNAGE OF THE ILLEGAL TRADE OF ANIMAL PARTS. This mountain gorilla killed by poachers was one of many killed for tourist trade of gorilla heads and hands.

By Ciara Rickard
Gazette Staff

Though its necessity has long since waned in most areas of the Western world, hunting has remained a favoured sport practiced by many in modern society. While there are laws monitoring this activity, there is still a great deal of illegal hunting which goes on in Canada and around the world in order to feed a market which craves various animal parts.

Some statistics show poaching has had a devastating impact on animal populations. While some uses of it are medicinal, some are served as delicacies and some of the uses are seen as entirely frivolous.

"Any poaching is not legitimate," says Anthony Marr, biodiversity campaign director for the Western Canada Wilderness Committee. "It's big business, just second to the drug trade and often connected to the same people. Wherever there is a demand, there will be a supply."

Marr has spent a great deal of time and effort trying to educate people and the government about the ill consequences of poaching and the importance of maintaining animal populations. At greatest risk in Canada, he says, are the black and grizzly bears, which are hunted primarily for their gall bladders and their paws.

"We estimate that about 22,000 to 29,000 black bears are killed per year," Marr says. "That's out of a population of about 400,000, so that's about 12 per cent. That is not sustainable. They can't reproduce quickly enough to maintain the population."

Liz White, a director for the Animal Alliance, points out how these numbers may not be accurate. Because poaching is an illegal activity, no one knows about it and therefore no one can know the actual number of bears dying each year.

"The paws are a delicacy in Asian cultures," Marr says. The gall bladders, also for the Asian market, contain cholic acid derivatives, which are considered very valuable and effective medicine by Asians. Though there is a synthetic process to create the same chemicals, most Asians will still opt for the medicine from the bear.

"Tradition has a powerful sway over people's actions," Marr says. "Traditional medicine has a mixture of medicine and mystique."

The market for most animal parts is centred in Asia where tradition dictates what is the best cure for a variety of ailments. The reason there is so much poaching in Canada is because Asian bear populations have already been depleted from hunting, so they've had to go elsewhere, Marr says. He is also quick to point out that not all Asians use medicine or food containing bear parts.

"It's a different cultural attitude in Canada than in Asia toward the use of animals," White says. "Asians are horrified by the fact that we hunt bears to wear their skins – they'd never do that. But they see nothing wrong with killing the animal, eating it and using its parts for various reasons."

Bears aren't the only animals at risk. Seals in Canada are hunted for their penises as they are considered to have aphrodisiac powers, White says. Tigers are also hunted for this purpose.

"There's a growing push for aphrodisiacs from tusks, bones and seal penis," White says. "Some people have joked that Viagra will be the salvation of the animals."

However, not everyone considers this aspect of the illegal trade of animal parts to be particularly serious.

"The people who use it [aphrodisiacs made from animal parts] are mostly fringe groups, so animal groups don't consider it a threat," says Julie Thomson-Delaney, project leader for the wildlife trade program, at the World Wildlife Fund.

"I can't even say whether it actually works," she adds.

According to Thomson-Delaney, the real threat is the demand for animal parts for medicinal purposes, for which not only bears are a target, but also tigers and seahorses.

"As far as western science is concerned, they are legit medicines and do work," Thomson-Delaney says. "The problem is with populations – there's just too many people putting pressure on animal populations."

It has been widely publicized that elephants, rhinoceroses, gorillas, deer and musk deer are just a few examples of animals who have been and are still being illegally hunted for various reasons. Rhino horns are used to carve daggers in Yemen and are also used in East Asian medicines. Elephants are still being poached for their ivory tusks, used in jewelry and other decorative pieces.

"Sometimes it's for something really asinine, like gorilla paws for ashtrays," Marr says.

Such novelty items, as well as gorilla heads, were sold to tourists in great quantities during the 1970s and helped deplete the mountain gorilla population, says Jennifer Toth, executive assistant at the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund.

"It was really bad back then because people were killing them left, right and centre," she says.

The mountain gorilla population now sits at 650, though most of the poaching has ceased as a result of the establishment of stricter laws, in which primatologist Fossey played a key role. Fossey's murder at the hands of poachers is testimony to the seriousness of the issue.

Marr has also faced much opposition in his quest to end poaching and hunting for sport. He has gone on tours around the province of British Columbia giving talks on the ills of poaching. Still, hunters and poachers were always following him wherever he went.

"Whenever they knew I was coming to a place they would show up in force – maybe 100 people," Marr says. He claims there were usually about 20 supporters at the talks. "They try to be very intimidating, very rough and abusive. Sometimes I can't finish my presentation. I always try to have media present.

"Quite often at the end as I was leaving, they'd be standing in the form of a wall between me and my car, so I'd have to walk right through them," Marr recalls. "I've even been chased on the highway."

There was one incident in January 1998 where Marr was attacked by a hunter or poacher. It occurred after an evening at his parents' home when he went to his car to return home. He says the attacker punched him in the face a few times and left, muttering something about the attack being a warning.

"That attack was an isolated incident done by someone on his own," Marr says. "The 'hunter fraternity' have tried to get people to not commit acts of violence."

Some of those involved in recreational hunting are also very much against poaching. Terry Quinney, provincial co-ordinator of fish and wildlife services for the Ontario Federation of Hunters and Anglers, says his organization is involved in laws preventing poaching and penalizing those who break the poaching laws.

"The fees we paid for [hunting] licences go directly to the government to pay for the laws," Quinney says. "We're also involved in a province-wide anti-poaching campaign through Crime Stoppers that helps catch poachers."

Though there are laws in place to protect vulnerable wildlife, it's difficult to enforce them in Canada's vast wilderness, where there is much space and not enough enforcement officials.

"Personally, I believe that there's really good legislation in Canada and the [United States], but it's not properly implemented," says Andrea Gaski, director of research for TRAFFIC North America. "I guess they don't consider poaching of high priority."

Environment Canada is in the process of drafting regulations to help cut down on foods and medicines containing parts of animals which are not legally allowed to be used, Thomson-Delaney says.

Many of these animal parts find their way into Asian-Canadian communities. A restaurant in Brampton was recently fined for serving bear paw soup, White says.

"We need to target people who've been doing this all their lives and see nothing wrong with it," White says. "If we can change their minds we have a fighting chance – otherwise we're going to lose [endangered animals]."

Asian countries have been relying on these medicines for centuries so to them it's completely normal. However, this market is growing rapidly and the animal populations on which they prey are depleting rapidly.

According to White, the goal is to change perceptions and show people the effects of their reliance on animal parts. If consumers' attitudes are changed, he explains the poachers will be out of business and there may be a future for threatened wildlife.

Gazette File Photo

GETTING CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE. This male Rwandan mountain gorilla was killed during a period of civil unrest, his death harming an already precarious population.

* * *

April 1, 2000

Global Visionary

Gestapo 3, Grizzlies 0

by Anthony Marr

Tel: 604-222-1169, Fax: 604-682-4107

What happens when you cross a weak environment ministry with a powerful

hunting lobby? Censorship, punishment.

I refer first to the 1998 confiscation by the BC Environment Ministry of

a dissenting research paper by ministry biologist A. Dionys DeLeeuw on

Grizzly bear conservation strategy and hunting policy, 80 copies of which he

previously distributed to key ministry personnel, all confiscated.

Second, I of course refer to a similar confiscation of his second paper on March

15 this year. This plus the suspension-without-pay and the gag order, make

me wonder if I'm in Canada or Tienanmen Square or maybe the Middle Ages.

It has struck me that suppression is a desperate measure stemming from

fear.

So, what is the BC Environment Ministry afraid of?

First, the wrath of the hunting and guide-outfitting community if the

hunt is banned.

Second, the accountant - for loss of hunting-oriented revenue.

Third, truth. If the truth requires that the hunt be banned, they would

have to crush it, or at least bend it, to save them from their First

Great Fear, which they probably do not relish doing.

Truth-wise, this second confiscated paper reportedly suggested that "up

to 200 per cent more bears have been killed than should have been under the

ministry's own sustainability guidelines." Such a statement, especially

if true, is tantamount to heresy in the eyes of the ministry, and I'm glad

to see that the confiscation backfired right off the bat. What it

accomplished is to propel the heretical statement on to the limelight.

Between the lines, the statement also says that government scientists

have no freedom of inquiry nor of speech, and that, indirectly, freedom of

the press is curtailed from fully reporting on DeLeeuw's findings. So if he

is forbidden to speak, then I will.

Demographics and projections

"So just lower the quota a little next year. What is the big deal?"

some say. Unfortunately, it is not that simple. If overhunting is indeed

the case when following the government's policy guidelines, then there is

something fundamentally wrong with the policies themselves. In the case

of Grizzly bear conservation, it is something as fundamental as the

population and poaching estimates.

Independent biologists estimate only 4,000-7,000 Grizzlies in BC, and so

did the BC government back in the1970s. In the mid-80s, however, criticized

for overhunting, instead of reducing the hunt, the government raised the

population estimate to 10,000-13,000, and 10,000-13,000 it has stayed.

This relatively high estimate is what is used to calculate the "huntable 4%"

which, if the true population be in fact lower, could work out to be 8% or more. Even the 4% is considered by many biologists to be unsustainable,

especially with habitat loss factored in.

Long-term-viable breeding populations

The bears and tigers alike need 200-250 breeding animals in one

unfragmented habitat to prevent inbreeding. The Bengal tiger needs about 3,500 sq.km. to sustain 200-250 breeding tigers. The Grizzly bear and the Siberian tiger need many times that. Therefore, Grizzly bear and Siberian tiger

habitats can be fragmented much more easily than Bengal tiger habitat.

Habitat loss

The habitat of the Grizzly bear, in both BC and Alberta, has been and

are being rapidly eroded, degraded and fragmented - by various human

activities such as BC's clearcut-logging of Grizzly bear habitat (again the

Environment

Ministry losing to the Forest Ministry), and mega-developments in the

centre of prime Grizzly bear habitat such as Alberta's Banff (a classical

example of a "Grizzly dam").

Hunting

Tiger hunting, mostly for head-and-hide, was permitted until 1973. At

the beginning of the 20th Century, there were an estimated 80,000 tigers in

India. In half a century, it was cut down to about 30,000. The stunner

came when a count in 1972 produced a country-wide estimate of only 1,800

tigers. The world and the Indian government reacted swiftly and in

1973, 25 tiger reserves were established and tiger trophy hunting was banned, but perhaps too late. If trophy hunting was banned when there were still

30,000 tigers, even 10,000, there would have been a much greater fighting

chance for the Bengal tiger.

We can still do this for our own Grizzlies, but we have to do it now.

Poaching

As of the rise of the Asian economy, which induced a skyrocketing demand

for tiger bone, bear gall and rhino horn, the Asiatic bears were quickly

decimated, and the poaching pressure has moved across the ocean. It is

estimated that by the late 1990s, Canada-wide, one or two bears are

poached for the gall and paws for every bear legally hunted for trophy

(head-&-hide - also bear parts by the way). (e.g. Leggett, 1996; Servheen 1996,

Slobodian, 1996; Knights 1996). In contrast, the BC government's

poaching estimate, supported by the powerful prohunting lobby group the BC

Wildlife Federation, is as low as its total population estimate is high - about

one bear poached for every 3-4 legally hunted - to again convince the

general public that the bears are doing fine and should continue to be hunted.

On the contrary, the Canadian Wildlife Federation considers BC and AB the

two most poached provinces in Canada.

All in all, many non-BC-government bear biologists estimate 300-600

Grizzly bears poached per year in Canada. Add this to the 300 or so legally

hunted, and the hundred or so shot at garbage dumpsÖ How long can they last?

The public has the right to know and make their own decisions on this

important matter and the BC government must release the Deleeuw paper

for public consideration.

Anthony Marr

Founding Director

Heal Our Planet Earth Global Environmental Organization

604-222-1169

* * *

2000-10-03

Hunters United

Posted by W on October 03, 19100 at 16:53:48 (all misspellings are sic):

In Reply to: Re: Hunters United posted by Canuck on October 03, 19100 at 11:03:36:

Well said Canuck. In addition

If someone says I am in total support of bowhunting. Yes I am behind them 100%, all the way, right on in GOS , what would you think??? It would be rightfully concidered what it is, a direct attack on a hunters chosen method of
harvest and on an existing opportunity. These confrontational divisive attacks against a minority group must stop or they will be to the detriment of all bowhunters specifically, and hunters in general. Anyone who thinks a crossbow is a firearm should concider the missing primer, gunpowder, casing, bullit and rifle barrel, which is the essense of a firearm.

The same rationale that is successfully used to defend special season for traditional bow can be used for compound and crossbow at differant degrees.

Removing the crossbow from bow season only is minimaly supported and fading quickly with only the stauchist elitists maintaining a non-compromising position.

Lets stop picking apart the differances and work on the common ground. Support for all hunters and methods of harvest in general and the need for basic simple ethical education, application and opportunities to maintain hunter interest and recruitment.

I felt I must be direct with the issue before any more distraction to hunter unity occurs. We all have our opinions but if negative, could concider keeping them within ourselves.

The ball is in your court and Anthony Marr is on the road again.

* * *

2001-08-03

CKNW Editorial

by Rafe Mair
for August 3, 2001

There is a collision course in our society and one party to the collision doesn't realize it yet. Any who heard Anthony Marr, the fighter for the Grizzly Bear, on my show a couple of weeks ago may recognize what I'm talking about. This interview was with both Paul Watson and Mr Marr and was really about them as environmental activists ... but during the interview I asked Marr if he was opposed to all hunting. His answer was an unequivocal yes. I then asked if he was against sports fishing and he replied that he supposed that catching a fish for supper was all right but he was against it as a sport and definitely against catch and release. That, he said, was tormenting animals for pleasure. We sports fishers ought to listen very carefully to people like Anthony Marr because we are in the sights of animal activists and the collision that is taking place now in Britain will happen here - it's only a matter of time.

Let me state my own prejudices. I am a lifelong sports fisherman and despite the misgivings I will express in a moment will remain one for the rest of my days. I say that because I have thought long and deeply about the subject and will shock you by saying that Anthony Marr is right ... but that for me he can go to the devil. I don't mean that personally, of course. I have terrific admiration for Anthony. But logically he is right. In fact, one of Britain's best known flyfishermen, the late Hugh Falkus, argued with both logic and typical anger, that catch and release was morally wrong and that he simply wouldn't practice it. When he went fishing it was to catch, kill and eat his quarry. Falkus didn't argue wanton killing of fish - far from it. He simply made the point that catching and releasing was just tormenting an animal much as our forbears, not all that long ago, baited bears and watched cock fights - much as many Latins enjoy bull fighting. The other end of the argument was made 50 years ago by the late Lee Wulff when, extorting people to catch and release, he said that a fish was too valuable to catch only once.

Fish apart, I don't hunt. I could not bring myself to shoot a deer, an elk or a bear. I shot a squirrel when I was a kid and can still see him lying at my feet with me wondering why I did it.

Animal activists in England have already got a ban on fox hunting through Parliament. Was it Wilde or Shaw that called fox hunting "the unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable". I had trouble building up sympathy for the fox hunter or the entire sordid exercise until I read my British fly fishing magazines all of which had articles and editorials saying, in essence, if it's the foxhunters now it will soon be the bird hunters then the fishermen. And they're right. For logically you can't make the case that tormenting a fish is any different than tormenting a fox. In fact, the animal rightists have already started hassling fishermen on British rivers, reservoirs and lakes. They go from intentionally disturbing the fish to violent confrontations with fishermen. It's only a matter of time before they come here.

It's started in Britain first because they got rid of their bears centuries ago and deer hunting - indeed most bird hunting - is mostly done in remoter areas of Britain on lands owned by aristocrats. Fox hunting was up close and they could get at it. But they are already here as Anthony Marr demonstrates and will soon be on your favourite stream or fishing hole.

If I'm against killing and tormenting animals how can I continue to fish?
Good question. Probably it's no more complicated than I don't want to stop. I have rationalized a difference between cold blooded critters and mammals even though I know that I'm kidding myself. I console myself with my own observations that hooked fish do not seem at all perturbed until you tighten the line and restrict their movement - there doesn't seem to be any pain as we know it. I excuse myself on the grounds that those few fish I do kill are dispatched much more humanely than any fish taken commercially, either from a farm or the wild, is.

I also know that without fishermen there will be no fish. It's a great paradox that the fish rely upon their tormentor's skilful advocacy to survive. Left to government or the marketplace, most fish would become an occasionally encountered phenomenon.

I look at all my rods and reels, my extensive fishing library and my fly tying bench and I can't bring myself to quit. I consider the many hours I have spent in beautiful surroundings, in basically sole pursuit of my quarry, and how much I look forward to future similar times and I know I'm hooked for life.

Sports fishing has never been more popular. Fly fishing, once the preserve of the aristocrat, is now the favoured way of the masses. But the enemy has given us a whiff of the grape ... shots have been fired across our bow ... we will have to face the Anthony Marrs of the world sooner or later.

Much as many of us fishermen hate the thought of gunning things down, perhaps like the fishermen in the UK we will have to recognize that the enemy of our enemy is our friend putting us squarely alongside the man who would shoot a grizzly bear simply for the fun of doing it and getting a bearskin rug.
Strange and perhaps unattractive bedfellows but no less bedfellows for that.

* * *

2003-06-21

You are invited to join
The Global Anti-Hunting Coalition
by HOPE to the global animal rights community

We've all asked at some point, "Wouldn't it be powerful for all groups of like mind from coast to coast to collectively wage a single coordinated campaign against a single adversary?" Thus was born the concept of the Global Anti-Hunting Coalition.

In the seven months between August 29, 2003, and April 2, 2004, wildlife preservationist and anti-hunting campaigner Anthony Marr, with best-selling vegan author Brenda Davis and her son Cory Davis, will be conducting the Compassion for Animals Road Expedition
(CARE) through 40 U.S. states and four Canadian provinces (see http://www.hope-care.org/ for the state-by-state itinerary). One of CARE's main objectives is to form the American chapter of the Global Anti-Hunting Coalition. Anthony Marr will be holding meetings with the directors and giving presentations to the members of interested animal advocacy groups en route to discuss participation, campaigns, strategy and tactics.

The first campaign of the Global Anti-Hunting Coalition will be to apply external pressure on Canada focusing on its:

1. East Coast Commercial Harp Seal Hunt (current quota - 325,000/year - the largest marine mammal hunt in the world, known as "Canada's Shame").

2. Western Canada Grizzly Bear Trophy Hunt (current quota ~300/year plus poaching deaths of ~300 out of a hotly debated estimated population of 4,000-13,000).

3. West Coast Commercial Harbour Seal Hunt (currently being tabled in parliament - quota: an incredible 50,000/year out of a total estimated population of
only 110,000).

4. West Coast Grey Whale Hunt (currently being planned).

5. Central Canada Gopher Derby (2002 kill - ~60,000).

6. Eastern Arctic Bowhead Whale (endangered) Hunt.

7. Trophy hunting and fur trapping (a passive-aggressive form of hunting) in general.

If the Coalition finds the above too diffuse, the focus could be sharpened - thus the strategizing. Nonetheless, the adversary is only one - Canadian hunting/trapping practices.

Groups need not have anti-hunting mandates in order to join. A vegan group, for example, is presumably intrinsically anti-animal-abuse, and therefore implicitly against hunting and trapping.

To join the Global Anti-Hunting Coalition, or if you have any questions, or if you wish to meet with Anthony Marr or arrange a presentation for him during the CARE tour, please contact him at 604-222-1169 or toll-free 1-866-822-1169, Anthony-Marr at HOPE-CARE.org

* * *

2006-04-09

Capital News,

Kelowna, BC

By Judie Steeves
Staff reporter
Apr 09 2006

WILD at HEART

Man’s harvest of the natural world was a way of life when Ted Barsby was a boy.

“When this country was settled that’s how people survived,” he explains. “As a kid, hunting and fishing was part of our daily life.”
     He remembers getting out of school on a Friday afternoon and heading off for a 15-mile backpacking trip to a favourite lake to fish for the weekend.
     In order to be able to continue living like that, as part of that natural world, it was important to make sure you weren’t greedy; that fish, wildlife and plant populations remained at a sustainable level.
     In fact, hunting is also a tool for managing the wildlife resource, by preventing over-grazing by wildlife, Barsby maintains.
     As the first president of the B.C. Wildlife Federation 50 years ago, Barsby says he loves the outdoors and hunts and shoots because he has great admiration for the animals he tracks—and he likes eating deer and elk meat.
     Over the years, he says the BCWF has made more recommendations that hunting be curtailed in an area than that it not be, because of concerns about the health of a population of animals.
     Today, at the age of 86, Barsby hasn’t missed a BCWF convention in the past 50 years, including last week’s in the Okanagan, the same part of the province where the federation was born in 1956, out of a sportsmen’s council which had been in place for nearly a decade before that.
     That council included two representatives from each game management zone in the province, which gathered at the request of the attorney-general of the day to work with the provincial game commission on the management of fish and wildlife in the province.
     Clubs, whether they were called fish and game clubs or protective associations, had been in existence for decades previously. The Kelowna Fish and Game club celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2004 and 29 of the current 127 BCWF member clubs have been in existence for 85 years or longer, according to Bill Otway, who has been involved in conservation here for 55 years.
     Although initially the clubs operated in isolation, Otway says they began to form loose-knit coalitions to discuss mutual problems in the ’20s and ’30s.
     He recalls that travel in B.C. was quite different at that time, so holding meetings was a challenge.
     “I can remember when a trip from Port Coquitlam to Princeton, in the early 1950’s, was an all-day event, and traveling to the Okanagan, Cariboo or Kootenays was an expedition of no small nature,” he says.
     The B.C. Interior group held its 17th annual convention in Clinton in 1946, and members attended from Kelowna, Vernon, Summerland, Peachland, Bridge Lake, Revelstoke, Nickel Plate, Lumby, Princeton, Keremeos-Cawston, Salmon Arm, Enderby-Grinrod-Mara, Hedley, Brockmere, Penticton and Oliver.
     There was no Coquihalla Highway connecting the communities, no bridge over Okanagan Lake and not even a Hope Princeton Highway.
     Transportation was a little better in 1956 when the clubs got together in a more formal way as the B.C. Federation of Fish and Game Councils, which later became the BCWF.
     “It was a pretty powerful organization,” says Barsby. It was the only organization at the time that was into conservation, he added.
     “There are a lot now, some we agree with and some we don’t,” he says.
     In that vein, another past-president, John Holdstock of Kelowna, warns that many anglers and hunters don’t realize what zealots some of the animal rights activists are.
     “They think you shouldn’t eat meat. They are well-organized and funded and they’re not going to go away. They should be taken seriously,” he says.
     He too, notes that the BCWF has a big voice out there, with 30,000 members and lots of supporters above that number.
It was during his term as president that the campaign against hunting black bears was being spearheaded by Anthony Marr, recalls Holdstock.
     “It ate up most of the first year of my presidency.”
He warns that the issue of hunters versus non-hunters is still very big, and it’s at the bottom of many other issues as well, he says.
     “They pick their icons like the ‘spirit bear’ which is just a light phase of the black bear,” he says.
     Why the bear? “It’s cute, and it’s an interesting animal,” he says.
     In the 25 or so years since he moved to B.C. and became a member of the Kelowna club, Holdstock says the issues the BCWF has dealt with haven’t really changed all that much.
     Such concerns as access to the back country; competition between resource users; and allocation of hunting and fishing rights between natives, residents and non-residents, are still some of the biggest issues.
     Passing the torch on to young people is another important effort of federation members.
     In 1994, the Frank Shannon Junior Conservation Award was founded to encourage young people to get involved in conservation of natural resources, whether by educating, protecting or restoring, or doing inventories.
     Shannon was another charter member of the BCWF. He was instrumental in establishment of the Creston Valley Wildlife Management Authority and initiated what is now the Conservation and Outdoor Recreation and Education Program (CORE).
     Now 94, Shannon attended this year’s 50th anniversary convention and talked a bit about the importance of a lively conservation organization.
     “The unified approach to government is important,” he believes, noting that lobbying government is an important facet of the federation’s work.
     He has concerns about wildlife, because there’s so much loss of habitat with increased human populations.
     “Too many people don’t care,” he says.
     An avid angler, he lived for decades on the shores of Kootenay Lake where he enjoyed “the finest fishing in the world.” He now lives on the shores of Okanagan Lake.
     He says both lakes are still reeling from the effects of the introduction of mysis shrimp decades ago by the provincial government.
     Those little shrimp, although it was intended they would be feed for game fish like kokanee, turned the tables, and out-competed the young kokanee for the same zooplankton.
     “That will never be undone,” he says. “They’re so prolific we’ll never get rid of them.”
     However, he’s convinced the BCWF has been a huge benefit to B.C.’s fish and wildlife management.
     Bill Bennett, MLA for East Kootenay, is also a strong supporter of the federation.
     He introduced the Hunting and Fishing Heritage Act in the B.C. legislature. It was passed in November 2002.
     He says he believes that hunting and fishing is more than a legal right; it’s part of our heritage in this province.
     Passage of that bill raised the profile of hunting and fishing, he says.
     “Those who don’t hunt or have rural roots have the devil of a time understanding how hunting brings you closer to nature,” he says.
     “We’re a predator. That’s not understood in the city. They were raised with the Disneyland approach. Yet we’ve been interacting with nature forever.
     “It’s as natural as can be. Humans have been hunting and fishing since the beginning of time.
     “And, we can do it without threatening species. It’s the only way to manage populations of animals.
     “(However) when you take large populations of people and separate them from their food source, they don‘t know where resources like minerals, meat and that revenue comes from.”
     He notes that logging, mining and the earth are the basis for B.C.’s economic health.
     Unfortunately, Bennett sees urbanites moving out to rural areas and bringing their values with them.
     He is concerned that conservationists like the members of the BCWF are a diminishing breed.
     He says the group needs to raise more money and invest in educating people, particularly in the school system, to counter the message of city dwellers against hunting and fishing.
     “Young people are very receptive to our message,” Bennett says.
     Those young people are needed to continue the federation’s history of protecting the resource that is so close to the hearts of the members of this grassroots conservation organization, he argues.
     Today, long-time members like Barsby are concerned about excessive use of resources such as water and wood, and the impact that’ll have on fish and wildlife.
     “We’re still drawers of water and hewers of wood—in excess,” says Barsby.
     “And that concerns me. We log too heavily.”
     “It’s important we take care of wintering areas for wildlife.
     “There’s too much political interference.
     “Wildlife is not considered as it should be. Golf courses and ski resorts are putting too much pressure on wildlife.”
     As with many past-presidents, Ed Mankelow is still chair of three BCWF committees and also stays involved in federation issues.
     He joined in 1959, and the memories of hunting and fishing as a youngster in England were still fresh.
     “There, the average working class person was restricted to fishing for coarse fish,” he recalls.
     “To fish for trout you had to belong to a club to access private property.”
     Where his fellow Canadian anglers might take trout fishing for granted, Mankelow says he realized only too clearly how easy it would be to lose that opportunity.
     “You take your rights for granted,” he warns.
     Mankelow remembers the BCWF being the only organization around that objected (successfully) when the Social Credit government decided to allow mining in Strathcona Provincial Park.
     “We paved the way for other groups to exist,” he notes.
Although different people join the BCWF for different reasons, there are many common interests.
     Ron Taylor, of Lake Country, has been involved in the Oceola Fish and Game Club since 1961 and served as a director on the BCWF for a couple of years.
     He says he got involved because he liked fishing and hunting and wanted to work with people who respected the same things.
     Improving the lot of kokanee trying to spawn in local creeks has been a major focus of both Taylor and the club over the years, with considerable success.
     John Weber has been a member of the Kelowna club for 40 years.
     He says an interest in getting involved in habitat restoration and enhancement projects were part of the reason he got involved.
     That club has done some work along the banks of Bellevue Creek and has been involved in sheep transplants to augment the Shorts Creek wild sheep herd, as well as turkey transplants, he notes.
     Weber’s been fishing in local lakes for the past 40 or 50 years, and he thinks fishing them is just as good now as it was then.
     Weber says even the numbers of people don’t seem to have increased all that much around his favourite upland lakes.
     Dave White, immediate past-president of the BCWF, likens hunters and anglers to the canary in the coal mine.
     “We warn of the loss of species; of problems with fish and wildlife and their habitat,” he says.

[email protected]

April 11, 2006

Being the only anti-hunter give honorable (dishonorable?) mention in your April-9 pro-hunting article about the BCWF, I feel obligated to write to offer at least a glimpse of a balanced view.

First of all, greetings to Mr. Holdstock. I remember him very well, and I believe we shook hands after our 1.5 hour radio debate in Kamloops in July 1996, hosted by Mel Rothenburger, where pro-hunting caller were all lined up even before the debate began. One thing I‘ll say for the BCWF - they certainly knew how to stack the phone lines, due to whi9ch, however, I got to do most of the talking.

That debate was just one of dozens of debates the hunters engaged me in throughout my 12,000-km province-wide road tour June-August, 1996. Wherever I met with local environmentalists and anti-hunters, the meetings would often be crashed by up to 120 hunters (Prince George). Following is a compilation of some of the main points exchanged between a typical recreational hunter (TRH) and myself (AM):

TRH: "Your campaign is based only on emotion. There is no biological basis or reasons behind your demand that bear hunting ends."
AM: "Hunters is also hunt based on emotion, since hunters love to hunt. But deeper, for us, it is a moral reason. We believe that to kill animals for entertainment (“recreational” hunting) is morally wrong, just as what used to happen in the Roman Coliseum was morally wrong. But, we also have biological reasons for wanting to end the sport hunting of bears in BC, especially in view of the ongoing poaching and fragmentation of Grizzly bear habitat. 6 of the world’s 8 species of bears are endangered. We don’t want to force our own Grizzlies into that category

TRH: "You are challenging our right to hunt. This is wrong in principle."
AM: "Just as I am challenging the long-standing Oriental tradition and 'right' to use animal parts for medicine, an effort that hunters support."

TRH: "You are lumping us law-abiding hunters in with lawless poachers."
AM: "Law is a human concept. Where the bears are concerned, hunting and poaching are both killing. And where bear conservation is concerned, it is the total number of bears killed, hunted and poached. By the way, do you use baits when bear hunting?

TRH: "Of course not. It is illegal, and not right."
AM: "Baiting is legal in Washington state. Does that make it right to do it there?"

TRH: "Hunters are the only true and effective conservationists."
AM: "There are two kinds of conservationists - those who conserve so that they could continue to have animals to kill, and those who conserve for the sake of the planet, and protect wildlife for its own sake. Once the latter have arisen as of the 60s, the former can no longer claim to be “true”.

TRH: "Hunting is good is keeping animal herds healthy.
AM: "Unlike other predators, who go after the weakest prey, thus genetically strengthening the prey species, hunters go after the most magnificent specimens, thus weakening the species. You are talking about quantity, but I‘m talking about quality."

TRH: "If you get rid of bear hunting, there'll be a bear population explosion."
AM: "There has never been any bear population explosion over the eons, before or after we humans came on the scene. Natural biological controls, such as food shortages, lower birth rate and intraspecies competition and predation will keep the population level steady."

TRH: "You should go after the Asians and their use of bear parts, not us hunters."
AM: "My very first campaign was to target the Chinese community in North America regarding their use and trade of bear parts, and tiger parts, and rhino parts... Regarding hunters, are not bear head and hide also bear parts?"

TRH: "Hunting is not killing; it goes way beyond that. It's a form of communing with nature. I can't expect you to understand."
AM: "Hunting is not killing? Some humans may buy that argument, but not the bears. It's not necessary to kill in order to commune with nature. Try camping or wildlife photography."

TRH: "Hunters are the anti-poaching field force. We are the eyes and ears for the conservation officers."
AM: "Relying on hunters to watch out for poachers is like letting wolves safeguard sheep from coyotes. Hikers and campers have eyes and hears too. Further, if Grizzly bear hunting is banned, then anyone caught killing a Grizzly would be a poacher."

TRH: "We humans are and have always been predators. To hunt is to be human.”

AM: “Tigers are more predatory than humans, but a tiger that is not hungry does not hunt. Evidently, we humans have more blood lust than even tigers. Please be honest. Recreational hunters hunt primarily for entertainment, not for food.

TRH: "Many interior and northern towns economically depend on hunting."
AM: "Eco-tourism and wildlife viewing have time and again proven more beneficial both in terms of economy and employment."

As I have pointed out before, the BC Wildlife Federation should honestly renamed itself as the BC Hunting Federation.

Anthony Marr

604-222-1169

4118 West 11^th Ave.

Vancouver, BC V6R 2L6

Preserving Earth's Biodiversity, Anti-Trophy-Hunting, Anti-Whaling, Save-the-Dolphins, Terminate the Canadian Seal Massacre, Compassion for Animals Road Expeditions (CARE), Deep-Rural-India Expeditions, Educational Outreach, Undercover Operations, Media Events, International Conferences, Omniscientific Cosmology and Integrative Transcendence