Fate of former New Brunswicker Paul Watson, arrested on Interpol warrant, to be decided in Greenland

Today, Dec. 2, a court in Greenland will decide if anti-whaling activist Paul Watson should be extradited to Japan, or if his detention should again be extended.

“If I am sent to Japan, I’m not coming back.” With these words to a reporter for The Guardian last week, Greenpeace pioneer and Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson pondered his future. Since his arrest on July 21, he has been held in a prison in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland.

Japan, through Interpol, the international police organization, issued a warrant for his arrest in 2012. The Japanese government alleges that Watson damaged a whaling ship and injured a crew member in 2010. He could face 15 years in jail.

Watson, a leading environmentalist, has been an opponent of Japanese whaling activities for decades. He denies all charges.

Watson was born in Toronto but grew up in St. Andrews, New Brunswick. As a boy in St. Andrews, Watson joined an animal welfare organization, the Kindness Club, founded by Aida Fleming, wife of New Brunswick premier Hugh John Fleming. Watson had difficulties at home and ran off to sea as a teenager to join the Norwegian Merchant Marine.

Watson subsequently worked for the Canadian Coast Guard for a period and eventually became a founding member of Greenpeace. He came in time to disagree with the policies and tactics of Greenpeace which were not aggressive enough for his liking and left to set up the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Now age 74, he claims that he is just monitoring international regulation on whaling.

In 1946, the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) was established in Washington by 15 member countries led by the U.S. As of 2021, 88 member countries have signed on. Japan is obviously not one of them.

Initially, the Japanese government claimed its whaling ships were conducting “research” to get around a 1986 ICRW moratorium on hunts in international waters. Japan then withdrew from the ICRW to hunt whales commercially within its own marine territory. Now Japan is said to be wanting to expand again into international waters.

Watson favours a direct-action approach to combat whaling. This has led to him being accused of eco-terrorism by both the Japanese government and his former fellow activists in Greenpeace.

Over his decades as an environmental activist, Watson has had many confrontations with governments. Equally he has received many awards for his environmental work. Time magazine in 2000 included him in their top 20 environmental heroes of the 20th century.

While refueling his ship in Nuuk on July 21 he was arrested by 12 policemen. “I was sitting in the captain’s chair at the time and one of them just walked up, grabbed me the shirt, pulled me off the chair and handcuffed me…. they weren’t a very friendly bunch,” he told The Guardian.

The Japanese government has alleged that in 2010 Watson injured a crew member on a whaling ship with a stink bomb intended to disrupt activities. Watson’s lawyers have been trying to show video footage in court to back up his claims of innocence, but the court has refused to view it.

Watson does not believe he would survive a spell in a Japanese prison: “I know that if I get sent to Japan, I am not coming home.”

If freed in Greenland, Watson will return to France, where his two young children attend school. In October, he applied for French citizenship.

Among the many famous names calling for his release in recent weeks are Brazil’s president Lula da Silva, French president Emmanuel Macron, Brigitte Bardot, Jane Goodall, Pierce Brosnan, James Cameron, and Richard Branson.

Protests across France against his arrest have attracted hundreds. More than 200,000 have signed a petition in support of his application for French citizenship.

Gerry McAlister is a member of the NB Media Co-op.