Ocean Sentry
(From The Canadian Press) SYDNEY, N.S. — The lawyer for two men facing charges of getting too close to Canada”s spring seal hunt was in a Nova Scotia courtroom on Wednesday to enter not guilty pleas on their behalf.
Lawyer Guy LaFosse said his clients, Alexander Cornelissen, captain of the protest vessel Farley Mowat, and First Officer Peter Hammarstedt, were not required to be in the courtroom in Sydney.
Cornelissen of Amsterdam and Hammarstedt of Sweden posted bail and were deported after they were accused in April of navigating their vessel within 900 metres of the hunt in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
That’s an offence under the federal Marine Mammal Regulations, unless observers are granted a special permit.
“We’re going back to court on Monday to set a date for the trial,” LaFosse said in an interview. He said he expects the case won’t be heard until next spring.
LaFosse said he was in regular contact with his clients, but he didn’t know where they were when he last talked to them.
Canadian authorities seized the Dutch-registered vessel this past spring, claiming it was within Canadian jurisdiction when the rules were allegedly broken. The protesters aboard the vessel insisted the ship was in international waters and had right of passage.
