http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jk8KEysl6NSq804XOjA2elihPCDw

Two men charged in East Coast seal hunt protest plead not guilty

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.
Cornelissen is also charged under the Fisheries Act with obstruction or hindrance of a Fisheries officer.
On April 12, black-clad Mounties brandishing submachine-guns boarded the Mowat and arrested all 17 crew members aboard.
The dramatic seizure came two weeks after a group of seal hunters complained that the Mowat came dangerously close to them in the Gulf.
Crew members said they were forced to lay down on the deck of the ship, and some were handcuffed once aboard the Canadian Coast Guard vessel Des Groseilliers.
The flat-black, 54-metre Farley Mowat - operated by the U.S.-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society - was later towed to Sydney, where it has remained every since.
Charges were later dropped against all but the captain and chief officer.
The charges could result in fines of up to $100,000 or up to one year in jail, or both.
Paul Watson, the head of the militant conservation group, has described the seizure and arrests as an "act of war."
At the time of the seizure, federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn said he had to take action before someone was killed on the ice.
He also rejected the claim that the Mowat was beyond Canada's reach, saying the Fisheries Act gave him the authority to take action beyond Canada's 12-nautical-mile territorial limit.
Hearn said the Mowat came within nine metres of a group sealers at one point on March 30, shattering floes as sealers scrambled to get back to their small boat.