Quinte Fishing

To those who choose to break the rules and regulations of hunting I ask you this...

Do you care that hunting and fishing rights are under attack by governments and Social Justice Groups all over the world? Do you care that if not protected and fought for, hunting and fishing rights are and will remain under constant pressure and that bad press is more dangerous to hunting and fishing laws than just about any other issue that the press and Anti-anything groups can get wound up about?

Please consider that when YOU break the rules you hurt ALL hunters. In a perfect world, you break the rules, you the individual get punished. Sadly, in the current environment of government rule and government control, the propensity is that when rules are broken not to punish the individual but to change the law so that the behaviour that lead to the broken rule is made illegal for all. Don’t believe me? What do you think the current campaigns for gun control in North America are all about? Some people can’t handle guns or use them safely, therefore, ban all guns. That is the campaign. And the campaign against hunting is very similar if not exactly the same (flawed but accepted) logic.

If you think the rules or laws are stupid, please, don’t just break them because you don’t like them. Campaign to get the rules or laws changed to what isn’t stupid. Speak to the MNR and your members of parliament and let them know what you don’t like and why. Prove that the rule is not useful. Don't just prove that hunters are rule-breakers. If we all as hunters lose the right to hunt or face draconian rules because you cannot or will not follow the rules, just to make a point, what real and lasting point have you made? Only that hunters will break the rules that they don’t like. I for one do not trust the government enough to think that they will have the wherewithal or political will in the face of anti-hunting lobbies to not just say something like “fine, if they (hunters) can’t follow the rules then we are going to ban the entire activity.”

Why post this? Because while hunting this past weekend, I witnessed some hunters break some pretty basic rules. I wouldn’t say they were poaching, but the rules are clear about what they were doing and I have to believe that they knew what they were doing was wrong. The truly sad part of it is, they were very out in the open and conspicuous as they were doing so. I’m not one to rat, and I would rather have spoken to them myself to let them know my position as posted above. It might have helped; it might not have. But, I wasn’t the only other hunter in the area and just over from where I was, was a hunter who works for the MOE in enforcement. He wasn’t working but was hunting and as we were moving out of the hunting area, I heard him discussing with his buddy how he was going to call his friends in the MNRF enforcement branch and pass on the identity info of the offenders. Why is that bad? True, maybe they will track these guys down and lay charges. That’s good right? Well, not really. Now, two government agencies have knowledge of this matter and both agencies have the authority to regulate.

Please, actively campaign to protect hunting rights. If you don’t like the rule, say so, and work to get it changed. Just don’t show your disdain by breaking the rule as that just might ruin it for all of us.

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"A harmless man is not a good man. A good man is a very very dangerous man who has his capacity for mayhem under voluntary control."

"(B)e wary of discarding the ancient system where we all have the right to make our own decisions for one in which we all have the right to make each others, in the hope of finding true human fulfillment through “positive” rights to other people’s money and applause?"