No reason to stop harvest, says retired worker who wrote study for province

The man whose numbers are being touted by the provincial government and anti-bear-hunt groups as the reason for ending the spring hunt says there is no biological reason to stop the harvest, and his study is being twisted.

``It's a political decision, not a biological one,'' said Ken Morrison, the natural resources ministry biologist whose study found a potential maximum of 270 bear cubs could wind up being orphaned if the annual spring bear hunt were to go on.

Morrison, now retired, said his numbers were based on an extensive study of three heavily hunted regions near North Bay and Sudbury and 15 years worth of bear harvest data. But a lot of assumptions and extrapolation of numbers were involved in arriving at the province-wide number of 270, he said.

He said he never thought the numbers would become the hot button in an anti-hunt campaign.

``They're rough, they're very crude and they weren't intended to be used as the gospel,'' Morrison said.

He stressed the number 270 was an estimated maximum number of cubs that could be left motherless by the hunt, and that the real figure is likely significantly less when other factors are considered.

Morrison said he believes the government simply caved in to pressure from the anti-hunt campaign and ended a hunt that had not been adversely affecting the Ontario black bear population.

Premier Mike Harris defended the ban yesterday, calling it a pro-hunting move. He also said hunting opportunities would continue in Ontario, as long as they are conducted in a ``forthright and ethical manner.

``There will be just as many opportunities to shoot just as many bears in the fall season, when we normally have hunting, and when I think it is more acceptable and I think it is more sporting and I think it is fair,'' Harris told reporters.

Morrison's study, which looked at bear kill numbers from 1982 to 1996, found that even in heavily hunted regions, the bear population had either remained steady or was slightly increasing. He pointed to factors not being mentioned by the government and anti-hunt groups that affect the number of cubs likely to be orphaned by the hunt.

THE TORIES have successfully created an image of themselves as being willing, in Premier Mike Harris' words, ``to stand up to the special interests'' and ``to make the tough decisions.''

But in the case of the recently cancelled spring bear hunt, Harris and the Tories folded under pressure like Greg Norman at the Masters. It's a fascinating story.

The spring bear hunt was an annual event that resulted in the killing of some 4,000 bears in Ontario, including 1,000 females. The death of the females had a ricochet effect, said the critics, as hundreds of orphaned cubs subsequently fell victim to starvation or predators.

But until recently, most Ontarians were oblivious to the event.

Robert Schad noticed, however, that the bears he used to see at his cottage in the Parry Sound area had stopped coming around.

Schad is a wealthy septuagenarian who runs a successful business in Bolton that makes plastic mouldings. He also has his own foundation, which is dedicated to backing ``initiatives that help to turn the tide in our struggle against ecological destruction.''

A few years ago, Schad decided to go after the spring bear hunt. To this end, he threw his considerable financial weight behind various animal rights groups, including the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), which was in the forefront of the campaign to stop the baby seal hunt.

They succeeded last winter in drawing the attention of Natural Resources Minister John Snobelen, who launched a trial balloon suggesting the spring bear hunt might be stopped.

But Snobelen, who is not a hunter, did not have the support of cabinet, which includes hunters like Harris and Management Board Chair Chris Hodgson. The trial balloon was shot down in flames.

Then the Schad-backed animal rightists went back to the drawing board. They decided to run a highly targeted, $100,000 campaign, focusing on eight vulnerable Tory ridings in the Hamilton and Niagara regions. In the pre-Christmas period, these ridings were flooded with radio, bus shelter and billboard advertising. As well, some 15,000 copies of a video featuring adorable orphaned cubs were distributed door-to-door.

``They (the Tories) didn't think we could ever get people mad enough to do anything about the spring bear hunt,'' says Rob Sinclair of the IFAW. ``The whole campaign was designed to convince them otherwise.''

It worked. Tory MPPs in the targeted ridings were flooded with calls and, in turn, raised concerns back at Queen's Park. But more daunting still for the government was the knowledge that the campaign was just a foretaste of what would come during the general election.

Early in the new year, Schad got in to see the Premier. A week later, the government announced that the bear hunt would be cancelled. Tory MPPs, already braced for an onslaught from angry teachers, nurses, and other activists during the election, breathed a sigh of relief.

But there is a postscript to this story. The government has discovered Newton's Third Law of Motion: To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Now the Tories are being lambasted by outfitters, who had already booked business for this spring's bear hunt, and by the hunting community in general.

I am told that most hunters frown on the bear hunt as something less than a true sport. The bears, still weak from hibernation, are lured with bait to a spot where the hunter lies in concealment and then shot while they eat.

But there is concern in the hunting community that the end of the spring bear hunt heralds more dramatic curbs in the future. ``What will be next,'' asked one hunter in a letter to The Star. ``Hunting moose and deer, ducks and geese? Swatting flies? Where will it end?''

The aforementioned Hodgson seemed to feed on this concern at a meeting Sunday in his Lindsay-area riding, where some 400 angry hunters turned out to protest the government's move.

``It's coming folks and it's not going to get any nicer,'' Hodgson warned his audience. ``We can't let that happen.''

The backlash has begun. But it's unlikely the hunters will be able to compete with videos of bear cubs. Just ask the sealers in Newfoundland.