Kerry Smith
Byron Bay woman Frankie Lee was arrested outside a Japanese Airlines office on July 31 while calling on people to boycott Japanese products and services while Japan continues its whale-killing industry. Lee was charged with not following a police "move on" order.
On the same day in the Magistrates Court, Dean Jefferys from the Byron Whale Action Group pleaded not guilty to charges of trespass and obstruction while trying to deliver letters to the Mitsubishi head office during a demonstration on June 20. Jefferys is due to appear in court on December 12.
Around 20 people travelled from Byron to Brisbane to attend the anti-whaling demonstration. Jefferys hopes the boycott campaign will force Japan to stop killing whales. "When Japan starts losing millions of dollars in revenue, lost taxes and investments, it will have to stop", he said. "The world needs to do to Japan what we did to South Africa to stop apartheid. Japan plans to put 10 Fin whales and 50 Humpback whales on its menu along with over 1000 other whales it wants to kill this coming summer. It must be stopped."
Bunna Lawrie from the Mirning tribe in South Australia, and former lead singer in the Coloured Stone, who also attended the protest, said: "The whales are ... part of our family, they are my totem, they are looking after the oceans and the Japanese should not be killing them."
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