Documentary filmmaker holds rally in Victoria to stop bear trophy hunt
Chelsea Turner met her first bears at six months of age.
That is when the daughter of acclaimed wildlife documentary filmmakers Jeff and Sue Turner of Princeton, B. C., began making forays into the wilderness in search of grizzlies, black bears and white Spirit Bears.
“My upbringing was unique, travelling to remote wilderness locations,” Turner said in an interview Friday. “I grew up seeing bears all the time. My mom would pack me around on her back when they were going out filming. They didn’t leave me behind. They took me along everywhere.”
Jeff and Sue Turner have produced more than 30 documentaries over the past 25 years for outlets such as the BBC, PBS, and CBC, including the four- part series Wild Canada, which airs starting March 13.
Over the years, Chelsea Turner came to know bears as individuals, and as a young teenager starting filming with her own video camera. “I was entranced. When you get to know them and look in their eyes, you see so much intelligence and personality.”
Today, at age 22 and working with her parents professionally at filmmaking, Turner determined the time was right to publicly oppose bear trophy hunting. “I realized that when we go out on location this spring it will be the same time as the spring trophy hunt starts again. It’s just appalling to me. It breaks my heart to think that one day we’re working with these bears and shooting them with our cameras, and the very next day trophy hunters can show up and shoot them with their high- powered rifles.”
Turner is organizing a rally today at 2 p. m. outside the legislature in Victoria that she hopes will attract hundreds in person and more via social media, with Tweets and text messages displayed on a three- by- four- metre screen ( for details, see bearmatters.com). Guest speakers will include Green party MLA Andrew Weaver and Vicky Husband, an Order of B. C. recipient and former campaigner with Sierra Club BC.
Turner said she is appalled that Premier Christy Clark has ignored overwhelming public sentiment — including that of Coastal First Nations and tourism companies — opposed to bear trophy hunting and has decided to expand grizzly hunting in the Chilcotin and Kootenay regions.