VANCOUVER
A former Yellowknifer now living in B.C says fur protesters are targeting his Vancouver business because he sells clothing items trimmed with real fur.

Jason Overbo, originally from Yellowknife, cleans up after a protest in front of his store in Vancouver last fall. Overbo says members of the Vancouver Animal Defense League spend hours three days a week protesting in front of Brooklyn Clothing Vancouver because he sells Canada Goose parkas and other fur products. - photo courtesy of Jason Overbo

Jason Overbo said protesters, who spend a few hours two or three days a week in front of his store, are harassing passersby and publicly shaming people wearing fur products.

"We're talking about a dozen people holding an entire neighbourhood hostage," he said. "People don't understand how aggressive and how angry and how loud they are."

Overbo was born and raised in Yellowknife and opened his own clothing store, Brooklyn Clothing Vancouver in Yaletown, Vancouver, in 2003. The store primarily carries denim products, such as blue jeans, but Overbo also sells Canada Goose and Moose Knuckle parkas. Both companies use real fur on parka hoods and other clothing pieces.

Overbo said because he sells them, between six and 12 members of the Vancouver Animal Defense League have been protesting in front of his store every week since the beginning of November.

Megan Griffin, a volunteer with the league, said the group has launched a campaign against Canada Goose and other companies using fur. She said the goal is to protest as long as it takes for businesses to stop selling fur products.

"The reality of it is that Brooklyn Clothing isn't supposed to enjoy our tactics, that's the point of a protest," she said. "We're supposed to make this uncomfortable for them until they agree to adopt a fur-free policy. Of course they're going to complain about what we're doing. That's the nature of a protest and that's our goal."

Overbo said he agrees the group has the right to protest an issue they believe is wrong, but their methods go too far.

He said in addition to displaying graphic signs with images of animals being skinned, the group screams and chants loudly to garner attention, as well as publicly embarrassing anyone wearing fur clothing.

Griffin said the group does nothing illegal during their demonstrations.

"If there is someone wearing fur then, yeah, we'll shame them," she said. "We're not breaking the law."

Overbo said the group has also written slogans such as "dog fur sold here" on the sidewalk in front of his store.

Griffin said one of the coats manufactured by Italian company Parajumpers and sold in Overbo's store uses raccoon dog fur, a species of canine found in eastern Asia.

"It's not inaccurate to say that they sell dog fur, they sell raccoon dog fur. That's the name of the animal," she said.

Overbo said he believes the group's right to protest is now overshadowing his rights as a private business owner.

"Nobody is doing anything illegal here, not me, not Canada Goose. How is this acceptable?" he said. "That you can force somebody to your way of thinking just because you're willing to scream louder and longer than anyone else, that's how you affect change?"

Overbo said he believes the group is violating B.C.'s Safe Streets Act, which puts boundaries on solicitation in public places.

The act provides regulations about panhandling, squeegee kids, street vendors and fundraisers, but Overbo said he believes the act could also apply to the protesters.

The act states that soliciting "means communicating with another person for the purpose of receiving money or something else of value. It does not matter whether or not you are giving something in exchange."

According to the act, it is illegal for more than two solicitors to come up to a person at one time, to use abusive language, follow a person or continue to solicit someone who has said no or is ignoring the solicitor.

The Vancouver Police Department says the Safe Streets Act does not apply to protests, however.

Griffin said the group believes today's fur industry supplies the material for fashion, not warmth.

"In Vancouver or Tokyo or parts of Europe or the U.K., they're wearing these jackets because it's a trend and not because they need a piece of fur trim around their face to stop their face from freezing," she said.

"We're looking at tens of thousands of animals being slaughtered in the wild for the sake of fashion, for fur trim."

Griffin said that's why the group believes so strongly in educating the public about the modern fur trade.

"We want to talk to people about the cruelty and the suffering involved in the fur trade and simply how unnecessary it is when we're looking at people in cities that simply don't need to wear fur for warmth or survival," she said.

She said no matter what trapping and killing methods are used, the group doesn't believe animals should be killed for their fur.

Overbo said he has set a personal goal to not sell products manufactured in China by the end of the year.

He said offering products such as Canada Goose is one way to meet his goal.

"I think they're a socially responsible company," he said.

Overbo said when protests began in the fall, he attended a meeting with league representatives and offered to only sell North American products.

The group declined. Griffin said the point is to stop supporting the fur trade entirely, not just furs sourced from overseas.

"The ultimate goal is fur-free and I think it's pretty inappropriate to sort of point fingers at other cultures, like in China, and say, 'what they're dong is bad, but what we're doing here to fur bearing animals is humane,'" she said.

Griffin said the group plans to continue to protest at Brooklyn Clothing, but will scale back to one day a week during the summer.

She said they will pick up again in the fall if Overbo continues to sell fur products.

But Overbo said he doesn't plan to back down.

"If we don't stand up to them, then who is going to stand up to them?" he said.

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