“You, the rifle, me, the cartridges ∕ A piece of crooked fir in the mouth ∕ On the trail of father’s snowshoes ∕ Do you remember that, little brother? – Tex Lecor, The Teapot
Posted yesterday at 5:00am
Hunting is part of my life. My grandfather Jobin used to hunt with his sons in the “cric à Lépine”, which is now a real estate project. My grandfather Pedneaud fed his family with game meat for many years. My father introduced me to hunting and I did the same with my son, my daughters didn’t see any interest in it.
In that year, freed from the burden of politics, I hunted more often than in the previous 12 years. It feels good. I even used my mom’s freezer to store my venison harvest! A great year.
At the end of the week, Carey Price made a public outing on the hunt at the height of his immense notoriety. Basically he’s asking for respect for hunters and supporting the demands of the Canadian Coalition for Gun Rights (funny name btw, do the guns themselves have rights?). This coalition fights to protect access to semi-automatic weapons, sometimes called assault weapons.
I always found it positive that stars get involved in politics, they are citizens too, it’s good that they fit into the city. But fame comes with responsibility.
The more our voice carries, the more carefully we must use it to ensure we make a solid and constructive contribution. Since celebrities have strong voices, sometimes it’s important to respond to them. This is the case here.
So before I tell you about my hunt this year, let’s talk politics for a bit.
The Canadian Coalition for Gun Rights, the group supporting Carey Price, created a “poly” promotional code to encourage the purchase of goods on their site. That kind of political aggressiveness makes you want to throw up. I was in college when 14 young women were shot in poly, they were my age. I think about it and I’m still shaking. 33 years later it is my daughters turn to study. It took the federal government 33 years to act. That also breaks my heart.
One of the t-shirts sold by the coalition with the “poly” discount has this logo: “Gun rights are women’s rights” (they don’t sell anything in French, which makes me very happy for once). This coalition brings us closer to America’s gun mania. We’re no longer talking about hunting, we’re talking about the principles that make the United States one of the most violent and deadly societies in the world. In supporting them, Price defends a particular vision of hunting and a particular vision of the place of guns in our society. He’s wrong on both counts. Owning a gun is a privilege, not a right. Hunting with an assault weapon is no longer a hunt.
A November morning
I sat on a small chair long before sunrise. I couldn’t see my hands. It was dark as in the wolf. Gradually the forest forgot my presence and began to live again. I had entered nature. A robin sang of approaching winter, a squirrel was looking for food to shelter from the snow, the wind was blowing and the cold was cracking the first branches. A hunter was hunting.
The sun began to rise behind the clouds. I watched the snow fall gently. I thought of my father, who would have liked to have been there.
Suddenly the farm dog howled. An animal was nearby. She appeared in great silence. I aimed. I could see her perfectly against the light. She ran in front of a fir tree, black on black, I couldn’t shoot anymore. I waited. A long time. She’s finally moved. When I was sure of my shot, I shot.
Alone in the field, I cleaned the animal, kept the innards, then brought it to safety to let the meat fester.
A few days later, thanks to resourceful friends, we butchered ourselves. Not an ounce of meat wasted, everything vacuum packed, meat with a zero ecological footprint. In the evening we feasted together.
The most beautiful book you can read about hunting was written by a Spanish philosopher, José Ortega y Gasset. It’s called meditation on the hunt. We read it like a patient hunt and enjoy every minute that passes. The best French edition is that of Septentrion, whose introduction is signed by a great environmentalist, Louis-Gilles Francœur. In particular, he teaches us that the first ecologists were hunters, that species hunted for sport are in better condition than many unhunted species, and that hunter associations have saved certain species threatened by urbanization.
I invite Mr. Price to read it. There we discover all the beauty of hunting and there is no mention of semi-automatic weapons anywhere.
correction
An amendment was made to the original version of this text to replace the term “automatic weapons” with “semi-automatic,” which more accurately describes a type of weapon that is at the center of current debate over federal law on certain weapons.