Save Smooshi | The Walrus and the Whistleblower
Known in the media as the walrus_whisperer, Phil Demers has amassed 27,000 followers, appeared four times on the Joe Rogan show, testified before the Canadian Senate, and is being sued for $1.5 million for plotting to steal Smooshi the walrus from Marineland, Ontario, Canada.
The Walrus and The Whistleblower is a powerful story that has been bubbling away in this town for decades. Local filmmaker Nathalie Bibeau follows Phil as he champions a law to ban the captivity of whales and dolphins, faces a lawsuit entering its 8th year, and spirals around an aching loss of identity.
Marineland launched a series of legal assaults and intimidation tactics - threatening and suing media and
whistleblowers like Phil in an attempt to silence the truth.
⚠ WARNING STRONG LANGUAGE ⚠
Watch the full Documentary on Amazon Prime US / Amazon Prime UK / iTunes CA
Philip Demers, former head trainer of Marineland's stadium show revealed details of water quality issues, short staffing and several incidents of animal neglect/cruelty. The deteriorating health of Smooshi the walrus inspired his decision to speak. He is being sued for "plotting to steal a walrus", an illegitimate claim to say the least.
Phil and Smooshi had become an inseparable pair when she first arrived at MarineLand as a baby, and together they became a viral sensation in the early days of social media. He gave her a sense of security, she gave him a sense of purpose. Now, he's embroiled in a stranger-than-fiction custody battle to #savesmooshi.
Today Phil Demers is a part-time mailman who lives in a bungalow across the creek from MarineLand, the iconic amusement park in Niagara Falls, where he had his dream job as an animal trainer for over a decade. He swam with killer whales and ran the show, until he quit and blew the whistle, making claims of animal abuse and calling for an end to the near 60-year-old practice of keeping marine mammals in pools.
Nathalie Bibeau
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
“As a journalist and storyteller, I have been watching his story roll out online for over a decade. I was working as a producer at the CBC when I first saw him make headlines as a mother figure to a walrus named Smooshi. He was working as an animal trainer at MarineLand, a giant amusement park in our hometown’s backyard, a place my parents loved to take me as a kid.
At the time, there were a handful of protesters outside the gates, but they were perceived by locals to be marginal characters in a sidelined conversation that didn’t relate to the rest of us.
The summer Phil broke news as a whistleblower, and the protests exploded, I had just left my job to make independent films. It was a huge story, and I was shocked. Suddenly, the kid who didn’t seem to care about much at all when we were growing up was taking on one of the brightest legacies in the region that had put us on the tourist map.
It took me a long time to decide to make this film. Years, in fact. I kept an eye on the story, but it felt too close to home and the risk was great. I had heard about the lawsuits launched against whistleblowers and the media, I still thought of Phil as an adolescent shit disturber, and I had happy memories of MarineLand.
But as time passed, I felt the paradigm shift around the issue. My questions grew louder, and I realized that what was keeping me from telling the story were the very reasons I needed to do it.”
Watch the full Documentary on Amazon Prime US / Amazon Prime UK / iTunes CA
