Times Colonist (Victoria)
Jan 31, 2007
Recently in the Times Colonist, D.C. Reid noted that "aboriginal activities have a big impact" on the salmon fishery. He referenced the Tsawwassen treaty and the diminishing access recreational and commercial fishermen will have as a result. No one familiar with the fishery could seriously disagree with his observations.
Only a year ago we had an election that produced a new government, yet the new minister sounds unmistakably like his Liberal predecessors.
In his letter, my colleague Loyola Hearn, Fisheries and Oceans Minister, would have us believe that treaties will have little impact on non-aboriginal fishermen. I would remind Hearn that there are more than 90 bands on the
If the fisheries allocations from these treaties were replicated for the 90-odd
The treaties and their side agreements would permit self-reporting and self-enforcement in treaty-based aboriginal fisheries. Self-reporting and self-enforcement in aboriginal fisheries on the Fraser have been a horror story.
As an opposition member of the House of Commons fisheries committee Hearn supported its unanimous decision calling for the end of race-based fisheries on the Fraser.
Now that the department is writing his press releases, Hearn seems to have forgotten the informed and principled position he once supported.
John Cummins, MP,