Consultation or Confrontation – Newfoundland and Labrador
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By Myles Higgins
Consultation or Confrontation, those are the words being spun by Conservative Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn in his current media blitz, leading to the latest round of NAFO discussions. Great alliteration huh, can’t you just picture those Ottawa spin doctors sitting around some boardroom table, sipping latte’s and trying to come up with that catchy phrase? A phrase intended to placate the public about their mishandling of the fisheries and to stick in our collective mind like “Make my day†or “Where’s the beef?â€, which are my thoughts exactly. Where the hell is the beef in that statement and when will Mr. Hearn or anyone else in Ottawa go ahead and, “make my dayâ€?
Of course the fisheries minister’s plan is consultation, but I’m sure I didn’t need to tell you that. Just the fact that Ottawa feels the need to feed Canadians a catchy phrase about how they plan to either slow down or speed up the destruction of North Atlantic fish stocks says it all doesn’t it? I say speed up or slow down the destruction because if you’re like me, a long hard look at the results to date leaves me wondering exactly which it is they’re trying to accomplish.
When Loyola Hearn sat on the opposition benches he knew what needed to be done and he knows it now. Custodial management of the fisheries and Canadian control of the Grand Banks was, and is, the only solution. Now that he’s gotten the big job, like his predecessors, Mr. Hearn seems to feel that talk is the best course of action. Sorry Loyola, but the time for talk is over. That foreign fishing ship has sailed.
For decades Atlantic Canadians have watched a once vital and vibrant resource dwindle and die. For just as long we’ve have heard politician after politician promise to resolve the issue of over fishing through NAFO and for as many years those discussions have done nothing to improve the situation. In fact they may even have done more harm than good. Today there are hundreds of foreign ships raping the Grand Banks while, as local comedic talent Buddy Wasisname said about the state of the fishery, “since the moratorium we been feeding Kraft Dinner to the gullsâ€.
I know the truth, the fishers know the truth and Loyola Hearn certainly knows the truth, even if he won’t admit it these days. Simply put, NAFO is a useless organization made up of greedy countries all looking for a piece of the pie when it comes to the fishery off our shores. Talking about protecting fish stocks today is not going to get Canada any further than it got anyone else over the years and that’s a fact. During the election campaign, the Conservative party and Mr. Hearn specifically, promised to invoke custodial management if elected. So what happened? Come on Loyola, stop the BS and do your job!
Eventually, and perhaps sooner than you would like, another election will be rolling around the corner. Don’t expect to come back to Newfoundland and Labrador telling everyone about your great accomplishments in the fisheries portfolio. Don’t expect to come back with renewed talks of taking control of our waters and invoking custodial management. You’ve already played that card Mr. Hearn and you don’t get to play it twice. In fact, don’t come back to the province at all unless you are willing, before the road to the next election campaign even begins, to send some navy ships out to the Grand Banks, invoke custodial management and start firing across the bows of anything that moves out there bigger than a sea gull.
The people of Atlantic Canada are watching you very closely Mr. Hearn and you can bet that commentaries like this one will continue to become more and more common as the next election approaches. The time for talk is over. The time for action is now. Get some gun boats and send them forth before it’s too late and start blowing some boats out of the water. Mr. Hearn, it’s time to start representing your people to Ottawa and stop representing Ottawa to your people.
@ August 30, 2006