(This
column was published in the North
Shore News on
May 2, 2001)
Time in the can for illegal salmon sale justified
By Leo Knight
WHEN
Melford Williams was sentenced to 30 days in jail for selling
salmon caught in a so-called native food fishery, there was a
certain inevitability to hearing aboriginal leaders start
screaming. Especially Ernie Crey, fisheries manager of the
Sto:Lo nation, which has long been the target of federal
fisheries officers.
Now,
it must first be understood that what Williams did is common
practice among our coastal native brethren. Ask any fish and
wildlife officer, you don't have to believe me. The whole
concept of a fishery for "food and ceremonial"
purposes only is a bad joke perpetrated on the citizens of this
country by the oh-so-politically-correct governments we are
saddled with.
So
too, is the nonsense spewed forth by the First Nations people
about how only they are the stewards of nature.
Conservation
officers throughout the province have filing cabinets stuffed to
overflowing with cases aptly demonstrating the converse is true.
Whether stretching nets across the Fraser River or using bright
lights to kill deer at night (a process called pit-lamping),
they continually break every common sense rule of conservation
and then hide behind the "food and ceremony"
provisions they are allowed.
Now
don't get me wrong in this. If the salmon taken from the Fraser
was used solely for feeding the native's family then there is no
issue. But does anyone really believe that?
It
doesn't matter which reserve you are talking about, you can
easily go and buy salmon at any time of year. By any definition
that is a commercial use of the fish. Never mind the tons of
fish that are routinely trucked down to Bellingham by some
aboriginal fishermen. Or the restaurants that buy directly out
of the trunks of cars.
No,
what happened to Melford Williams when he got caught selling
over a thousand pounds of salmon to a Port Coquitlam Japanese
restaurant was appropriate. The problem is that for years our
courts have been afraid to do much more than give a small
financial penalty for those caught breaking the law and raping
our rivers.
Now
that a court has finally taken a stronger position the native
leaders are screaming foul. And with that the usual threats
start. We can now expect another year of confrontation and
violence on the Fraser between militant natives and fisheries
officers trying to protect a dwindling resource.
For
the record, I'm not saying the native fisheries are the only
reason the West Coast salmon fishery is dying. But, they are
certainly part of the problem, whether they wish to admit it or
not. Personally, I believe the big seiners, which operate off
the coast, should be outlawed by our country and the U.S. as
well, whatever the big corporate interests think about it. But
that's another column.
The
thing that irks in this issue is the way political correctness
gets in the way of the discussion. When the Chief of the Cheam
Band, June Quip, says "We disagree strongly" with the
court's decision and says the bands along the Fraser will be
meeting to discuss their response, we all know what is coming.
Yet, Quip is not publicly decried for the threatening
implications. Why not?
Bill
Wilson, an executive officer of the seemingly endless First
Nations Summit was quoted in The Province as calling the
sentence, "disgusting." I suppose the rape and
pillaging of our rivers and oceans for nothing more than money
is fine as long as it is a native doing it.
The
once bountiful Adams River salmon run is now in serious danger
of extinction. The Capilano River mouth used to teem with
salmon. No longer.
This
country, at some level, has to say "no more" to being
held hostage to political correctness. This is not a
native/white issue any more than property crime is a rich/poor
issue. It is no more complicated than a right/wrong issue.
It
is wrong to rape nature's resources for any reason. It is right
to use nature's resources in an appropriate and sustainable
manner.
It
is wrong to allow any one group to dominate the issue simply
because of ancestral guilt or the fear of offending. It is also
wrong to allow the lawlessness of blockades, guerrilla actions
and armed attacks on federal officers.
Look
back at the situation from Burnt Church last summer on the East
Coast. Get used to the images, because in all likelihood that's
what is coming to a river near you this year.
All because, finally, a judge did the right thing.
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