Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - September 22, 2000, Winnipeg, Manitoba A10 h 2000 editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights fishing for answers fisheries minister Herb Dhaliwal should take care not to create any martyrs at Burnt new his department yesterday announced renewal of enforcement action against aboriginal lobster fishing in Miramichi but it is not yet entirely certain that the fishery regulations the department Means to enforce stand on solid Legal the enforcement measures should be tailored to the ambiguities of the the threat of disorder at Miramichi Bay arose because former Ontario Premier Bob Rae withdrew from his role As Media Tor Between the Burnt Church band and the fisheries saying the two sides were too far apart for members of the band have been set Ting lobster traps with out departmental believing they have an aboriginal right to take the department threat ens to seize unlicensed the supreme court of Canada found last in a Case involving eel fishing by Donald mar that East coast Mikmak and Maliseet first nations have a right to Hunt and gather year round and without the based on treaties signed in allowed Ottawa to regu late fisheries but Only if restrictions Are previous High court rulings stressed that conserva Tion must be the first followed by native then nonnative commercial fishing and nonnative sport encouraged by the Marshall Burnt Church lobster harvesters have been scooping up lobsters without Federal licences and Selling without a court test or an the Public cannot be sure whether the Mikmak Fishers Are pillaging the resource irresponsibly or just exercising their Legal rights in a reasonable they Are clearly defying the authority of the fisheries but if the departments regulations Are not strictly necessary for conservation and that Point has not yet been tested in court then they May be difficult to the Federal court of Canada in Ottawa this week refused to Issue an injunction sought by the Indian Brook band at Nova which would have ordered the fisheries department not to seize lobsters traps and other gear from members of the the court said the Public interest is against creating a vacuum of authority with respect to the fishery resource until the necessary negotiations and consultations have taken to Grant this injunction to this band is to Grant it to every other band which is entitled to claim the Benefit of the peace and Friendship it May be that this is exactly what will happen once the Issue is decided on its but such a determination can Only be made after All the issues Are fully can including the Issue of Canada is now wrestling with the results of the vacuum of authority created by the Marshall Deci the Federal court has avoided deepening that the Federal courts ruling appeared Clear enough that it should not Call for a subsequent Clari like the one that followed the Marshall Rul Dhaliwal has been announcing for some weeks that he had lost patience with the Burnt Church As though someone should care about the ministers inner feelings and emotional his duty is to regulate the fishery within the Law and to see that others also respect the if he finds he lacks the patience for those demanding duties he should ask the prime minister to appoint another minister in his the Burnt Church natives cannot win simply by grabbing what they the fisheries department cannot win simply by flexing its enforcement mus a plan for lobster harvesting must eventually be accepted and that plan must preserve the species and must accommodate in a reasonable Way All those who have a right to har Vest the the sooner the department and the harvesters figure out How to write that the sooner peace will return to Miramichi term limits City councils executive policy committee is the right forum for opening a discussion about term limits for City the policy committee May not be Able to Settle the question but it can make sure that Winni Eggers who want their coun cil to work better have a Chance to weigh the merits of term the United states allows its president Only two Mexico turfs its presidents after these limits were adopted because experience showed in both cases that perpetuating them selves in can Block the efficient operation of democratic after intergovernmental affairs minister Jean Friesen has heard the discussion in she and the government will have to decide whether such a limit should be written into the City of Winnipeg that a coterie of Lon service councillors exercises disproportionate Power in the Council is they and the Council they dominate Are not Well placed to identify that problem and its but they can now open the judges suspicious of performance at his first Day in parliament m two faces of Manitoba Fate made them both sons of Winnipeg North end and dictated that they not Only served their province at the same time but even chose the same Day to confirm their but Fate was All that Manitoba two most influential politicians of the 1980s and 1990s had in com foreign affairs minis Ter Lloyd Axworthy and former Manitoba pre Mier Gary Filmon both made official their Long anticipated resignations earlier this Fil Mon is actually gone he gave up his legislature seat at an emotional news Axworthy will continue to serve at the pleasure of prime minister Jean perhaps until the next Federal those who know both men knew of their Abid ing personal after the bruising experience of the 1997 red River when each Felt betrayed and used by the Axworthy let it be known that he wanted to see Filmon Defeated in the next provincial their intense Mutual dislike was far More than simply the abrasion of two Large egos serving different parties and different Levels of government jousting for maximum political advantage but compelled by circumstance to work they Are the political antitheses of one with fundamentally opposed ideologies and world As a Young Axworthy was strongly influenced by social activist and United Church minister Charles the win Ner of a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship upon graduation from United now the University of Axworthy received his doctorate in International relations from Princeton University in 1972 and became a pro Fessor of political science and founder of the University of Winnipeg Institute of Urban by Filmon graduated in electrical engineering but immediately entered the corporate his father Laws Success business Axworthy sees government As a change the Best tool for achieving the better ment of the human Filmon sees government As a minimalist Public trustee set Ting the table and then getting out of the Way to allow business and individuals the freest pos sible play of Market both leave Public life while Axworthy launched his political career during the idealistic 1960s Era of his Youthful Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy in the and Lester Pearson and Pierre Trudeau in he ended it in the decidedly no vision antigovernment Era of global he fought and lost every Cabinet Battle on Trade and social but regained some of his crusading Bona fides in the less contested Arena of foreign Filmon suffered the opposite operating in an ideologically congenial he came to believe in his own invincibility to the Point he created the internal climate allowing his party to dab ble in the dark Art of political corruption and election probably nothing better illustrates the com promises Axworthy made with himself to continue to serve in Public life than the momentous Issue of free Trade with the on june then International Trade critic for the official opposition Rose in the House of commons to launch his party Battle against the Mulroney governments controversial the he was the precursor to economic and political Union with the we Are debating the Independence of what we Are Deal ing with is the dismantling of a mixed we Are dealing with the evisceration of a Polit ical we Are dealing with an abandonment of the historic a decade he saw himself fulfil his own at the 1998 Summit of the in his capacity As foreign affairs sat Down with his american and mex ican Madeleine Albright and Rosario to begin negotiations on a framework for the Continental integration All three had agreed was now Filmon never had to endure having his political ideals peeled but the taint of scandal staining the end of his career clearly affected he wept openly on election then when he stepped Down from the tory leadership and when he resigned his Tuxedo these two powerful Manitoban share another thing in common they testify to the perils and the personal Price of Public Frances Russell is a Winnipeg political her column appears on Salmon follow the Bison Trail the hot topic in the states of Washington and Oregon these Days is How to save the environmental groups aroused a lot of interest Early this year for a plan to tear Down four dams on the Snake a tributary of the but the longer that idea is kicked the less appealing it the Clin ton White House announced in july that it favoured other Mea sures to save the Salmon and thought breaching the Snake River dams should be considered 10 years hence if the other measures the weakness in the Clinton White House reasoning is that failure of the other measures would be seen 10 years hence in extinction of the at that breaching the dams would not save the fish the weakness in the argument for breach ing the dams is that it May make no difference to saving the wild they Are dwindling in account of All the other dams on the Columbia River and its on account of pollutants in the on account of Salmon fish on account of Hatcher spawned Salmon that dominate the the Rivers of the Pacific Northwest Are now engineered strings of not wild Salmon and the cities that line their Banks Are not about to Dis As i listened to a discussion about these issues recently in my mind wandered briefly to the Here on the there were probably so million Bison ranging freely Over the Plains when the Selkirk settlers got Here in by when Louis Riel made a last stand for the Plains Way of life at the Prairie Bison were virtually the extermination of the Bison is a heart rending tale in with the special sadness of a species whose extinction took with it an associated human As i heard the Story of the Salmon in the Snake River and the Mea sures that might be attempted to preserve i wondered if the Salmon can be pre i also wondered if the Bison could have been saved or should have the wild Bison could have been saved if the grasslands had not been turned into farmlands and if railways and roads had not severed their migration routes and brought slaughtering Par ties of Hunters among the Bison would have needed both some High ground for their summer grazing and some sheltered lower ground among the Trees for their Winter Pas they would have needed ranges amount ing to a couple of Canadian provinces and several states so that they could flee from regions of drought and fire to find forage else what this amounts is a program forbidding human settlement in much of West Ern Canada and the Western United knowing what i know that we have thriving human communities and no Bison in these would i prefer to have Bison and no no no roads and railways i cant say i like that answer Washington and nearby they May find that the Trade off is equally if they want Power to run the Coffee machines in they must have either Power or nuclear plants which Are not a popular i very much doubt that they can have both Power dams on the necessary scale and wild Salmon in the the Clinton administration believes they but the Clinton administration is not going to stick around to find by the time the last wild Salmon goes out to never to return to its spawning the Clinton administration will be Long gone from the you hear a deep sentimental attachment to the Salmon when people from the Pacific coast states talk about the it seems taken for granted that the wild Salmon must be saved at any i Hope technical Means can be found that taxpayers will accept and that in restore the Salmon in the i expect to hear politicians loudly blaming canadians for exterminating the because the safest course in any such difficult situation is to blame the for i have a sickening that the Columbia River Salmon stand about where the Bison stood about the Brink of extinct i suspect that postindustrial society and the wild Salmon cannot coexist any More than wheat Fields and free roaming Bison can co i suspect that there Are not really any Tough decisions for people in the Pacific coast states to make about Salmon the die is already Terence Moore is a free press editorial his column appears on Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune esl 1890 vou20nq276 200q Winnipeg free a division of newspapers division of Thomson Canada limited published seven Days a week at 1355 Mountain Manitoba r2x pm 6977000 a member the Manitoba press Council Rudy email Nicholas Patrick editor ;