Dear Editor:

Stephen Hume is to be congratulated for bringing to light the letter to the U.S. President from Bergman and Haw pointing the finger at the US government's failure to uphold the terms of its treaty with Canada.

No doubt Bergman and Haw are too polite to point out how Canada has consistently failed to hold the U.S. accountable.

Canada's former Chief Salmon Negotiator, Ambassador Yves Fortier, in his letter of resignation earlier this year pointed to the failure of his own government to press home the issue even when they were given it in the form of a binding undertaking in 1997. That 1997 undertaking, Fortier pointed out, committed the US government to conclude an agreement if the stakeholder process failed to produce one. Yet nothing was done by either government.

Yves Fortier gives a litany of failures where the Canadian government failed to effectively respond to opportunities to press the issue home with the American government.