OTTAWA--"Even the Musqueam now acknowledge the illegality of the native-only commercial fishery. It's now time for the Minister of Fisheries to do the same," said John Cummins, M.P. (Delta-South Richmond).

Last year the B.C. Supreme Court gave the Musqueam Band an injunction ordering commercial fishermen not to interfere with their "lawful" fishery on the Lower Fraser.

"In what only can be described as a shameless act, the Musqueam went to B.C. Supreme Court on August 12th to have last year's order amended by deleting all references to a "lawful" native commercial fishery."

After reviewing Judge Thomas' August 6th decision declaring that the fishery was illegal and that the federal government had "chosen to disregard the law" by continuing it, the B.C. Supreme Court not only agreed to delete all references to a "lawful" native fishery but went on to delete the whole section that contained the word "lawful".

Neither the natives in their request for an amendment nor the B.C. Supreme Court in its amendment order questioned the illegality of the native-only commercial fishery. Both agreed that all references describing it as "lawful" were to be removed.