YARMOUTH, NOVA SCOTIA --"The unfortunate events of last night in New Brunswick are a dramatic reminder of what can happen when citizens are not equal in the eyes of the law," said John Cummins, M.P. (Delta-South Richmond).

"If blame is to be accorded for last night's events it must rest squarely on the shoulders of the Justices of the Supreme Court and federal Fisheries Minister Herb Dhaliwal."

The Supreme Court decision in Marshall was made out of whole cloth: the Justices took a two hundred and forty year old treaty where fish were not even listed as an item which the Indians were offering to exchange and granted them a priority right to fish for commercial purposes ahead of current licences holders.

"Last Friday the Minister failed to address this miscarriage of justice by the highest court in the land and left fishermen, their families and communities hung out to dry. Non-native fishermen are left without any real hope that they will have a place in the fishery."

In the 1992 the same policy was imposed on salmon fishermen in British Columbia as a governmental policy. It has been a disaster. In eight short years the salmon fishery on the Fraser River has gone from profitability to a ban on commercial fishing in 1999. Salmon fishermen have been idled-- no fish, no money.

The very same regulations which govern the fishery in British Columbia are now to govern the fishery in the Maritimes, the aboriginal fishing regulations.

The future for Maritime fishermen is bleak. Next year they will be left to fight for compensation. Under the regime contemplated by the federal government there will be little for them to catch.