John Cummins, M.P. Delta-South Richmond

News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 12, 2000

Dhaliwal Unable to Explain His Actions

OTTAWA--John Cummins, M.P. (Delta-South Richmond) today in Question Period reminded the Minister of Fisheries that he had no basis on which to establish a native lobster food fishery in the Maritimes.

Question: Mr. Speaker, the Supreme Court of Canada said that Bud Sparrow had an aboriginal right to fish for salmon at the mouth of the Fraser River because his ancestors had done so from time immemorial.

In Van der Peet, the Supreme Court established the test for an aboriginal right such as Mr. Sparrow's. It said that for such a right to be recognized, the activity had to be a practice integral to the native society prior to contact with Europeans.

Does the Minister believe that the food fishery for lobster he has permitted on the East Coast meets the test in Van der Peet?

Supplementary: Earlier this year Prof. Stephen Patterson, the chief government witness in Marshall, provided evidence on behalf of the Minister to the Federal Court. He said he was not aware of any historical record of the Mi'kmaq catching lobster nor of Mi'kmaq stories or traditions relating to the catching or eating of lobster. Given there is no evidence of Mi'kmaq harvesting or eating lobster, there can be no basis for recognizing an aboriginal right to a lobster food fishery.

Since the Court is not driving the Minister's lobster food fishing agenda, what is?

In response the Minister completely ignored the test established in Van der Peet claiming that the Sparrow decision required him to provide a lobster fishery for food, social and ceremonial purposes. He later incorrectly accused the Canadian Alliance of wanting to use the not withstanding clause to negate the Marshall decision (something the Tories wanted to do), an option unavailable for section 35 decisions.

"The Minister would be well advised to take the advice of Chief Justice McLachlin in her dissenting opinion in the first Marshall decision and carefully interpret treaty and aboriginal rights or risk 'functioning illegitimately' by creating 'unintended right[s] of broad and undefined scope'," said Cummins.

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For more information, please contact:

John Cummins, M.P.
(613) 992-2957
(604) 970-0937 (Cell)