John Cummins, M.P. Delta-South Richmond

News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 1, 2001

Letters to the Editor
The Daily Gleaner
984 Prospect Street W
P.O Box 3370
Fredericton, N.B. E3B 5A2

Dear Editor:

Re: Marshall Decision, February 28, 2001.

Following the Supreme Court of Canada's first Marshall decision, the Minister of Fisheries, Herb Dhaliwal, and various native leaders declared that the controversial decision applied to all Maritime fisheries including the lobster fishery.

Fearful that the Minister was indeed correct and alarmed for the future of their fishery, lobster fishermen immediately returned to the Supreme Court to seek a rehearing to clarify the application of the Marshall decision to lobsters.

In response, the Court issued a second decision saying the lobster fishermen's concern was based on a fundamental "misconception" or "misunderstanding of the scope" of the original decision.

"The issues of concern" to lobster fishermen, the Court said, "largely relate to the lobster fishery, and not the eel fishery, and if necessary, can be raised and decided in future cases that involve the specifics of the lobster fishery." The Marshall decision, it said, "related only to the closed season in the eel fishery."

The Court, in its second decision, went out of its way to affirm that the original Marshall decision related solely to "fishing eel out of season" and it "concluded that Marshall had established the existence and infringement of a local Mi'kmaq treaty right to carry on a small-scale commercial eel fishery."

The Minister of Fisheries states that nowhere in the second decision "did the Court say the treaty right is limited to eels." That's correct. Rather, the Court simply reaffirmed the original decision was limited to eels and declared that anyone who said otherwise was suffering from a fundamental misconception of the scope of the decision.

Mr. Dhaliwal understands this. Yet he, a Minister of the Crown, sworn to uphold the Constitution and discharge the responsibilities of his office, is now wilfully misrepresenting the words of the Supreme Court. While the law may be inconvenient for the Minister, it is no less the law.

Yours sincerely,

John Cummins

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For more information, please contact:

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