Just when we thought our prime ministerial jackass had given the West Coast his worst, he pulls another trick on us. This time it's all about giving free licence to poachers besetting our shellfish and fish stocks.
Was a time, pre-Harper, when the Department of Fisheries & Oceans actually attended to things like fisheries and, well, oceans. Not so much any more. It seems Harper didn't want them saying anything unpleasant about his Northern Gateway fantasy - stuff like bitumen spills and tanker accidents and marine habitat stuff. So, in keeping with his responsibility to Canada, he shut them down, laid them off and gutted our fisheries and navigation regulations. He even moved the West Coast oil spill emergency centre to Quebec where it would be, you know, out of the way. And then he shut down all but two of our Coast Guard stations. Neat tricks, eh? But I digress, this is about poachers.
With all those Fisheries & Oceans people no longer around, Harper has decided we can do without fishery enforcement. In lieu of that, he's come up with a new programme, one that'll save the taxpayers money. It's called "self-assessment."
In August, Oceanside residents Eileen Becker and Monica Stuart began lobbying local councils to do something about commercial harvesters, posing as tourists, stripping the area's beaches of geoducks, clams and oysters.
They want the area's local governments to lobby the province to consider making the 17-kilometre-long waterfront Parksville-Qualicum Wildlife Management Area a biological park. In the interim, they want more enforcement of catch quotas and other regulations from DFO.
Qualicum Beach Mayor Teunis Westbroek raised the matter with DFO officials at the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in Vancouver last month.
"It's now self-assessment, not enforcement," he says, noting he's not entirely clear on what "self-assessment" entails.
"DFO is much-weakened," says Westbroek, a commercial fisherman for 35 years and a former Canadian representative to the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission. "It's not encouraging... They have definitely reduced resources."
When he pressed for an explanation of "self-assessment," he was told it's "an enhanced complaint procedure, not enforcement" based on "observe, record, report."
There, however, the process seems to stop.
12 comments:
Poacher 'self-assessment'? That's funny. But what else would one expect in Harpertown?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IK1nvEMqPo
As I recall, Mound, the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway operated under the same kind of "self assessment" regime.
The people of Lac Megantic can testify about how well that worked out.
If people know of Harper when, he was Policy Chief for his, Northern Foundation of 1989? Harper's bizarre behavior, is perfectly understandable. Harper is a dictator and a, paranoid control freak.
We went to war so we wouldn't have, such as Harper running this country.
I believe you're right, Owen. Harper also allowed meat packers to regulate their own food safety standards and we know how well that turned out. Yet he's not a stupid man which means he must be pernicious. He must intend the logical consequences of his acts. He must not care even when other pay for his indifference with their lives.
"Yet he's not a stupid man....."
Where the fuck is this coming from? Harper is a vile, vindictive and stupid man who would destroy a progressive country in the name of, well, Harper.
The sooner we get rid of this idiot, the better it will be for Canadians.
I'm with Anon at 12:56
Obviously Harper would prefer the shellfish and fish stocks to be already depleted (like the east coast already) so his oily nightmare can't be blamed for the demise.
No, Harper isn't stupid. He's gotten the better of Martin, Dion and Ignatieff in turn. He's devious and, as I said, pernicious but anyone who writes him off as stupid is just playing into his hands.
"...but anyone who writes him off as stupid is just playing into his hands."
And anyone who attributes intelligence to his character is also playing into his hands.
Einstein said that true intelligence possesses true humility. And Stephen Harper does not possess humility, true or otherwise.
Harper has the best networking team behind him Mound, and clearly, it's extremely well funded. I too think you give him too much credit. IMHO he's little more than a front man, a shiny face, as my brother used to say, or a branch manager for the real power at best.
Take Foreign Affairs as example, cringe worthy on it's best day.
Okie, Harper may be in service to others but he's as shrewd and cunning as they come. He defeated Martin on scandal but when the scandal was his own he turned the election tables on his opponents, transforming the votes into referendums on Dion and Ignatieff.
"...Harper may be in service to others but he's as shrewd and cunning as they come."
And the total fuck up with Nigel, Mike and Pam is the exception that proves the rule?
Full disclosure: are you on retainer with the the Harper PMO? Have you ever worked with the Harper PMO?
Oh god, are you back
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