Cohen named to lead sockeye inquiry
B.C. Supreme Court justice will conduct wide-ranging examination of province's fishery
By Scott Simpson, Vancouver SunNovember 7, 2009
For the fifth time in 29 years, British Columbia's wild salmon will be the subject of a formal government inquiry.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Bruce Cohen was named on Friday by Trade Minister Stockwell Day as the commissioner for a wide-ranging inquiry into the collapse of Fraser River sockeye salmon populations.
Previous investigations took place in 1980, 1992, 1994 and 2004 -- without a single, constructive outcome, Grand Chief Doug Kelly, a political executive with the First Nations Summit, commented.
Kelly said in an e-mail to the Vancouver Sun that the federal government might be wiser to give the Department of Fisheries and Oceans the money and staff to carry out its vaunted Wild Salmon Policy than to launch another inquiry.
Failing that, Kelly hopes the commission's terms of reference will be structured in a way that guarantees a recovery of the fish, including a focus on aquaculture impacts, and recognition of the role that Fraser salmon play as a food source for first nations along the river's sprawling drainage.
Day pegged the value of the salmon industry, aboriginal, commercial and sport, at $500 million a year and said Fraser sockeye were one of its cornerstones, and that the fish had additional social and cultural impacts.
"The commissioner will have the full range and capabilities to conduct this inquiry under the inquiries act," Day said in Vancouver. "He will be able to call to witness any person that he feels will be able to be helpful in terms of looking for the reasons for this decline and also what might be done to mitigate this in future."
Day said there are no restrictions on Cohen's investigation and details on the directions provided to him by government confirm that.
The government's directive on the inquiry calls for an overall focus on conservation of Fraser sockeye "without seeking to find fault on the part of any individual, community or organization."
Cohen is directed to examine DFO's management practices, its science, forecasting, enforcement and stock assessment regimes.
The Tories are also asking him to make findings on the causes of the decline, something DFO itself has avoided doing other than to suggest marine survival rates of juvenile sockeye are in decline.
Cohen is also directed to make recommendations for improving the future sustainability of the Fraser sockeye fishery.
"There has been an alarming decline in the return of sockeye to the Fraser River," Day said. "This is very concerning not just to the people of British Columbia but to our prime minister, and in fact it has broad implications well beyond our province."
A brief search of B.C. Supreme Court judgments indicates Cohen has not presided over any of the major, precedent-setting fisheries cases heard by the court over the past two decades.
He has, however, dealt with lesser cases involving first nations fishing rights, degradation of fisheries habitat and a business dispute involving a salmon farm.
Cohen has a strong interest in environmental issues. He was co-chair of the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice annual conference in Vancouver in 2006, which focused on sustainable development and the law.
Cohen also served on the committee that selected the agenda and speakers for that conference, where keynote speakers included former federal fisheries minister John Fraser -- who himself in 1994 chaired an inquiry into the plight of Fraser salmon.
Cohen also served on the electoral boundaries commission struck in 2005 by the government of B.C.
The only apparent constraint is that hearings not take place during the 2010 Olympics and Paralympics in Vancouver. Cohen must submit an interim report to the federal government by Aug. 1, 2010, and the final report by May 1, 2011.
ssimpson@vancouversun.com© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
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