Cheam seek court solution to conflict
Shelley and Jay Hand from Abbotsford fish with their seven year-old daughter Beth on the banks of the Fraser River Wednesday evening. KARI MEDIG/PROGRESS
By Robert Freeman
The Progress
Aug 05 2005
The Cheam First Nation is expected to seek a court injunction today (Friday) in Victoria to keep sports fishermen out of their claimed fishing areas on the Fraser River.
But Cheam Chief Sidney Douglas says the injunction is aimed only at five limited areas on the river between the Agassiz-Rosedale bridge and Herrling Island where Cheam fishers are using drift nets and need "clear passageway" to avoid clashing with recreational anglers fishing from the gravel bars and shores with rod and reel.
He says most anglers are "reasonable and move out of the way, but there are some others who aren't so accommodating."
"We're not trying to shut the whole sport fishery right down," he says. "We just want the best opportunities for our fishermen."
Native fishermen have only limited fishing times, he points out, while recreational anglers have virtually unlimited access.
"We've been limited to our fishery, and we've got to make the best use of what little time we have," he says.
Phil Eidsvik at the B.C. Fisheries Survival Coalition calls the Cheam move "duplicitous" since it comes as sports and native fishermen have been holding talks aimed at easing tensions on the Fraser River.
"It's a public river, owned by the people of Canada," he says. "They have no more right to be there than we do."
Bill Otway, president of the Sportfishing Defence Alliance, says he is not surprised the Cheam are seeking a court order at the same time they are engaged in the talks to resolve the conflicts between sport and native fishermen.
"It's a ridiculous situation to start with, but they have no basis in fact for a claim," he says, because there has been no "interference" in any legal native fisheries by sports anglers.
"If they don't get an incident, I don't see how they can go (to court for an injunction)," he says.
The Cheam claim in the injunction application that a July 23 opening this year for native fishers was "significantly impeded" by the large number of sports fishermen fishing for salmon.
"The large numbers of sports fishermen present in these channels made it difficult for the Cheam fishermen to use their drift nets to carry out the authorized food fishery," the Cheam claim, and as a result of this "overcrowding by sports fishermen" the Cheam fishers obtained "significantly lower catches than expected."
Frank Kwak, a sport fishing representative at the talks with native fishermen, says recreational anglers are "very disappointed" with the Cheam legal action, but he says it won't "derail" the dialogue process.
"There are some other issues we can deal with First Nations as a whole," Kwak says. "We feel we have some common ground on some issues with some of them."
"However, the Cheam (injunction application) has kind of put a crinkle in the (dialogue) process, as far as the Cheam are concerned," he says.
Chief Douglas says the Cheam also want to continue the talks.
"We still want to work with the recreational fishermen, but we feel there are certain sports fishermen that don't agree with us fishing in the same waters," he says.
Kwak says lawyers for the recreational fishers will oppose the injunction in court, arguing that "the province does not give the waterway to the native bands, even though a river runs through their supposed territory. We're hoping they can't do this."
According to a copy of the injunction application obtained by The Progress, the Cheam are claiming
"exclusive control" over fishing areas within the territory claimed by the Pilalt tribe.
"At the time of assertion to British sovereignty in 1846, the Pilalt held aboriginal title to the (area), including the beaches, banks, bars, islands and bed of the Fraser river," the statement of claim asserts.
The Cheam are also claiming federal fisheries officials have "effectively" given priority to non-aboriginal sport fisheries over aboriginal food fishing rights.
"The limited number of aboriginal openings and the short notice of those openings makes it very likely that there will be members of Cheam who will be unable to satisfy even their basic food fishery requirements for the year 2005," the claim states. "If the Cheam fishermen are unable to satisfy their food fishing needs in the course of the openings permitted by DFO, there will be Cheam members, including elderly people and children, who will suffer hardship this year, as the sockeye food fishery is essential to the sustenance of many Cheam families."
Both sport and commercial fishing groups also complained about short notice of the injunction application given by the Cheam, which left them little time to arrange legal representation at Friday's court hearing.
Otway says the SDA received no formal notice of the application, but learned about it from anglers who were handed notices as they fished from Fraser River gravel bars.
However, he adds that he's not surprised the Cheam have gone to a Victoria court for the injunction, instead of a Fraser Valley court, because the judges there know "dick all" about Fraser River fishing issues.
Chief Douglas says the Victoria court was the closest one to the Cook Roberts legal firm representing the Cheam.
rfreeman@theprogress.com
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Topic: Angling On The Fraser Threatened, Cheam File Injunction (Read 73458 times)