Fishing with Rod Discussion Forum
Fishing in British Columbia => General Discussion => Topic started by: chris gadsden on January 24, 2005, 04:19:57 PM
-
Just heard from Frank and it is now official The Williams Inquiry is coming to Chilliwack.
Now is the chance for you to speak up about the illegal fishing you saw on the Fraser this past season.
If possible all should attend as our fishing future and those of the fish hang in the balance.
The times are on Febuary the 21st from 10 am to 12:30, 2 to 5 and 7 to 9. No venue as far as I know.
Has anyone attended any of the other sessions yet? If so your impressions would be appreciated.
Will keep you posted with the meeting place when know.
-
Mr Williams is an ex Head of the Supreme Court and he's decided to ask people to testify under oath.
Of course he can't compel people to take the oath but he's said that any testimony not given under oath won't be taken as seriously.
This is a serious step on the part of the Enquiry and should make for some interesting testifying. ::)
A guy like him can't be fooled-he's seen/heard it all.
-
yes i am sure his years on the big bench make him qualified to set canada's social identity ,
however from all i have heard so far is that he and his masters have decided the missing salmon are the result of high water temperatures .remember the supreme beings court gave us the sparrow and delgamuck deciisions
-
Rerigger, did you get a chance to go to last Wednesday's review in Richmond? I didn't have time to get my document and photos ready. There is another one coming up in Richmond on Feb. 22, which I plan to attend. Other meetings are available as well, dates are listed on:
http://www.fishingwithrod.com/fishy_news/050114.html
-
The Chilliwack meeting is at the Rhombus Hotel.
-
no rod i wanted to go but all the snow and freezing rain put us waay behind at work and i didn't have time .
p.s.
i am sorry if my negative attitude bothers some of the younger members but as they age and watch our system [not] at work
their iternal optimism should begin to fade . >:(
-
From looking at the crowd/listening to what people have to say my impression is that it's the commercial fishermen who have their minds made up.
Rarely have I been in a room with a more sour negative bunch of whiners/crybabies.
-
i quess if your income went from $100,000.oo plus to less then $30,000.oo you would whine too. :-[
-
Here's Frank's summary and thought of the first session:
http://www.fishingwithrod.com/fishy_news/050127_1.html
-
Excellent article-really gives a good flavour of the Inquiry.
The room was something of a half moon shape with columns in the middle-whoever rented it had never seen it before I gaurantee you that-a lot of people couldn't see WTF was going on.
Hopefully the other meetimg will be help in rectangualr or square rooms to give everyone a decent view.
-
Remember if you live in the Chilliwack area or wish to travel to this session of the Salmon Inquiry it is being held this coming Monday at the Rombus Hotel.
Anyone from this forum planning to attend?
-
A reminder only as it is a chance to speak up about what so many have complained about the last couple of years.
-
Im just as guilty, but this is why stuff continues to happen if people dont get out there and make themselves heard.
The sure way to let garbage happen is for good people to sit back and do nothing.
Im one of those today, and Im not too proud of it. :(
Im assuming by the lack of interest in this thread that not too many went.
I hope Im wrong and get rightly abused for it! :)
-
I just returned from the inquiry. Spent the majority of the day there. It was both interesting and frustrating. Frustrating because I don't know how the inquiry board is going to sort out all of the "evidence" and bring forth recommendations that will solve the problems.
The meetings were quite well attended with the room at the Rhombus full part of the time. Lew Chater and I were there from this board and there could have been others. In my opiniion, the rift between sports and commercial fishers and the Cheam band will never be solved until DFO has the authority through its protocols to treat all groups equally. It IS NOT a level playing field when it comes to enforcement.
As to where did the 1.3 Million fish go.....the major question the inquiry is supposed to answer....I don't see a formal answer to this question ever being made public.
-
Interesting observations Terry, I'm sure I'll be hearing more of it from Frank in the next few days.
-
As Terry indicated, I was at the Williams Inquiry for 7 hours yesterday. While it was very interesting, it was also very frustrating. It becomes clear to me that the management of this resource i.e. salmon, is extremely complex and involves so many agencies, even Internationally (Pacific Salmon Commission) and use groups. It came out time and time again that the DFO doesn't have the resources needed to manage this complex resource. Some decisions have to made without proper scientific background, the enforcement branch is so short staffed and limited in their funding that they can't do their job properly.The enforcement staff have to work under "Protocols" that have been worked out by discussions with Native Bands that make it very difficult to enforce the law the same way for all user groups. Many decisions have been made at the upper level of DFO with very little apparent input from from the field as to whether this is a workable decision. I understand that many of the upper DFO directors etc, are in "acting positions", and there seems to be very little consistancy in the people who make these decisions. On top of all these problems, especially lack of funding, most departments in the DFO are looking at another approx. 20% cut again this year. You could just see the frustration in the faces of the various DFO field workers who are being hassled from all sides and yet are going to be able to even less this coming season.
Like Terry says, I don't know if this inquiry can ever come to a decision about the missing fish, but I hope that some progress can be made on how to manage the whole system better for our future.
Thanks to all the presenters from the Chilliwack area yesterday. It takes a lot of time and effort to do what you did. Thanks to Chris for his video tape of illegal nets that was shown even though Chris could not be there to present it.
-
Thanks to Terry and Lew for their observations and for taking the time to attend the marathon.
I unfortunatley was under the weather with the flu and did not have the energy to handle the stress level and lenght of this meeting. I have to thank Frank for picking up the 15 video's I prepared for all 15 of the Salmon Inquiry committee members and showing the 11 minute clip I prepared for a public viewing.
Hopefully all the submissions made by the recreational anglers and other concerned citizens in the Chilliwack and other cities where these hearings were held will get to the Federal Government and they finally do something so as to prevent an escalation of tensions on the Fraser River this summer.