PM's fishery plans challenged by First Nations leaders

Last Updated: Thursday, October 12, 2006 | 11:43 AM PT

CBC News

The Harper government's plans to get rid of segregated fisheries in B.C. won't stop aboriginal fishermen in the Fraser Valley from selling salmon, says a First Nations spokesman.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper had announced in July he plans to do away with "racially divided fisheries programs."

Then during his visit to Vancouver this week, he reiterated his intentions, saying Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn is working on several initiatives to reintegrate the native and non-native fisheries.

Harper said the constitutional rights of aboriginal people to a ceremonial fishery will be respected.

But Sto:lo fisherman and long-time First Nations advocate Ernie Crey says aboriginal fishermen in his community rely on selling salmon to make a living.

"Harper can do as he pleases, and in response, we'll do as we please. I understand that he is going to cancel what is known as the economic opportunity fishery program. We'll take him at his word that that's what he's going to do.

"But if he thinks it's going to have the outcome and the response from us that he believes it will, he has another thing coming."

'Playing the race card'

Other First Nations leaders have blasted Harper's latest comments in Vancouver that the aboriginal economic fisheries are race based.

"To come into our traditional territories and to openly state his racist assertions is an affront to First Nations in B.C. and a direct challenge to the courts," said Chief Judith Sayers of the First Nations Summit in a release issued Thursday.

Chief Stewart Phillip, the president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs has also spoken out on the issue, saying that aboriginal fisheries are "judicially recognized and enshrined in the Constitution."

He accuses Harper of looking for votes by "playing the provocative race card."

The federal government introduced the Aboriginal Fisheries Strategy in the early 1990s in response to a landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision that said First Nations' rights to fish have priority.