Mr. Speaker, last year on August 26 I went fishing in a native only commercial fishery. My vessel was immediately boarded by DFO officers and I was charged. Now six months later I have been quietly informed by the government that it will not be proceeding with the charges against me. They cannot make them stick. In allowing for a racially exclusive fishery, the minister has exceeded his authority and defied the B.C. Court of Appeal.
However, the government will still have to defend its actions in court. Last fall I filed a statement of claim in the Supreme Court of British Columbia asking the court to declare that the minister acted improperly in excluding commercial fishermen from the native only fisheries. The government will not be able to avoid the issue; it will have to answer to the judge.