Mr. Speaker, what is it about dealing with foreign fishing issues that makes our minister of oceans fold up like a deck of cards?
Whether foreigners are grabbing fish bound for Canadian waters on the west coast or engaging in a scorched earth policy on the east coast, the minister continues to put other fisheries ahead of our own.
Now we find that the minister has given the Makah natives a licence to hunt grey whale in Canada with an illegal high-powered 50 calibre weapon. In effect he is helping to destroy the international ban on whaling, licensing the use of an illegal 50 calibre weapon in Canada and putting Canadian lives in danger. Even the Humane Society is complaining.
Rather than extending a welcoming hand to Americans involved in this hunt the minister should be filing a formal protest to make sure the hunt never happens.
The minister has changed his mind four times on this hunt. Change it again, Mr. Minister. Do the right thing. Stop the hunting of grey whales.