Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans.
Earlier today I released a confidential coast guard document written by the director of operational services for the coast guard that states “...penetration of submerged or capsized vessels...is prohibited... This is not open to interpretation.”
Diver Rick Foreman, who was on the scene at the sinking of the Cap Rouge II , said:
Conditions were absolutely perfect to penetrate that vessel. With something like low visibility, it would have been dangerous. But it wasn't, it was perfect. We just couldn't do it. And for those people, for those kids, that was bad. It was all bad”.
How can the minister possibly justify the cover up that the JRCC had the discretion when nobody in the coast guard knew about it at all?