Mr. Speaker, I rise for the 30th time on behalf of the Nuu-chah-nulth on their right to catch and sell fish. A week and a half ago, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Mary Humphries found that Canada had failed to justify its infringement of the rights of the Nuu-chah-nulth people. The judge found that Canada, in large part, had not justified how it addressed, or failed to address, the aboriginal right since its declaration. This means that Canada has not lived up to its constitutional obligations. Canada has wrongly applied regulations and policies to the first nation that unreasonably restrict its rights and has not fulfilled its obligation to provide allocations that allow for the exercise of the right in a viable fishery.
In paragraph 1771, she said:
Nevertheless, in my view, the plaintiffs have obtained a large measure of the relief they sought before Garson J. That is, the prima facie infringements she found to exist within the legislative, regulatory and policy regime have in large part not been justified. Accommodations have been offered, some appropriate, some inadequate.
She identified ministerial stonewalling. The judge found that the Minister of Fisheries stymied or stonewalled negotiations by failing to provide a negotiating mandate to those local officials. She noted that there was “the lack of a meaningful mandate from Ottawa” and pointed out that local DFO managers' “attempts to move forward were stymied by the Minister.” This is in paragraph 665.
The following quote is typical of many in the judgment. Paragraph 798 states:
Overall, however, Canada through DFO has the responsibility to represent the honour of the Crown. The lack of a mandate and Ottawa's stonewalling of suggestions for advancing the development of a right-based fishery are significant factors in the failure of the process to move forward. Ottawa failed to allow the Regional staff to engage meaningfully and wholeheartedly in the Negotiations, at least until the Supreme Court of Canada refused leave the second time. As the plaintiffs repeatedly pointed out, there is no evidence before the court of any engagement by Ottawa staff on this fishery, other than the occasional signature on a Briefing Note, and reference to one meeting with a ministerial assistant which was not coordinated with local managers.
This has not changed, despite two and a half years of a Liberal government and unfulfilled promises of the recognition of rights and a new relationship. Canada needs to change its approach now to implement the right. If the Liberals wanted to carry on the mandate of the Harper government, I congratulate them, because they just did that.
The ministers need to champion the term sheet with cabinet. The one thing the minister has done since coming into office is appoint Joe Wild to lead a reconciliation table with the nations to develop an agreed upon approach to implementing the right. Through that process, federal and Nuu-chah-nulth negotiators have come to a term sheet whereby they have set out a model that will allow the implementation of this right and the broader reconciliation of the nations' fishing interests with Canada. That agreed upon approach has been stuck or stymied at the cabinet level for many months now.
Almost two years ago, in a meeting with the Nuu-chah-nulth nations in Ottawa, in June 2016, the three responsible ministers, fisheries, justice, and crown indigenous relations, promised action on this file for the nations, yet the agreed upon term sheet has been stalled in cabinet. Will these three ministers champion the term sheet and ensure that it gets the necessary cabinet support to fulfill the government's commitments to the Nuu-chah-nulth?
Instead of trying to narrow the aboriginal right, why does the government not focus on living up to its commitments and support these indigenous fishing communities in rebuilding their local fishing economies and culture? The nations need real fishing opportunities that support their aboriginal right to a commercial fishery. The piecemeal approach, like the licences offered earlier this year, is not going to achieve that, and it certainly is not going to achieve true reconciliation.