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[chris gadsden]

Filmed the introduction to the Cohen Inquiry in Chilliwack last night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CxIy7Szyfs

[alwaysfishn]

What did you think of the meeting Chris? Did many folks get an opportunity to provide some worthwhile input?

I was planning on going but got into a few fish and couldn't tear myself away fro the river.....   

[chris gadsden]

What did you think of the meeting Chris? Did many folks get an opportunity to provide some worthwhile input?

I was planning on going but got into a few fish and couldn't tear myself away fro the river.....   

Very good presentation by some very thoughtfull people I thought, not well attended by others. All submissions will be on the Inquiry's web page shortly they said.

[chris gadsden]

JOHN CUMMINS, M.P.
Delta- Richmond East

News Release

November 8, 2010

Cohen's Interim Report Gets an "F"

OTTAWA-- The Cohen Inquiry has issued its first report three months
late. The report weighs in at 680 grams or nearly 1½ pounds and has 302
pages. If prizes were awarded for weight or number of pages the report
would be given high marks; for content it warrants an "F".

The Inquiry was established on November 5, 2009 and was ordered to
submit an interim report by August 1st setting out Justice Cohen's
assessment of (i) previous investigations he considered relevant to his
inquiry into the Fraser River salmon fishery and (ii) the government's
action to implement their recommendations.

The dictionary says that an "assessment" evaluates or judges the value
or quality of something. Cohen was never asked to summarize previous
studies, he was asked to evaluate or judge the value or quality of both
them and the government's response.  He did neither.

Cohen failed on all counts.  His interim report does not contain any
substantive assessments. Nowhere in the 302 pages of his report did he
evaluate or judge the value or quality of previous studies or of the
government's response to them.  

Instead of selecting investigations which were directly relevant to his
inquiry, Cohen simply summarizes the recommendations of 22 different
reports.  Some were noteworthy but most were inconsequential.  

Instead of making substantive assessments of how the government
implemented or failed to implement recommendations, he merely summarized
in point form what the government claimed to have done.  

Fishermen have not forgotten that the investigations by Peter Pearse,
John Fraser and Bryan Williams all heard considerable evidence of
widespread and ongoing problems in the administration and enforcement of
aboriginal fisheries. Their reports contained a long series of
recommendations with regard to addressing the problems in the
administration and enforcement. This interim report paid scant attention
to these issues.  

There are many references to the Supreme Court's decision in Sparrow,
but only one to the Van der Peet decision and it made no mention of the
fact that the court rejected a Sto:lo claim to an aboriginal right to
sell or trade salmon, an issue central to many of the fisheries
management and enforcement problems on the Fraser.  

The interim report sets out the various technical and scientific studies
that the Inquiry has established yet seems blind to the obvious problem
of using former DFO staff to conduct such  
work when the inquiry has as its first order of business a review of DFO
departmental management policies and practices.

In addition it is never explained why the commission is undertaking such
work.  Cohen's terms of reference never requested such scientific
studies. Furthermore the interim report was never to be a recitation of
what the commission was doing, its sole task was to evaluate or judge
the value or quality of previous studies and the government's
implementation of their recommendations.

At no time does Cohen explain why he failed to make the required
assessments.  While DFO is undoubtedly relieved at not having to face
any assessment of their failures to implement earlier investigations,
Cohen's inaction is not something that can be put at the door of DFO.
It was Cohen's job and he failed to do it.
 
Cohen claims that his staff "toiled long hours to get the commission in
operation as quickly and efficiently as possible." Fishermen might be
tempted to ask to what end?

Cohen and his staff have clearly wasted their first year.  There is
nothing in this interim report on how DFO might make changes in its
management of the 2011 fishery.  Most importantly this is not the report
that was asked for nor is it what fishermen had reason to hope for when
the Cohen Inquiry was established one year ago.

[alwaysfishn]

I recognize that because the article is written by John Cummins it will be slanted towards the views of the commercial fishermen. However it seems that the Cohen commission isn't getting to any hard core analysis of what the problems are with the Fraser sockeye returns. On the other hand maybe the answers are not that clear. Or maybe it's too early in his analysis to start drawing any conclusions...

How long does the Cohen commission go on?

[Dave]

John Cummins should take the lead of Gordon Cambell and step down.  His constant fearmongering and blatant racism is tiring.

[alwaysfishn]

John Cummins should take the lead of Gordon Cambell and step down.  His constant fearmongering and blatant racism is tiring.

I bet if we looked at every single politician out there we would see flaws. Asking them all to resign will not accomplish anything.

I look at John as representing a special interest group...  the commercial fishermen. Just like the sportsfishermen, the fish farmers, tree huggers, hunters. etc. they are all entitled to have some representation. I guess the analysis of their arguments really depends on which group you happen to belong to....  

While I don't agree with everything John says, I do like the way he questions DFO's management of the fisheries. Perhaps Harper should look at appointing him as head of DFO.   

[Dave]

Harper has had the opportunity to appoint Cummins as Fisheries Minister, many times.  Instead he shuns him. Thankyou Stephen.

[chris gadsden]

JOHN CUMMINS, M.P.
Delta-Richmond East

News Release

November 23, 2010

Time to Salvage the Cohen Inquiry

OTTAWA- "A major rethink is required if the Cohen Inquiry is to be
salvaged as a vehicle for the renewal of Fraser River sockeye," said
John Cummins, M.P. (Delta-Richmond East). "Shutting down the Cohen
Inquiry for two weeks will not get the Inquiry out of the massive hole
it has dug for itself."

Lawyers complain they are overwhelmed with documents, yet the real
source of the problem is within the Commission of Inquiry itself, not
with the number of documents to be read.

The Inquiry was established on November 5, 2009 by the Prime Minister.
>From day one the Commission has failed to understand its assignment.
Instead of meeting with fishermen and environmentalists who were
concerned about DFO's management of the Fraser salmon fishery and who in
desperation had called on the government to establish the Inquiry, the
Commission spent the first months meeting with DFO.  As a result the
Commission focused on the interests of the Department. Those who
understand the problems in the fishery were ignored.

The Commission received a budget of approximately $15 million and kept
the lion's share, some $12 million, to pay for its own staff and
internal operations.   Only $3 million was allotted for the various
organizations granted standing, all of which was to go to pay for
lawyers who know nothing about the problems inside the department. 

Though the Commission is funding DFO insiders and DFO consultants, not
one cent has been allotted to fishing and environmental organizations
which have countless of years of fisheries knowledge and experience and
know what is broken inside DFO.  The people inside these organizations
could offer invaluable assistance to the Commission, but have been left
sitting on the beach as the Inquiry sails away into oblivion.

The hearings to date have focused on ambiguous policy issues far removed
from the actual management of the fishery.  Instead of reviewing
management decisions, the Commission is floundering in a multitude of
vague policy documents from DFO. Without a change in focus the
Commission will never be able to understand the problems in the fishery.



If the Commission is to get on track, Justice Cohen must radically
refocus the Commission's work on DFO's actual failures in fisheries
management and in doing so provide a real opportunity for fishing and
environmental organizations to participate.

That could be achieved if Justice Cohen were to--

*   Re-allocate a significant part of the Commission's $15 million
budget from lawyers and the Commission's staff to fishing and
environmental organizations to allow them to effectively participate in
the work of the Inquiry.

*   Use public hearings to get at the real problems in the fishery
rather than wasting valuable time and limited resources by having them
review vague DFO policy statements.

"Canadians need the Cohen Commission to be successful.  The Fraser is at
the heart of British Columbia. It is critical that Justice Cohen, even
at this late date, undertakes radical surgery to salvage his Inquiry,"
concluded Cummins.

[skaha]

--Keep it simple:

--are to many fish being harvested (I don't care by whom)
--has to much rearing habitat been lost (I don't care by whom)
--is the problem in the ocean
--can we produce a prioritized list of issues and resolutions.

-can we have a significant impact on any of these problems, if yes fix it.

--blame presumes we had all the tools to fix the problem and chose not to. I thought the commission was to look at this fundamental question... was or is there a solution..this question was to be partially answered by the review of previously gathered scientific evidence.
--was there willful suppression of opposing management views
--if they determine that there was no practicable solution then who cares what steps were or were not carried out.

[troutbreath]

Most of the money is spent on those fancy sandwich's and bottled iceberg water. Cohen wouldn't know a salmon if it spawned on his Florsheim's. No different the the court system in Canada.

[chris gadsden]

Cohen orders fish farms to submit health data back to 2000


http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/Environment/2010/12/08/HealthData/

[chris gadsden]

Treaty is a blow to Fraser sockeye inquiry
 MP worried that Yale agreement will compromise Justice Cohen's efforts to improve fisheries management
 By John Cummins, The Delta Optimist February 9, 2010   The inquiry into the decline of the Fraser River sockeye fishery was a hopeful sign the federal government placed a high priority on correcting problems in the management of the fishery.

Mr. Justice Cohen was directed to examine the management of the Fraser River sockeye fishery and to develop recommendations on "changes to the policies, practices and procedures of the department in relation to the management of the Fraser River sockeye salmon fishery."

At the very moment the judicial inquiry is set to undertake a groundbreaking evaluation and assessment of fisheries management practices, including monitoring and enforcement, and to recommend to the prime minister necessary changes to fisheries management practices, the minister of Indian affairs signs a treaty to transfer fisheries management authority to the Yale Indian Band.

The Yale final agreement will compromise every conceivable aspect of fisheries management, from monitoring and enforcement to who will have access to Fraser River sockeye.

The treaty will deal with the very fisheries management issues the Cohen Inquiry must address and will move them behind a constitutional wall where neither the inquiry's investigation nor final recommendations can touch them.

If the government were serious about the Cohen Inquiry and its mandate to review fisheries management, the minister would not have signed a treaty that fundamentally and permanently alters fisheries management before Cohen has yet to hold his first public hearing.

Regrettably, the initialing of the Yale final agreement compromises the inquiry and undermines its final recommendation to the prime minister.

Fishermen assumed the judicial inquiry represented their last chance to inject common sense into fisheries management. Many will now conclude the Yale agreement, which expands native fishing in the Fraser Canyon and places in it in constitutional cement, together with the other treaties in the pipeline will interfere with or limit Justice Cohen's work.

With the signing of the treaty fishermen believe the government has made clear its intention to continue the very fisheries management practices that have devastated the Fraser sockeye fishery.

British Columbians are left to wonder the extent to which the Yale and other treaties yet to be signed will fetter the work of the Cohen Inquiry and limit the scope and worth of its recommendations.

The initialing of the Yale treaty is certainly not a hopeful indicator for either the Cohen Inquiry or for the government's desire for, or commitment to, making fundamental changes in fisheries management.


Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/Treaty+blow+Fraser+sockeye+inquiry/2545619/story.html#ixzz1D1BcAXTH

[mykisscrazy]

Another Rant and Fear Mongering by Jim!
I don't know about anyone else, but I am so tired of his rants.
All the First Nations fault, Sportsfisherman have to go, only White Commercial Fsherman should be allowed to harvest salmon in BC.
We get it John! Execept the Majority of BC doesn't agree(I hope)!

[Dave]

John Cummins and the Cohen Inquiry are a complete waste of tax payers money.  The good news is nobody listens to John anymore; the bad news is the Inquiry has been extended and more money thrown at it.  Last I heard (please correct me anyone as I have no hard evidence, just talk from people involved) this farce has cost us $30 M to date.  If only that had gone to relevent research ....
Good for the Yale Band for beginning this treaty process on the Fraser.