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[chris gadsden]

Excellent news that reached us at around 10:30 while out bar fishing today.

On top of this I hear court costs will be paid to the defense's lawyer. It is a tidy sum that I donot want to disclose incase the amount I was told may not be correct.

We must not let up as this is just a warning to what will most likely happen once again after the fellows that filed the injunction return from licking their wounds.

For once the recreational angler won something but the victory may be short lived.

I am going to Vancouver tomorrow and will visit 2 or 3 sports shops to drop off some SDA pamplets that give some background on the SDA and a donation bucket if they do not have one.

Now is the time to thank Frank, Phil, Bill and many others, a way to do so is to send in a donation to the SDA and drop some spare change in a bucket when visting a local fishing shop. I know Berry's and Hub have them.

O and we accept bills also.

We are having a big fundraiser in Chilliwack in November, more info on that later.

[allwaysfishin]

none of this would be possible without the dedicated efforts of the folks with SDA. These folks are getting our voice heard and I think it's getting louder  . Hat's off em !!!

[Rodney]

Below is a news release regarding this. At yesterday's Fraser Valley Fisheries dialogue session with FN, Cheam expressed that no matter what the outcome of this court case is, they will continue their participations in future dialogue sessions. I'll have more summarized notes and thoughts on yesterday's meeting tomorrow.

For Immediate Release: August 10, 2005

At 9:30 this morning, Justice Rice of the BC Supreme Court dismissed an application by the Cheam Indian Band to remove all sports fishermen in boats from a 20 kilometer stretch of the Fraser River during Cheam fisheries.

In his ruling, Justice Rice confirmed that sports fishermen and the Cheam both have a right to be fishing on the Fraser.  He ruled that sports fishermen are exercising their public right to fish in an activity they love.  Cheam fishermen are exercising their constitutional right to fish for food, but left open the question whether this right extends to fishing with drift nets rather than the traditional set nets.
 
Justice Rice ruled that although the sports fishing boats which anchor in 3 to 4 feet of water near the beach, “slow down” the Cheam fishery, it does not give rise to an interference in the Cheam fishery unless it prevents the Cheam from achieving their food fish needs.

In their application, the Cheam complained that they would not meet their food fish needs if the sports fishermen were allowed access to the river, but Justice Rice was concerned by the evidence before the Court which indicated that:

• The Cheam had a long history of selling food fish illegally.  He cited band member Darwin Douglas, who had submitted an affidavit to the court complaining about a lack of food fish, but had testified before the 2004 Fraser River investigation that he sold part of his 2004 harvest illegally;
• The Cheam had already enjoyed more than 32.5 days of food fishing in 2005;
• No other band fishing in the area had complained about the sports fishermen;
• That other bands were apparently able to satisfy their food fish requirements using set nets rather than drift nets, but were still able to sell a substantial portion of their catch through the Sto:lo-only commercial fishery;
• That Cheam Band members were fishing illegally outside of the legal DFO openings;
• That the Cheam had not provided the court with disclosure about their number of openings, their catches so far this year, their food fish requirements, their surplus catches which had been sold and other evidence necessary for the court to decide this type of injunction application.

Justice Rice also noted the evidence of how conflicts are resolved in the Fraser River community downriver of the Mission Bridge.  He cited evidence from Mike Forrest, a mariner and Port Coquitlam city councilor, who stated that commercial and aboriginal fishermen adjusted their fishing practices to share the Fraser River with 20,000 ton container ships, ferries, navigation buoys, barges, log booms and other river traffic and the Cheam could do the same.

In dismissing the Cheam application, Justice Rice concluded that the Cheam would not suffer irreparable harm if the sports fishery continued.  Justice Rice issued costs against the Cheam in favour of the two defendants, Phillip Eidsvik, who represented himself, and Bob McKamey who was represented by Chris Harvey, counsel at the firm of McKenzie Fujisawa.

“The message from the court is clear, all fishermen have a right to share the river and the fishery,” said Phil Eidsvik, a spokesperson for the BC Fisheries Survival Coalition. 

Eidsvik noted that “Fishermen must accommodate the needs of other users and no fisherman has an absolute right to the river – anglers cannot blockade the entire river, but neither can the Cheam have the entire.”

“This decision should lower the risk of confrontation between anglers and the Cheam in the Chilliwack area because the court has confirmed the right of both groups to be on the river.  Neither the sports fishermen, nor the Cheam have a right to the entire river, there is space for both,” concluded Eidsvik.[/b]

[allwaysfishin]

now that my friends... is the way the system is supposed to work. Good on Justice Rice for seeing this situation as it is.
I say we should file an injunction against the cheam, preventing them from the use of drift gillnetting in the upper fraser. It is stated in that press release that the other fraser bands satisfied food fish needs with set nets, it is now a matter of record. Justice Rice refers to "illegal fishing" by the Cheam and "illegal fish sales" in a manner that states these behaviors as fact before the court. Based on this illegal activity, the fact that Cheam do not adhere to DFO sanction openings and the Cheam's unwillingness to offer "full disclosure" when it comes to the successes of thier fisheries, they do not portray a responsible, lawful nor conservation oriented approach to fraser salmon species, thus putting them at risk.
It is thiers and our rights to be on the river, but NO CANADIAN HAS THE RIGHT TO BREAK THE LAW, regardless of "status".
Chris and Rodney, has this idea been brought up with your meetings with SDA folks? I would be willing to bet that this same justice rice would agree with the argument above. I'm no lawyer but it sure makes sense to me.
I vote for an injunction from John and jane doe fisherman against the cheam for all the reasons stated above. They are simply a threat to our fraser fish stocks, they proved it in 2004 and are on the road to repeat that behavior.

[chris gadsden]

Worth considering, will bring it up.

[pepsitrev]

wow thanx rod you just made my day with that post . as always my hats off to you and chris for all the hard work you both do to keeping the sportsman updated. im sure this court ruling will make alot of guys and gals on this board and others smile for a while. keep up the good work and hope to see you soon cheers 

[Addicted To Steel]

Justice prevails!! Definitely a call for two beer after work rather than one! We need more law men like Rice around who don't bend over to political B.S.
Cheers all, and congrats to those who fought for the cause!!

[Fish Assassin]

Finally, a judge who can see through this facade.

[allwaysfishin]

we were discussing this victory today at work and i mentioned the idea i had that we, jane and john doe fishers should file a supreme court injunction against the cheam to prevent them from using drift gill nets in the upper fraser and to obey DFO openings and closures.
Some of the evidence that can be used to support this is found in the above statements by Justice Rice.
Fact is, the Cheam are breaking the laws of this country and they have shown a general irresponsibility with governing thier fisheries.
the Cheam are selling food fish - fact
the cheam use drift nets outside of DFO sanctioned openings - fact
the cheam fish outside of DFO sanctioned openings - fact
the Cheam are responsible for overfishing sockeye last year - fact
the cheam are not practising methods which put conservation first - fact
the cheam are a threat to the resource and supervision and restrictions on netting practices and quota monitoring need to be applied - fact/ partial opinion

I would love to hear some dialogue on this as I am going to do some legal research on my own. Those who know me well say I shoulda been a lawyer...... just ask my ex wife hehehe i won't elaborate  but she wasn't happy after i beat her lawyer ,solo 

[RVT]

Happy as I am about Justice Rice's ruling (and amazed that he shot down every aspect of the Cheam claim by agreeing that the FACT is that most of their fishery is illegal) let's not forget who we are dealing with here.  Sid Douglas and his herd of thugs aren't going to give up easily.  Prepare yourself for more ballaclava clad natives, and threats on the bars and on the water. They NEED a confrontation, and possibly violence, to "prove" their claims are justified. Let's try to be cool and calm out there, and if necessary, leave an area to  avoid trouble.  Justice Rice has restored my faith in the legal system (temporarily anyways) , let's not screw it up.

[chris gadsden]

Good posts allwaysfishin and RVT.

 As I posted earlier we had to go to Vancouver on buisness so dropped into a couple of sports shops after.

Was a real pleasure to meet allwaysfishing yesterday at Berry's, always good to put faces to those that post on this great forum.

Was please to pick up $57 from Berry's yesterday, but Thomas all those pennies to count and roll.

Wish they were all toonies but every penny counts and I believe the war chest will now grow in the days ahead. Thanks once again Thomas for all your and the other staff for promoting the SDA. For those interested I dropped off the SDA pamplets at Berry's for those interested in reading the SDA message. Donation forms included also.

Then headed to North Vancouver to Highwater Tackle and had a good visit with Dave there, a great supporter of the SDA. He was sorry to report someone had stolen the SDA jar recently. I replaced it and gave him some of the SDA pamplets so drop in there to toss in a little of your change and pick up a pamplet.

Dave gave us a good tip on a restuarant to celebrate our nearly 40 year old anniversary, thanks Dave it was great. We then had a romantic stroll down to the water at the Lonsdale Quay with us both on our ce'ls listening to a conference call on the update on the Cheakamus spill. We did not tell Linda we were listening in (but now she knows) as I thought she might have asked us to leave.

Only kidding as it was an information tele conference and was open, so I was told.

I said this was a romantic stroll but we had talked over dinner how we had stayed at the old St. Alice Hotel on Third Street just above Highwater Tackle in 1965 and those were very romatic times then.


Also we were staying there in the St Alice when we caught the spring salmon shown in my photo album.

It was a long day tiring day and, how I hate all the traffic in Vancouver so when we got home we just fell asleep, some pre 40 year old anniversary celebration all in the name of trying helping to protect our fishing opportunities.

So for me do not forget to send in a donation to the SDA and that will make us all feel better.

Thanks

[Rodney]

This was sent by Bill Otway a couple of days ago.

Update on Cheam Injunction Application

As many of you are aware, on Tuesday August 2nd  Frank Kwak on of our directors from Chilliwack was made aware of a move by the Cheam Indian Band in the Chilliwack area to ask the court for an injunction to ban anglers from fishing from a major stretch of the Fraser River whenever they were fishing. This ban would apply to fishing from the shore and from boats.

Frank immediately contacted me and arranged to have the material faxed to Brian Chan’s office in Kamloops where I happened to be at the time. Brian also forwarded the information to the provincial people in Victoria and to Wayne Saito and others. Frank got the information out to many of our members and to Phil Eidsvik the Executive Director of the Fishermen’s Survival Coalition. Phil immediately saw the implications of this action to all fishermen and went to work immediately to counter the claim. At the time the court hearing was supposed to be held in Victoria the next day, August 3rd. Phil spoke to the lawyers and was advised that there would be no action prior to Friday August 5th. Subsequently we were advised through Phil that in fact the hearing would take place in B.C. Supreme Court on Friday.

Frank Kwak worked very closely with Phil as by this time I was on the road to Elkford for a memorial event for one of my brothers who had passed away. At the same time our legal counsel, Keith Lowes was in the throes of preparing the funeral and memorial service for his wife for August 6th and so could in no way participate in a court action on August 5th in Victoria.

Phil e mailed me material from the Cheam lawyer and his draft affidavit while I was on the road and I reviewed these and worked with Phil by cell phone, (I am afraid to see my bill, actually I am afraid for my wife to see it), and settled on a course of action. Frank Kwak was working closely with Phil at this time as well as he had more specific details on the fishery than I did.

I should note at this time that Phil had agreed to go to Victoria and act for us at the Friday hearing as well as seeing to the concerns of his own members due to the probable impacts to their fisheries. Frank Kwak agreed to travel from Chilliwack to attend the hearings and assist as well. I committed the SDA to covering the expenses of both people at that time.

Despite an excellent brief by Phil and his evidence that the information put forward by the Cheam was somewhat lacking in facts and truth, the judge of the day, ruled that he was imposing an interim injunction effective that date banning fishing from boats in the areas requested by Cheam and this injunction would stay in force until the evening of Tuesday August 9th. He directed that there would be a full hearing before another judge starting on the morning of Monday August 8th and despite the position put forward by Phil on our behalf that there was no way we could prepare a defense in that time, due to the situation with our counsel who was burying his wife the next day, the Supreme Court just took the position that he did not care and the hearing would go ahead regardless if we were prepared or not. From every report I have this judge was totally biased from the start and had no intention of listening to any facts or information that was contrary to the Cheam submission. We should note that this was the same judge who rejected our application to set aside the injunction on the Qualicum River banning anglers from fishing a few years ago.

Phil and I discussed the position we were in and he was going to move ahead and do the best he could. Then he phoned to say that their lawyer, Chris Harvey was willing to come back from his holidays and attend to the matter as a personal favour to Keith Lowes. There were some travel costs involved and I agreed, after speaking to a number of our directors, to cover at least half of these. I spoke with Keith on Sunday and he said while he was prepared to attend on our behalf on Monday, he was not in any way prepared and felt we would do badly because of this. He had spoken to Chris and Phil and felt the most progressive position was for us to let Chris and Phil act for our interests but represent their constituents and make the point that the SDA was unable to participate due to his (Keith’s’) situation. This meant that if the case was lost on Monday/Tuesday we would be in a position as the SDA to apply for a set aside and another hearing as we had been prejudiced by the court action taking place when it did. We all agreed that this was the best way to go as Phil and Chris were representing our interests anyway and this gave us an additional opportunity for action if needed.  Keith also worked with Phil and Chris to clarify legal points and prepared the defense in the Monday/Tuesday hearing.

I would mention here that I was speaking with Phil late into the evening of Thursday the 3rd  where he was
still in his office working on the submission for Friday. I also spoke with him continuously on Sunday the 6th , again in his office where he was working to complete the final submission and coordinate the lawyers and witnesses.

On Monday Phil and Chris attended the court and as well Tony Nootebos one of our members from the Fraser Valley Guides Assn also attended to aid with an affidavit and facts for Phil. Frank was unable to attend due to an MRI appointment but he and Tony went for the Friday session.

I should mention here that I was in regular phone contact with Wayne Saito who is the independent conduit for the recreational anglers to the Provincial Fisheries Branch. Wayne was most helpful in ensuring the Province, including the Attorney General’s Department were keep appraised and he personally attended the hearings. In fact it was because of Wayne’s involvement I was able to get the results of the judgment on Wednesday morning early. Phil had dropped his cell phone early in the morning and was out of contact for me until late in the day.

I am attaching to this e mail a copy of Phil’s report on the hearing and the judgment. That we were successful this time should not make us complacent for the future. This is but the first round and we have to be ready for future rounds.

We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Frank and Tony and other of our members who worked so hard on this. The same must be said of our Counsel Keith Lowes and the Counsel for the Coalition, Chris Harvey. We owe an even bigger debt to Phil Eidsvik, Mike Forrest and Bob McKamey, commercial fishermen who stepped up to the plate in our defense when we were handicapped. Some of our members have wondered in the past why we are at times working so closely with the commercial sector on some of these issues, perhaps now they know and understand. The simple fact is that we have the same things at risk, the ability to fish in the future. This incident shows what we can accomplish by working together and that our differences in some issues should never overshadow those things of common interest and the benefits of working together.

This action has shown clearly that everyone needs to be far more vigilant and committed in the future. Also that the SDA cannot continue to carry the load by themselves, either physically or financially without some serious help. We were extremely lucky this time due to some very hard work by a very few people.

We need to understand that what has happened here is but the beginning. The Cheam will be back and other bands have made it clear that if the Cheam wins
they will be next to request the same restriction on the recreational anglers. There will be other court actions and other issues that will have to be dealt with. We need to be ready for these. I can see very clearly that a case can be tried to be made to close all fisheries in the approach waters as their catch reduces what comes into the Fraser and therefore impacts negatively on the native ability to catch their quota.

One of the other things I see we need to take court action on is to force DFO to
put a number and a real number on the Native catch for FSC. This is required
under Sparrow but DFO refuses to do it. We recommended it in the Williams
Rport but DFO has so far refused to take action. Without that number this
issue will go on forever.

A number of people have put their money where their mouth is and supported
the SDA in it's work particularly over this most recent action. We need a stronger legal backup fund so that we never get into a situation like this in the future.

We must continue to work closely with the commercial sector and any other group that has similar concerns and interests but we cannot expect to have them bail us out on a continuous basis. We need to be able to stand up for ourselves and that means a strong fund of dollars as well as people working on all our behalf.

I urge you to send your cheques, money orders or credit card donations to the address listed above. With your help we will be strong in the future and Phil and the coalition will be working with us rather than having to do the key work for us.

I would also remind all that we are holding a fund raising dinner in Chilliwack at the Best Western Hotel on November 18th. Tickets can be ordered through Frank Kwak at 604 792-8083 or Norm Fletcher at 604 942-0371. Tickets are $50 each.

Also we need trips and or merchandise items for the auction and raffles. Remember, your donations will help to ensure there is a future for our fishery.

I would like to close on a personal note of appreciation to all who worked so hard on the successful effort. I can say it was most frustrating to be so far from the action at this critical time, but it was a great comfort to know we had such competent people working on our behalf.

Bill Otway, President
Sportfishing Defence Alliance

[chris gadsden]

Went out on my usual Saturday morning Vedder River patrol and also slipped over to the Fraser River at Old Orchard Road boat launch. A few anglers out on the river and afew others putting in. A nice day to be on the river.

A truck was also there with two large totes on it. I imagine it was for the fish for the communal FN opening going on today. What made me wonder why they needed so big of containers when it is suppose to be for a food fishery only. How could a family eat so many fish. When we go fishing we have a small fish box on board to put a fish or two in.

We certainly have a two standards going on here and FOC is still refusing to enforce the law re these illegal fish sales.

I then left the river and as you can appreciate upset that the Government and FOC refuses to enforce the law of the land. A double standard at its worse.

I then stopped at the grand opening of Reaction Tackle on Whatcom Road just East off Abbotsford.
Met Terry there and gave him a SDA jar and some pamplets as well. A nice looking store so if out that way drop in and also drop a little money in the SDA jar.

Then off to Hub Sports and a brief talk with Rodger as he is always so busy. The question on everyone minds will there be a sockeye fishery and I was asked that as well. I said I did not think so.

Dropped off more pamplets with Rodger and was very pleased to receive $70 from the jar. Will take it along with the money from Berry's Bait to the SDA treasurer today.

Working on getting a guide boat out to the Fraser this afternoon as a Chilliwack paper's photo journalist wishs some pictures out on the river. Phil was also working on getting Global TV to go out but have not heard from them yet so they maybe tied up with other stories today.

Note the words Sealand on one of the totes. Is that a fish processor?

[Fish Assassin]

Makes you wonder why DFO make such a big show of being on the river this season when they don't enforce the illegal fish sales. Big friggen deal 

[chris gadsden]

Makes you wonder why DFO make such a big show of being on the river this season when they don't enforce the illegal fish sales. Big friggen deal 

We must keep up the pressure. We are receiving vibes from inside the department but it has been a known fact for sometime by most that the present Government is very afraid of another Burnt Church and other incidents from past years. With a minority government the Liberal have to play it this way as they donot want anything else to blow up in their face with a election not that far away. My take on it anyway, what do other think?