Stagg Editorial-May 1995

TAKING STOCK

This is the month after all the excitement and tension over the arrest of the Spanish boat Estai on the Grand Banks. Now in the sobering days after the brief flurry of belligerence there is a growing suspicion among Newfoundlanders that something other than fish may be rotten in the ponderous negotiations between Canada and the European Union. Quite frankly the whole mess took on the aroma of the endless and fraudulent Bosnian "peace talks" where nothing is ever settled and truth and honesty are as scarce as are legal sized turbot on the decks of the Spanish fleet.

In Toronto, on March 31, Newfoundland premier Clyde Wells was clear in his expression that the courage of Prime Minister Chretien was crucial to the successful arrest of the Spanish vessel. In his speech to a N.A.L.C.A. audience he was firm in his insistence that the Spanish must continue to be exposed for the irresponsible predators that they are until they agree to abide by civilized rules of conservation. In recent days the premier has been just as strident in his public comments as the Canadian negotiators in Belgium bogged down in the tedium and frustration of dealing with a political federation that evaded its moral obligation to discipline its rogue Spanish member. Possibly the premier sensed that the federal government's appetite for battle had waned now that it had extracted a few favourable polls from the initial fracas.

From Brussels has come a deal to allow the Spanish to provide their own "police" observers on their fleet. Newfoundland fishermen know full well that this means only that the foreign boats have a free hand once again thanks to hypocrisy on the Spaniards' part and lack of due diligence by those we have entrusted with the task of protecting Canada's interests.

Newfoundlanders are taking stock of the settlement and are casting a cold and suspicious eye on our own trustees who have yet to prove they can triumph over the dull but persistent will of the Spanish to rape the remainder of the Grand Banks. Appeasement of such predators is worse than a military trouncing at sea. There will be hell to pay if the package from Belgium comes wrapped in leftover tinsel from Churchill Falls.

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