FISH-NL demands Prime Minister fire Dominic LeBlanc from cabinet; Premier and all seven MPs must do the same

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, Sept. 12th, 2018

The Federation of Independent Sea Harvesters of Newfoundland and Labrador (FISH-NL) is demanding Prime Minister Justin Trudeau fire MP Dominic LeBlanc from the federal cabinet for breaking conflict of interest rules when he was minister of Fisheries and Oceans.

Further, Premier Dwight Ball and the province’s seven Members of Parliament should be unanimous in demanding LeBlanc’s immediate dismissal.

“LeBlanc broke conflict of interest rules by awarding a lucrative licence to fish arctic surf clams to a company that was set to be run by his wife’s cousin — a decision that would have seen resource and jobs leave our province,” says Ryan Cleary, President of FISH-NL.

“LeBlanc’s conflict of interest as Fisheries and Oceans minister amounts to the highest act of treason against our province and people. Not only should the Prime Minister fire him, but the Premier and all seven MPs need to be loud, clear, and unanimous in saying, ‘LeBlanc must go.’ Anything less would be traitorous to our province.”

In a ruling earlier today, Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commission Mario Dion found LeBlanc to be in a conflict of interest in awarding an Arctic surf clam to Five Nations Clam Company. The licence would have directly benefitted Gilles Theriault, the company’s General Manager and the first cousin of LeBlanc’s wife.

Trudeau shuffled his cabinet in June, moving LeBlanc from Fisheries and Oceans and into the Intergovernmental Affairs portfolio.

LeBlanc cancelled the contract to Five Nations Clam Company on July 10th, eight days before being shuffled out of Fisheries and Oceans.

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Contact: Ryan Cleary 682 4862

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The New England groundfish debacle (Part III): who or what is at fault? Nils E. Stolpe/FishNet

It took me a while to decide how to most accurately describe the situation that has been visited upon the New England fishing communities that are and since colonial times have been dependent on the groundfish fisheries.

NILS STOLPE: The New England groundfish debacle (Part IV): Is cutting back harvest really the answer?

While it’s a fact that’s hardly ever acknowledged, the assumption in fisheries management is that if the population of a stock of fish isn’t at some arbitrary level, it’s because of too much fishing. Hence the term “overfished.” Hence the mandated knee jerk reaction of the fisheries managers to not enough fish; cut back on fishing. What of other factors? They don’t count. It’s all about fishing, because fishing is all that the managers can control; it’s their Maslow’s Hammer. When it comes to the oceans it seems as if it’s about all that the industry connected mega-foundations that support the anti-fishing ENGOs with hundreds of millions of dollars a year in “donations” are interested in controlling. Read the article here

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