A small group of fish harvesters from the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador crashed a government press conference in St. John's on Wednesday (July 10) to demand a meeting with prime minister Justin Trudeau over Canada's recent decision to reopen the commercial fishery for northern cod, reports SaltWire.
Federal and provincial environment ministers from across the country were wrapping up two days of meetings, according to the local news service. They were about to start a media briefing in the ballroom of a St. John's hotel when they were interrupted by a loud siren.
A group of about 15 people holding signs that read "Save our cod" and "Stop offshore draggers" entered the room. Among them were staffers from the Fish Food and Allied Workers (FFAW), the union that represents inshore harvesters in the province, including president Greg Pretty, and a few fishermen.
"Sorry we got to do this, my buddy, but this is too important to Newfoundland and Labrador," inshore fish harvester Glen Winslow said to Bernard Davis as he met Newfoundland's environment minister at the podium.
As previously reported by Undercurrent News, Canada's fisheries minister Diane Lebouthillier announced on June 28 that the 32-year moratorium on northern cod would end this year, with an 18,000 metric ton quota. With the return to a commercial fishery, offshore trawlers are also permitted to fish the cod again.
Winslow and Pretty both spoke, reiterating the FFAW's demands for Canada to reverse the decision.
"It's unfortunate that we had to disrupt your meeting here today to try and get the message out, but it seems like we have no other choice but to do it," Winslow is quoted as saying by SaltWire.
"The biggest problem we had with all of this is that we were not consulted before it was done. We should have been consulted on this," he added.
The protest ended after Winslow and Pretty made their points.
Canada's environment minister, Steven Guilbeault, told reporters that he will pass on the FFAW's request to Lebouthillier and Trudeau.
Comments (0)
To view or post comments, simply
Already registered? Log in here:
Enter the email address associated with your account. We'll send you instructions to reset your password.
We’ve sent a link to to change your password.
Please check your inbox to reset your password securely and easily.