Politics 101: Never ask a question unless you already know the answer

The following letter to the editor is published in today's (Saturday, Sept. 24th) edition of the Weekend Telegram.


Russell Wangersky began his Sept. 17th column (Fish and ships – and politics) with an old saying that I first heard years ago from politicians in the House of Assembly: Never ask a question unless you already know the answer.


He was writing in the context of my calls for a fishery inquiry.


I’m well ahead of you, Mr. Wangersky – I have the questions and answers (Coles Notes version below).


Is the Newfoundland and Labrador fishery broken?


More than broken — she’s as cracked as the practice of shipping raw fish to China.


Is fisheries management working?


Definitely not for the 80,000-plus people (and 39,000 jobs) we’ve lost since the early 1990s, and certainly not for the few fish left clinging to the Grand Banks by their fingernails (to borrow a phrase from Brian Tobin).


What’s the status of fishery science?


Gutted and bled.


Is the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization effective in overseeing stocks outside the 200-mile limit?


I wouldn’t trust NAFO with a goldfish bowl.


What happens to foreign trawlers caught illegal fishing?


Their fishing is rudely interrupted for a few hours.


Who holds the right to the fish in the sea, and who exactly is fishing the quotas and benefiting from the catches?


Not us, in too many cases.


What’s the fundamental problem with the Newfoundland and Labrador fishery today?


Lack of fish.


Mr. Wangersky makes an error at the beginning of his column when he writes about my “quixotic” search for a Royal Commission “to examine the Atlantic Canadian fishery.”


In fact, the title of my Private Members’ Bill is the “Newfoundland and Labrador Rebuilding Act.”


My focus is specifically on the fish stocks off Newfoundland and Labrador, and how to develop and implement a rebuilding strategy 19 years after their collapse.


Mr. Wangersky’s central point is a valid one: dozens of reports have been written about various aspects of the Newfoundland and Labrador fishery over the decades, why do we need yet another one?


I suspect he already knows the answer.


Never before have we been in such desperate need of a big-picture game plan, a blue print to move the fishery forward, to prepare for life after oil.


And we can’t rebuild without a foundation of black-and-white facts that only a Commission of Inquiry can provide.


Ryan Cleary,

MP, St. John’s South-Mount Pearl

Comments

Anonymous said…
Ryan - I don't get it - why is the government so against this - I really think you should start a petition in this province for the inquiry - your voice plus the voices from the province will make a more convincing argument
September 26, 2011 at 11:56 AM
Anonymous said…
Save the Spawners, Stop Baby Spawn killers!
October 7, 2011 at 4:32 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The story of Samantha Walsh

Image
Samantha Walsh, a 13-year-old, Grade 8 student from Fleur de Lys on the Baie Verte Peninsula, disappeared one Sunday evening when walking home from her Grandmother's house, and I traveled to the community to research her story. The following feature article was published in The Telegram in February 2000. ••• "Sam, who had stripped off her ski pants when she got to her grandmother’s house, didn’t bother to put them on for the three-minute walk to her house. She went home wearing her coat and hat and long johns covered by flannel pajama pants, pink with black and white lambs, bought the day before at Value Village. But Sam never made it home. 'Loves you, Mom,' were her last words to her mother." ••• Samantha’s story By Ryan Cleary, The Telegram FLEUR DE LYS — The voice is that of a child, rising with a soft and sweet delivery from a room of living hell. It’s a haunting sound, the words of  Salt Water Joys , sung by a very talented and pretty littl
Read more

Nov. 7th, Telegram letter to the editor

Making this a better place I applaud Ryan Cleary’s letter in the Oct. 31 Weekend Telegram (“Time to act, not talk”) touting teamwork as the key to forging a future for rural Newfoundland: it was eerily reflective of the premier’s front-page interview. It’s a prime example on how we all could, and should, put partisan politics and prejudices aside to perpetuate the one commonality that binds us — passion for the promise of this place. The power of that unified front is visible with the government’s prioritizing the H1N1 vaccination roll-outs this week, in light of the international crisis for Newfoundland and Labrador with changes proposed to the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) convention, and the national crisis with Quebec and the Lower Churchill quagmire. The people of this place must come first and we personified that this week. Thus, there is hope for the future. Rise to the occasion Having said that, like the tide, we need to rise to the swell of occasion as well,
Read more

SEA-NL calls on federal Fisheries Minister to reverse decision to limit increase to 2021 northern shrimp quota

Image
  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—Wednesday, May 26th, 2021 The Seaward Enterprises Association, Newfoundland Labrador (SEA-NL) calls on the federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans to reverse her decision to limit the increase to the 2021 northern shrimp quota off southern Labrador and northeastern Newfoundland.   “DFO went outside its own rule book to limit the increase to this year’s quota, which will translate into the loss of more than 2,000 tonnes of shrimp to the province’s inshore fleet,” says Ryan Cleary, interim Executive Director of SEA-NL, a new association to represent the province’s more than 3,000 independent owner-operators. “Enterprise owners are being punished for their sacrifices and Mother Nature’s turnaround. SEA-NL calls on the minster to revisit her decision.” Cleary wrote federal Fisheries and Oceans Minister Bernadette Jordan Tuesday regarding her recent decision to institute a year-over-year limit of 15% to this year’s northern shrimp quota off southern Labrador and nor
Read more