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OPINION

Fishing rights off St. Pierre and Miquelon — Has Ottawa sold us out?

Responses to the views expressed here are greatly encouraged. Scribble something down, on a beer-soaked napkin if you must,

By Darrell Cole

SO, WHAT ELSE is new? Another scandal for: what ap- pears to be an incompetent Government. However this time the scandal does not con- cern putrid fish, or conflict of interests, it concerns our sov- ereignty over the waters off of Canada’s east coast.

In the Treaty of Paris of 1763 which ended the Seven Years War the French lost all of her possessions in North America except for two small islands off the coast of Newfoundland, St. Pierre and Miquelon. These islands were quite insignifi- cant back then, but today we live in a period of constant over-fishing in Newfound- land’s Grand Banks by the fishing fleets of other nations. This lead the Canadian Government of Pierre Trudeau to install a 200 mile limit off our shoreline. No foreign ships were allowed to fish inside this two hundred mile limit with- out the permission of the Can- adian Government.

Some countries like our Southern neighbor, the United States, have attempted to dis- obey the law but they usually paid the consequences of los- ing their cargoes, paying a large fine, or worse having their ship seized.

With this two hundred mile limit came a conflict between Canada and France over fish- ing rights in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and in the Atlantic Ocean. France had held onto these two little islands as out- posts for their fishing fleets, and the two hundred mile limit meant that the French could not even fish in the waters off two of their colony’s. The French Government in Paris asked the Canadian Govern- ment if it could have the right to fish inside the two hundred mile limit from its two colo- nies, St. Pierre and Miquelon. Instead of granting this Ottawa would only give French fisher- men a twelve mile limit. This angered the French and they

Home Economics is not a joke

DID YOU KNOW that presently there are people graduating UPEI with a Bachelor of Science majoring in Home Economics. Yes — it’s true. I fond it hard to believe that there are some people who do not know this, so I have decided to thrill all of you unbeleivers with some amazing facts about Home Economics. Home Economics is not a joke, and hopefully, by the end of this semester I won’t hear any more guys walking past Dalton Hall saying to his buddies, “Hey, boys, let’s g oin there and get ourselves a wife.”

In 1973, the Home Economics staff redesigned Dalton Hall from a residence area for students to what the building is today. Our total course enrollment for the two semesters this year is 388 students. I am proud to say we have 8 graduating this year.

There is a philosophy behind Home Economics. Our focus is the “home” — always remembering the people, we bring together elements of various disiplines. We really are more than sewing

* and cooking. Management, finance and communication courses

are also part of our studies.

Some people who have already finished our program are pres- ently working as teachers at high school and university level, in hospitals as dietitions, and several graduates are doing exten- sion work invarious provinces.

Graduates have found their education useful in opening their own businesses, while others have gone on with their studies in Law, Medicine, Design, Textiles, Nursing, Social Work, Agricul- ture, and chartered Accounting. Other occupations include pub- lic relations on local T.V. and radio stations, and working as home economists in a food processing plant.

But why, you might ask, is Home Economics considered a science? It is both because we are required to have a good scien- tific background in both Biology and Chemistry (we deal with human nutrition). Our required courses include Chem 110, Bio 110, Organic Chemistry (for a Dietitian only), MicroBiology, and human Physiology.

Ihope this helps some people to better understand what Home Economicsis and what it involves. I would like to challenge other faculties to show the students of UPEI what their program is all about as I, hopefully, have done by writing this.

— Dawn Lewis

and send it to The Gem.

claimed an area about the size of Nova Scotia to fish in.

The governments of France and Canada entered into nego- tiations to try and settle this dispute. In the end Ottawa gave the French permission to send fishing fleets from continental France and fishin the disputed waters around St. Pierre and Miquelon to the south of New- foundland. In return for the fishing rights, France agreed to negotiate the terms of refer- ence for an international tri- bunal that would arbitrate the dispute, a process which could take four years.

On Wednesday January 28 there was an emergency debate in the House of Commons. During this debate the Minis- ter of Fisheries, the Hon. Tom Siddon promised the provinces that a permanent agreement would never be agreed to with- out consulting the provinces.

In Newfoundland the mood

is a very hostile one. Premier -

Brian Peckford said that Ottawa was selling out its provinces for good foreign re- lations. A call-in show held on a St. John’s radio station sug- gested that Newfoundland hold a referendum to determine the province’s future in Confeder- ation. Some people are even suggesting that Ottawa did this in a move to win votes in Quebec but the Conservatives are denying that. Deputy-Prime Minister Don Mazankowski apologized to Brian Peckford and Newfoundlanders about sacrificing their interests, but it appears as though this is not a case of forgive-and-forget.

The main concern with this problem is our sovereignty over water which is supposed to be ours. Last summer it was the Polar Sea which challenged our sovereignty over the Northwest Passage. The United States insists that the Northwest passage is in inter- national waters. Canada said that they were Canadian terri-

torial waters but being friends allowed the American ice- breaker to proceed. This lead Canada to make moves to strengthen its sovereignty in the North. This situation with France is just another chal- lenge to our sovereignty, but this time the situation is com- pletely different.

This French claim will inter- fere directly with the lives of Canadians, especially New- foundlanders. The major source of income for the people of Newfoundland is its fishery. If the French take control of the waters around St. Pierre and Miquelon, use gunboats’ to assert their authority, which has been rumored they will do but it is very doubtful they will, and overfish, which it has already indicated that it will ignore Canada’s cod quota, then the fishing industry for Newfoundland will be ruined. It would take forever for Brian Mulroney’s Conservatives to clean up that mess.

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