A Second Friday's Special... The Last?

A SECOND FRIDAY'S SPECIAL....THE LAST?

Following the already established tradition, either by the special "Canadian diplomatic use of Fridays and weekends" or simply by the tactless habits and behaviour of the Hon. Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, coinciding with an important world-wide holidays, another usual "tobinescal" action was well planned in advance with the subsequent manipulation of the public opinion, to the detriment of the average Canadian citizen.

On August 10th 1995, a brief news item was released to the press (mainly to the anglo-saxon newspapers media such as The Ottawa Citizen, the Globe and Mail, the Ottawa Sun, etc....) that announced what had already been at least agreed upon, if not negotiated, since May: the innoble manipulation of an alleged "Estai" net supposedly recovered by the advanced supertechnological means of satellites and other state-of-the-art weapons, on March 15th last (why precisely on the very same day the "Estai" was leaving San Juan de Terranova?) and announced with full typical "show-bin" paraphernalia on Parliament Hill the next day.

It is difficult for the average Canadian citizen to understand or perceive that the action planned by the DFO -I still think that there was no coordination whatsoever with the DFAIT or even with the PM office- by placing the E.U. and especially Spain in a desert environment devoid of communications or negotiations with any authorities anywhere, was once again a most unfriendly and agressive act such as the one that occured on the Ottawa Gethsemane void and empty last Good Friday, April the 14th (see our directory Friday's Special).

This time, on this second so-called Friday, the new "show-bin" was planned to coincide with the 15th of August, the Bank Holiday in England, Ferragosto in Italy or simply the Feast of the Assumption in many European countries, which is the peak of the diasporas only similar to the one on a Good Friday any given year.

The occasion and the timing were extremely well chosen.

This time the Calvary's venue was a summer camp of some sort: the 1995 Central Canada Exhibition in Ottawa, chosen by the DFO, the DFAIT and God knows who else (?) to manipulate once again the average Canadian citizen (the event attracts some 600,000 visitors) into thinking that the aim was conservation, this time to renew a dispute which only benefited Brian Tobin himself in his ambition to preserve and progress in his politically nearsighted glory!

My instant reaction was to release a communiqué to the Spanish News Agency EFE, under the following terms:

CANADA-EU-FISHERIES
SPAIN CALLS "SERIOUS OFFENSE" EXHIBIT OF NET ATTRIBUTED TO "ESTAI".
By Miguel Sanz.
Montreal (Canada), 10 August (EFE).

The Ambassador of Spain in Ottawa, José Luis Pardos, said that the exhibit by the Canadian Government at a fair, of the net whose use is attributed to the Spanish fishing vessel "Estai" by the Canadian government is a serious offense.

"It is an act of serious offense to a country (Spain), friend and allied of Canada", the diplomat stated to EFE from Ottawa.

The fishing gear will be exhibited, as of next Thursday at the agro-pecuarian "Central Canada Exhibition" fair, in an exhibit by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans of Canada on the "turbot war" and the seizure of the "Estai".

The "Central Canada Exhibition" is an important annual fair that has been held in Ottawa for over 100 years and this year some 600,000 visitors are expected from the 17th to the 27th of August.

The Spanish Ambassador denied that the gear was owned by the Spanish vessel that was seized by Canadian patrol vessels on March 9th, following several hours of pursuit in international waters.

"I deny that the net belongs to the "Estai" because it was inspected by Canadian officials 20 days prior its seizure and no unlawfulness was found", José Luis Pardos stated.

The diplomat also added that neither Canada, nor the European Union (EU) nor Spain hold any evidence that the net belonged to the "Estai". Six days after the seizure of the vessel by Canada, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans of this country, Brian Tobin announced that a team from his Department and the RCMP had retrieved from the bottom of the sea the net that the "Estai" had abandoned while fleeing from Canadian patrol vessels.

The Spanish Ambassador also argues that the fact that Canada did not return the net to its alleged owner proves that the fishing gear did not belong to the "Estai".

"The net was never considered as Spanish property, because just as they did return the net to the "Mayi Cuatro" (the Spanish vessel accused of unlawful fishing) with resounding publicity along with other belongings of the "Estai", besides the bail, they never did return the net that they are exhibiting now" José Luis Pardos said.

The Spanish diplomat harshly criticized the behaviour of Ottawa's Executive with regard to the plan to exhibit the net attributed to the "Estai" and warned that actions like this one will not serve to reinstate normality in their bilateral relations.

"This implies the continuance of a series of shows organized by the Minister of Fisheries (Brian Tobin) and by the Canadian government, within the uninterrupted show intended to manipulate Canadian public opinion, in detriment of the Spanish fishermen and relations between the Canadian and Spanish peoples", Pardos said.

The diplomat who stated that he was "astonished and outraged as Representative of the Spanish people" by the exhibit of the alleged net of the "Estai", has requested meetings "at the highest level" to demand explanations from the Canadian government, as Spanish Ambassador and in representation of the EU.

This semester Pardos represents the 15 EU Ambassadors in virtue of the Spanish presidency of the European Union.

(End of the comuniqué to EFE)

At the same time, I requested two meetings:

a) With Mr. Bartleman at the Prime Minister's Office, who had kindly warned me, on Good Friday afternoon, to be ready for Canadian military action against my fishermen and the two Spanish Armada Patrol vessels "The Atalaya" and the "Centinela" who were protecting them in the area from the constant harrasment and dangerous behaviour of the Canadian Coast Guards vessels, planes and helicopters.

b) With the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Ouellet , in order to convey to him the feelings of my Government in the face of this new mean provocation.

I also called on the Troika, first thing in the morning on Monday the 14th. Our decision was unanimous and quick: call on the PM Office and let them know that this was an "unfriendly act in stark contradiction with the position of Mr. Chrétien, Mr. Santer and Mr. Chirac agreed upon in Halifax on June 17th last" that a new friendly era was to begin in the immediate future between the E.U. and Canada.

At my meeting with Mr. Bartleman on Friday the 11th when I just heard about the "New-Net-Show-Bin" and during my conversation with Mr. Dubois at DFAIT, I was very firm while they were utterly bureaucratic and useless... "we have no responsibility on this issue.... we read about it in the press....this is a free country....be careful of press overreactions...." and so on and so forth....!

As a last resort, I decided to set in motion, hoping it would work, the so-called "hot line for emergencies" that was created when Mr. Gordon Smith visited Madrid, as Sherpa of the G-7 where I suppose he informed our government of the new "friendly era"....I had to put him in contact with his Spanish counterpart, my Secretary General, Mr. Javier Conde who was on holidays in Malaysia, exactly between 8.50 and 9.50 on Tuesday the 15th. I still don't know how I managed to find all the phone numbers and drag Mr. Conde from the beach.... but I succeeded and finally they did have a conversation between those hours, Canadian time, on Tuesday the 15th!

I could not do it on Monday because Mr. Gordon Smith, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in Canada, was unreachable as he was completely isolated in the forest...(sic) but, in any case, the result would have been the same. The conversation between the two hot-liners did not differ much from the one I describe previously between other top Canadian bureaucrats and myself.

In contrast, our meeting at the P.M. Office and our talks with Mr. Pelletier were to the point, frank, expeditious and clearly coherent with the conversation the P.M. had with the E.U. President in Halifax. He was warm, open, and expressive. I must say that it was one of the best diplomatic encounters I recall from my past three long years in Canada.

Once again, and it was very painful, distressing and bitter: I received three phone calls the next day from a nervous Mr. Bartleman on the eve of the opening of the fair.

* at 10:15: he reports some technical and administrative difficulties in removing the Net-Show;

* at 11:10: from his cellular phone on the site of the Net-Show, he informs me that an emergency meeting is in progress and that a declaration from the Government stating that neither they nor the DFO are to be linked with the Net-Show has just been disclosed.

* at 16:20: once again from his cellular phone, he asks me whether I wish to meet with the Fair organizers to discuss the matter.

I then wrote a letter thanking Mr. Pelletier and letting him know that there are apparently bureaucratic and technical difficulties preventing the removal of the net. At 18:30, he called me personally, like a "Caballero", and assured me that the Net was being removed. Like a friend of mine told me the next day: "Para ser un Cabellero hay que tener el valor de un Torero". And indeed he was a perfect gentleman and showed his courage by keeping his word as a Caballero.

Other details:

1. The total lack of coordination between DFAIT and DFO contributed to the editorials and news items that have been published in detriment of Euro-Canadian relations and even Canada-Spain much deteriorated links.

2. The negative impact on the average Canadian citizen.

3. The waste of time, money, effort and frentic turmoil deployed during an unusually intense and futile exercise of bureaucratic activities at the expense of Canadian and european tax payers (faxes, phone calls, notes, civil servants' overtime, media expenditures, etc.). All of this could have been put to good use for more useful and NEEDED exercises of true conservation, integration and positive communication among the peoples of the E.U. and the average Canadian citizen.

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