The province’s fisheries minister claims the timing of his comments about the NDP’s Jim Dinn marginalizing Indigenous people is not political.

Gerry Byrne says he learned shortly ago that the same perpetrator who made the comments about “kowtowing” to Indigenous groups was invited to sit at the table repeatedly, after being supposedly removed from the organization.

Byrne says that has echoes of “other behaviours” where a person of power or authority transgress the basic expectations of society.

He says there is what appears to be a “faux punishment”, where the person was removed from the immediate circumstance and presence of those who they offended, but then moves on to be in an almost identical place, in another location, with the capacity to continue doing what they were doing.

Byrne says that is what Chief Mi’sel Joe called “the cover up”.

Byrne’s original comments were made at PC member Jim Lester and the NDP’s Jim Dinn. Byrne suggested Lester had participated in illegal hunting activity and accused Dinn of racist behaviour. Yesterday, he indicated he would be happy to “humbly” withdraw his comments about Lester. But he stood by accusations made against the NDP’s Jim Dinn, a former President of the Salmonid Association of Eastern Newfoundland.

Byrne suggested that Dinn was racist for being present at a meeting in which comments were made about “kowtowing” to Indigenous groups.

Jim Dinn had his own chance to respond to the Point of Privilege. Dinn said he would understand the outrage if he made the comments himself—adding he does not condone nor can he apologize for a comment he didn’t make.

He concluded by saying he would not be backing down from his question about the warm water event that led to the die-off of about 2.6-million salmon.