The FFAW says a meeting with the deputy minister of Fisheries and Oceans failed to result in changes to the decision to reopen the commercial cod fishery to offshore draggers.
Members of the union met with Annette Gibbons on Wednesday, but walked out of the meeting after they say their concerns were “dismissed” by her.
FFAW President Greg Pretty calls DFO’s decision to welcome back offshore draggers “insanity.”
Pretty says the decision must be reversed, adding the fishery needs to be grown, not destroyed.
“We need to keep the stewardship, and we need to do the thing properly, but the insanity of having the same companies, the same countries that helped put us into a moratorium 32 years ago, to have them in on (an) 18,000 (tonne quota)?
“It’s just a crazy plan, and one has to wonder, what the hell is going on?”
The meeting with Gibbons followed the crashing of a news conference by Pretty and union members.
They had interrupted the Canadian Council of Environment Ministers event, demanding a meeting with the prime minister on the issue.