Freedom of Information requests for government documents pertaining to what I believe is the craziest wildlife management plan in Canadian history verify what I’ve heard “off the record” from sources within Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF). It plans to list double-crested cormorants as “game birds” (which they aren’t by any definition) and allow 50 per day to be killed with no limit on number killed, so long as the shooter is one of over 190,000 Ontarians holding an outdoor and small game license. And, it will create a “hunting” season for the birds from March 15, when nesting commences, to December 31, after nearly all have migrated south. For the first time in the history of Canadian hunting regulations, the birds can be left to rot (they are virtually inedible due to rank flavor). There’s more, but you get the idea.
Unless possessed of blind stupidity of colossal magnitude, upon reading just the comments from his own staff, as seen in the documents, MNRF Minister John Yakabuski must have known, and reported to Premier Doug Ford, that not only would this proposal trigger informed opposition from the science and conservation communities, it would invite legal action. The proposal as contained an Environmental Bill of Rights (EBR), which citizens had time to comment on, albeit over the Christmas holiday season when most folks are preoccupied – wow… talk about political cleverness, eh? – states on one hand that the proposal will resolve concerns about cormorants by reducing their numbers (from an unknown amount to an unknown amount) while on the other hand, simultaneously having no impact!
Huh?
Ford is a right-wing populist who knows that If court challenges manage to tie things up, no matter; he and Yakabuski can plead to their base that they’re hampered by bleeding-heart “elites” – those of us who put facts ahead of emotionally informed, if mistaken, belief. So long as the charade lasts through the next election, in 2022, it can help assure ongoing support from the base. With three major parties running, to stay in power Ford’s Conservative party needn’t win the popular vote; it just has to win more ridings (electoral districts) than any opposing party or independent.
Expert presentations I’ve seen in response to the EBR refute the idea that cormorants deplete stocks of fish sought by anglers. One of the documents we obtained cites a single study, which says pretty much what we say. So do other presentations. Names of writers are redacted, but it all ties with what I’m told by MNRFers who can’t go public without risk to jobs and pensions.
Even the fact that changes to the environment caused by the birds (called allogenic ecosystem engineering) are natural and positive was understood. But, sadly – and increasingly – for the populist politician, science and facts impede political aspiration and the cormorants are cruelly caught in the crossfire.
Keep wildlife in the wild,
Barry
