Whale lovers threaten court action

Publish Date: 9-Jul-2006

The Coalition for No Whales in Capivity has called upon park-board commissioners to reject two staff recommendations at the meeting on Monday (July 10) evening.

For background http://www.straight.com/content.cfm?id=18882

Coalition spoksperson Annelise Sorg claimed in a news release that one of the agenda items asks the commissioners "to endorse and participate in a public relations and promotional campaign that will be planned and managed by a private firm of lobbyists working for the private institution that you are regulating, and you are also being asked to spend public money paying a major part of the costs of that promotional campaign."

Sorg is of course referring to staff's recommendation that the park board and the Vancouver aquarium both retain consultant Judy Kirk's company to manage a public-consultation process.

Sorg added that the best way to determine the citizens' views would be through a referendum or plebiscite. Sorg also alleged there were errors in agenda item number six, which concerns a bylaw review.

"The major direct falsehood, with grave implications for the Park Board, is this. The staff report states 'in 2003 and 2006, groups disapproving the capture of cetaceans for display purposes have presented briefs to the Board outlining concerns with the effectiveness of the Bylaw'. That is untrue. The report made by the Coalition on July 21, 2003 did deal with the potential ineffectiveness of the current Bylaw, and that report has now been proven to have been accurate in every respect. The report made by the Coalition on June 6, 2006, one month ago, dealt with something entirely different. It was a formal complaint to the Park Board, in your capacity as a law enforcement authority".

Sorg alleged that the bylaw concerning dolphin importation had been breached, and it was the board's duty as a regulator to pursue the issue. Vancouver aquarium staff have always maintained that they adhered to the bylaw concerning the importation of cetaceans into Stanley Park.

"If tomorrow night you adopt this staff report without comment, without calling for it to be corrected, and without addressing your failure to enforce your own bylaw, that action will have formal consequences," Sorg warned. "It will constitute a formal refusal by this Park Board to act upon the complaint of unlawful behaviour that it received on June 6, 2006. Your refusal will be presented as such to the court."

Don't be surprised if Vancouver park board general manager Susan Mundick brings in city legal beagle Tom Zworski to shut this one down in the courts.

- By charlie smith