Georgia Straight July 17, 2003
By Charlie Smith
Aquarium's Foes Seek Ban on Importing Dolphins At the Monday (July 21) Vancouver park board meeting, several
people plan to ask Coalition of Progressive Electors park commissioners
if they will ban the importation of all whales and dolphins into
Stanley Park. As the Straight went to press, 10 people were on the
speakers' list, including COPE Coun. and former park commissioner
Tim Louis, former COPE park commissioner Donna Morgan, dolphin trainer
Ric O'Barry, and former lawyer and self-described constitutional
expert Denis Howarth, who is acting as a consultant for the Coalition
for No Whales in Captivity.
Coalition spokesperson Annelise Sorg told the Straight that she
wants the board to close a legal "loophole" that permits
the importation of cetaceans into parks if they were born in captivity
or if they were captured from the wild before September 16, 1996.
On July 31, 1996, the Civic Non-Partisan Association controlled
board approved a motion that would have banned all cetacean imports
into parks. On September 16, 1996, however, NPA commissioners amended
the motion to permit the aquarium to import dolphins under certain
circumstances. Sorg pointed out that the two COPE commissioners,
Louis and Morgan, voted against the amendment.
In 1998, the NPAcontrolled park board signed an eight-year
agreement with the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre , which
could be extended to 2015, part of which promised not to interfere
with the aquarium's "day-to-day" administration. The aquarium
promised to comply with park-board bylaws and not bring any cetaceans
into the park except under the terms outlined in the 1996 bylaw.
COPE commissioners Anita Romaniuk and Loretta Woodcock --who were
elected last November as part of a new COPE majority--were quoted
in a March 23, 2001, COPE news release as saying they wanted the
park board to "tighten restrictions" on the importation
of dolphins into the aquarium. The news release stated that the
aquarium should not import dolphins to replace Bjossa, the departing
orca.
In a public presentation to the board on March 26, 2001, Woodcock,
then cochair of COPE's parks and environment committee, claimed
that Vancouver residents want to ban the import and trade of dolphins
and whales. "There should be no zoos in Stanley Park, whether
they're land zoos or aquatic zoos," Woodcock said at the 2001
meeting.
Prior to the last election, COPE Comm. Lyndsay Poaps sent an e-mail
to the coalition saying she opposed bringing any more marine mammals
into captivity at the aquarium. COPE park board chair Heather Deal
and COPE Comm. Eva Riccius told the coalition that they support
COPE's position opposing marine mammals in captivity. Deal and Riccius
also wrote that they favoured letting the public decide this issue
in a citywide vote.
Aquarium CEO John Nightingale told the Straight on July 14 that
he has no intention of appearing before the board this Monday. "Our
view is we have a valid lease with the park," he said. "It
has 15 years to run. We are operating under and abiding by its provisions.
That's all there is to say."
Under the agreement, the aquarium pays the park board $40,000 each
year. Howarth told the Straight that the agreement is written in
a manner that permits COPE commissioners to ban future dolphin imports
without creating any liability for the park board.
Howarth claimed that the section dealing with the importation of
cetaceans does not confer any legal rights to the aquarium. The
aquarium also promised to comply with bylaws that may govern the
use of park property from time to time.
"It quite clearly shows that the park-board discretion is
not fettered--that it can pass additional bylaws," Howarth
said.
He also claimed that banning the importation of cetaceans would
not constitute "interference" with the aquarium's day-to-day
operations, even if this inflicted financial damage. "It's
public policy that has changed," Howarth said.
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