Vancouver Courier Oct.12, 2005
By Sandra Thomas

PARTY POLICY AGAINST KEEPING CETACEANS IN CAPTIVITY

Whale activist accuses COPE of backsliding on referendum

ANIMAL ACTIVISTS are questioning the vote by COPE parks commissioners against holding a referendum on whales and dolphins in captivity. They say a referendum was promised by COPE before 2002 municipal election.

“For years COPE blamed the NPA-dominated park board for not holding a referendum,” said Annelise Sorg, director of Coalition For No Whales in Captivity. “They said they spoke for the whales but now they’ve absolutely closed the doors on us.”

Sorg said she raised money and paid for ads in support of COPE for 2002 based on the party’s policies. Sorg pointed to a 2002 COPE discussion paper written by parks board commissioner Anita Romaniuk who was a candidate at the time. Part of it reads: “A COPE park board will put controversial, city-wide issues such as allowing marine mammals to be kept in captivity in Stanley Park to a plebiscite so the people of Vancouver can have their opinion counted.”

Sorg and other animal activists want the board to follow up that statement and include a question on this year’s ballot asking voters if they want the aquarium to continue keeping whales and dolphins.

Sorg said her group and others have asked the parks board 5 times in 12 years to hold a whale-captivity referendum. She said many residents and COPE members expected that a referendum would finally go ahead this year because of commissioners like Romaniuk, Heather Deal, Lyndsay Poaps, and Loretta Woodcock, who worked on the original policy. Deal is now running for a seat in city council as a candidate for Visions Vancouver.

Last month a motion supporting such a referendum was passed at a COPE policy workshop, and would have gone to council if the COPE-dominated parks board had supported. But days after a meeting to elect COPE candidates for the upcoming election, the motion was turned down at the board.

At the time Romaniak acknowledged COPE has a policy against keeping cetaceans in captivity, but said a referendum wouldn’t make sense because the Vancouver Aquarium’s lease runs until 2015, which allows the aquarium to keep whales and dolphins in the meantime.

Sorg said her group was also told there wasn’t enough time to get the question approved at council before the October 6 printing deadline for an information booklet to be distributed to the public.

The Booklet takes 3 weeks to print and is delivered to households 3 weeks before the election. “But October 6 is just a printing deadline,” said Sorg. “The election isn’t until the end of November and there’s plenty of time to get this out to the public.”

Woodcock said referendums take a long time to organize and promises one will be held well before the aquarium’s lease expires in 2015. But last week the aquarium announced that it’s long-term “vision” for the facility includes larger whale and dolphin pools. In light of that announcement, Woodcock said she will bring the motion for a referendum to the board again Oct. 17.

She said COPE never included promises to hold a referendum on the issue in its “official” policy statement. She said the paragraph noted by Sorg was included in a discussion paper presented by Romaniuk.

“After discussion it was never put forward once we were made aware of the ethics of holding a plebiscite before the lease expires,” said Woodcock.

PHOTO OF BELUGA

Caption: The Aquarium included larger pools for whales and dolphins in a recent long-term vision statement.