CanWest: Harper fisheries letter puzzling to B.C.

[tuvor]

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper was told he left Premier Gordon Campbell's government confused and Canadian aboriginal leaders fuming with his surprise July 7 letter to the Calgary Herald stating his opposition to a ''racially divided'' West Coast fishery, according to an internal briefing note obtained by the Vancouver Sun.

The B.C. and federal governments have been working together since the early 1990s to strike treaties with First Nations, and most pending agreements none have been approved but three are ready to go to the federal and B.C. legislatures include exclusive commercial fishing rights.

Harper's statement stunned many, and was almost certainly discussed when B.C. Aboriginal Relations Minister Mike de Jong met here Thursday with federal counterpart Jim Prentice to urge federal support for the three new treaties.

''We expect Premier Campbell to ask you about the government's recent comments regarding the elimination of the separate commercial fisheries in the Pacific region,'' said one partly-censored, unsigned briefing note for Harper in July, noting the B.C. government's long-time support for native commercial fishing rights.

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