疑夜钓渔获供应华埠餐馆
星报安省韦斯特波特电/一再发生亚裔钓友遇袭事件的韦斯特波特镇(Westport)的居民表示，问题与种族主义无关，只是涉及护鱼，且有居民认为，这些整夜的钓鱼活动是牟利性质，怀疑渔获是供应多伦多唐人街餐馆之用，但政府有关部门执法主管表示，未有发现商业活动的证据。
对于亚裔钓友在这个位于京士顿以北的小镇地区遇袭，被人推下水中及持斧头威吓的事件，当地的居民有另一套的说法。这个镇对亚裔钓友明显有怒意，但与种族无关。
居民指称，不少不只一次深夜前来钓花鰂及石鲈的大多伦多地区的亚裔人士，曾经被发现在当地的保护区盗钓贵价的鲈鱼及碧古。
当地一个鱼类保护组织的成员钟斯(Charlie Jones)表示，这完全不涉及种族主义，只是要为鱼提供保护。
他说：“在过去五年，这些人一再被发现渔获超额或在保护区取鱼。”
钟斯抱怨天然资源厅执法松懈，以致造成有关的问题。钟斯说，人们通知该部门，但对方没有采取行动，该部门没有人手来巡查。镇内Coldwater Banker的代理人克利普咸(Peter Clipsham)更认为这些违法的钓鱼活动涉及牟利。
货车出没加深怀疑
有传言称，装有打氧气的水箱的货车在当地出没，而这些传闻令到一些人加深怀疑，这些整夜钓鱼活动是为多伦多唐人街餐馆供货。
花鰂及石鲈普遍被钓鱼界视为次级的品种，但却是亚裔社区的美食。
无违法及商业钓鱼证据
天然资源厅当地的执法主管奥拜里(Steve Aubry)则表示，没有违法及商业钓鱼的证据。他表示，该部门的人员知道并且正留意韦斯特波特的情况，但发现人们基本上遵守渔获的限制。
他说：“我们只发现非常之少的非法活动，而且现阶段肯定没有任何事情显示有商业化的情况。”
该部门设有24小时的热线供市民举报非法活动，但没有紧急的回应制度。这可能是令到居民感到失望的原因。
居民表示，现时镇内气氛一触即发，任何亚裔人士晚上被发现拿着鱼竿都可能会引来愤怒。上月的两宗钓友遇袭的事件已令到亚裔社区震惊。
一批华人已于星期日在当地派发传单，并且悬红1,000元，以能令缉拿行凶者。
袭击事件拘控两男
另方面，警方亦正调查最近数个月来在闪高湖(Lake Simcoe)所发生的一些类似事件。安省省警周三表示，星期日凌晨2时左右，两名来自大多伦多地区的亚裔男子在科保康克(Coboconk)的加尔河(Gull River)钓鱼时遇到袭击，事后已拘捕了小不列颠(Little Britain)的两名男居民，分别是57岁的华达马连素(Walter Marinzel)，被控以伤人及出言恐吓的罪名，以及19岁的马修马连素(Matthew Marinzel)，被控之假冒治安官员的罪名。
Angler attacks: Racism or poaching?
But town residents say poaching has sparked anger, vicious attacks against Asian Canadians
Oct 04, 2007 04:30 AM
Dale Brazao
STAFF REPORTER
Westport, Ont.–To hear the anglers tell it, they have been attacked, thrown off a bridge into the water, and threatened with baseball bats and axes by angry residents.
The unCanadian behaviour, these Asian Canadian anglers say, is just because of the way they look.
But residents of this idyllic hamlet on the shore of Big Rideau Lake, 45 minutes north of Kingston, tell a different story. Yes, there is palpable anger in town toward the “Asian” anglers, but it has nothing to do with race.
Residents claim some of the many GTA anglers of Asian descent, who make repeated late-night pilgrimages to harvest crappies and rock bass, have also been caught poaching prized bass and walleye from local sanctuaries.
“This has nothing to do with racism, and everything to do with protecting the fish,” says Charlie Jones, a member of a fish conservation group. “These people have been caught time and time again over the last five years either over-fishing or taking fish from the sanctuary.”
Jones, who also manages the local grocery store, blames the Natural Resources ministry’s lax enforcement of fishing regulations for the problem.
“People call the MNR constantly, but they don’t do anything. They don’t have the staff to police this.”
Residents with lakeside properties have also complained of finding garbage, including human feces and toilet paper, on their lawns or behind their garages.
“That’s all over the place and that is absolutely not right,” said Peter Clipsham, a broker with Coldwater Banker in town, who is convinced much of the illicit fishing is being carried out for profit.
Rumours of aerated tank trucks trolling the countryside have added fuel to the speculation that many of these fishing trips are supplying Toronto’s Chinatown restaurants.
Crappies and rock bass, considered substandard species by many sport fishermen, are a delicacy in the Asian community. And in July and August crappies are apparently voracious eaters at night.
There is no evidence of illegal commercial fishing, said Steve Aubry, the MNR’s supervisor of enforcement for the area. He said his officers are aware and are monitoring the situation in Westport.
The ministry has a 24-hour hotline for tips on illegal activity, but it does not have an emergency response system and that may be what is frustrating residents.
Residents say the atmosphere in Westport is so charged that any Asian person seen with a fishing pole at night is liable to attract heat.
Two mob attacks on anglers fishing on area bridges in the past month have shaken the Asian Canadian community.
On the night of Sept. 14, a 73-year-old Scarborough resident was beaten unconscious and his son-in-law thrown off a bridge 3 metres into the water after being attacked by men who emerged from a van.
This information is posted on telephone poles on the Sand Lake bridge in Westport by an Asian Canadian group calling itself “better Canada2007.” It’s offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the attackers.
Last weekend, a gang of young men brandishing baseball bats and axes chased a group of Toronto fishermen off another area bridge.
Neither incident is believed to have happened on sanctuary waters, which are clearly marked.
http://www.thestar.com/article/263545
Georgina `embarrassed’ by attacks
Mayor apologizes for assaults on Asian Canadian anglers, anti-Semitic and homophobic vandalism
Oct 03, 2007 04:30 AM
Peter Edwards
Staff reporter
The mayor of Georgina has denounced recent attacks on Asian Canadian fishermen, as well as anti-Semitic and homophobic vandalism, and has apologized on behalf of his community.
“The people that I have the privilege of representing are shamed and embarrassed that this would have happened in our community,” Robert Grossi said yesterday after meeting with leaders of B’nai Brith Canada and the Chinese Canadian National Council.
Grossi’s comments came after swastikas and anti-Semitic and homophobic slurs were painted on nine vehicles in Keswick, while York Region police investigate a series of attacks on Asian Canadian anglers at Lake Simcoe.
“From what we’ve heard so far, they’re isolated incidents,” said the mayor of the lakeshore community of 40,000 north of Toronto.
Grossi was praised for meeting with local faith groups and educators about the attacks.
“We see leadership from the mayor on this,” said Victor Wong, executive director of the Chinese Canadian National Council. “We’re quite appreciative of it.”
Grossi noted that police are investigating the attacks, and have stepped up patrols around the lake.
“York Regional Police have been very responsive, very respectful.”
Immediately after reports of the incidents last week, Grossi’s office issued a public statement saying that “broad-stroke painting of our community as a place that is unwelcoming to some groups or nationalities is unjustified.”
Yesterday, he said he still considers his community to be tolerant.
“We are a very welcoming community,” Grossi said.
In one of the recent incidents, a man was left in a coma after a violent confrontation between anglers and community members.
In other recent incidents, a man and a boy were pushed into the water while fishing.
Two related cases are before the courts, including one involving a high-speed chase that began when youths approached anglers fishing off a pier, and demanded to see their fishing licences.
The youths began shouting racial slurs and then chased the anglers as they fled, ramming their car from behind with a pickup truck.
Meanwhile, in the town of Westport on Big Rideau Lake, police are investigating at least two incidents in which locals have allegedly attacked Asian-Canadian anglers in the past two months.
In one incident, a man who was fishing with his 73-year-old father-in-law on a bridge at midnight was beaten up and thrown off the bridge by a group of young men.
In another incident, men wielding baseball bats and an axe forced some Asian-Canadians to give up their fishing spot on a local bridge.
In both cases, the victims were said to be from Toronto.
Residents of this hamlet say while they are fed up with people poaching fish from local reservoirs, they deny the incidents have anything to do with racism.
“People are really angry and I’m afraid sooner or later someone is going to get seriously hurt,” said Charlie Jones, who heads a local group of conservationists.
http://www.thestar.com/article/263048
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Animosity growing toward those who fish
Oct 02, 2007 04:30 AM
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Fishing trip to Westport turns violent
Sept. 30
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I live in the Westport area and am aware of the issue described in this article. The problem is that a lot of information is excluded.
There is animosity toward individuals who are fishing at night in our area. These people usually fish all night, are not concerned about how they fish, what kind of fish they catch or how many. They usually have large coolers filled with water with them, which they use as live wells for the transportation of fish back home. A lot of these people are working catching fish for companies based in Toronto and Montreal and they are selling the fish in those cities.
In the case noted in your article, the individual involved was fishing in a well-posted fish sanctuary that is a source of pride to the people of Westport. People have been caught fishing there before and some have been heavily fined by MNR bylaw officers.
Some of the landowners are very upset by the situation because the fishermen come in the middle of the night and fish in private or illegal areas. I don’t condone violence but you can see how the type of animosity toward these fishermen could have happened.
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Peter Clipsham, Westport, Ont.
http://www.thestar.com/article/262428
Fishing trip to Westport turns violent
Chinese anglers say they were threatened by axe-wielding man yelling `No fishing, go home’
Sep 30, 2007 04:30 AM
Surya Bhattacharya
Staff Reporter
Jinxin Wang’s love for fishing would lead him and his friends back to his lucky spot near a Kingston-area bridge. But it would also bring him face to face with a man wielding an axe, screaming at him to “go home.”
“It was like a tiger attacking a goat,” Wang says through Maray Ma, a Mandarin translator who is also his tenant.
Wang, 47, an east Toronto resident, set off on a fishing trip Friday night with two buddies.
Recent media reports about “nippertipping” – or attacks on Asian fishermen, where they are sometimes thrown over a bridge along with their equipment – did not deter them.
He was unaware that York Region police had launched a hate-crime investigation last Thursday into four such incidents near Lake Simcoe.
For two months, August and September, the crappie are plentiful in the rivers and streams of Toronto. Fishing aficionados like Wang angle from night till dawn, when these fish bite the most.
Since crappie are available mostly frozen, bringing home a fresh one is a delight.
It is pan-seared on both sides and served steaming hot.
Wang took his friends to a spot near Westport, about 45 minutes north of Kingston, that yielded at least a dozen crappie two years ago.
They checked to see if there were any “No Fishing” signs on the bridge. They also heeded Ma’s advice.
“I told them, `Don’t be noisy. Don’t litter. Local people sometimes don’t like others coming. Don’t disturb them. Don’t talk to anyone,'” she says. “And don’t let anyone come too close. They could push you in the water.”
When a white pickup truck slowed on the bridge and a woman told the group to go away because it was not a fishing site, the party moved under the bridge.
Less than 10 minutes later, they said they heard someone swearing loudly.
Wang phonetically describes it: “F—er, go home. No fishing, go home.”
There were four men and two dogs, he recalls. They carried axes and baseball bats. Wang said one stepped up to him and swung the axe within an inch of his face.
“That person is so …,” says Wang at a loss of words. “You don’t want to look at him. To me, if we didn’t go, I knew we would be attacked.”
So, without a word, they said they walked to the car while the men made loud chopping noises on the bridge while “swearing, shouting and yelling” at them.
At their first turn, Wang spotted the same truck.
While two of his friends wanted to call the police, a terrified Wang refused.
“I did not want to make trouble for myself,” he says.
Ma called members of the local Chinese-language press, one of whom then called the police.
http://www.thestar.com/article/261933
