Subject: RE: Moose Review

A warm hello to everyone,
I see a lot of old friends, colleagues, past Fish & Wildlife board members and peers on this email list. It
seems that the more years that pass, the more things stay the same in the MNR. I'm remembering the
days of Snobelen ending the spring bear hunt with a blatant disregard to the anglers and hunters of this
Province. I remember the shredding of the Fish and Game Commission Report and the Ministers office
telling us to replace "Biological Sustainability" with principles of "Ethics and Fair Chase". There was the
case in the Supreme Court of Canada between OFAH and MNR. Politics should have no place in
resource management but they always seem to.

A decade or so ago, the "hook and bullet" crowd contributed 58 million dollars a year from fishing and
hunting licence revenues when the government could only see fit to contribute a token 18 million a year to
manage the entire Fish and Wildlife program in Ontario. I somehow doubt any of that has changed much.
Absolutely shameful! At the very least, dollar for dollar matched funding from the government should
still become a reality.

We had some wild times back then. Fearless Phil Morlock was on the war path determined to bring
accountability to the MNR. Andy Houser was the Director of Fish and Wildlife and brought much
needed integrity to the mix. Pat Kennedy put his heart and soul on the table and I watched a lot of friends
get seriously hurt by the antics and outright lies of the folks at MNR. Yet we remained hopeful that we
could build a "better tomorrow". The thought at the time was to unite the forces behind anglers and
hunters in the province and join forces to effectively lobby the MNR together. Remember the Carlton
Club? It seems now like it was such a long time ago...

From the bottom of my heart, I would like to commend you all and thank you for your efforts. I have
read through the various attachments that I have received over the years on a regular basis from Gaye
Smith. I tip my hat to Gaye Smith, John Kaplanis, Randy Ford, Eldon Hawton and everyone else who is
embroiled in the current MNR follies! "Noli nothis permittere te terere."...."don't let the bastards wear
you down"!

I still believe that the major stakeholders of managing the Fish and Wildlife program in Ontario should be
the Anglers and Hunters of the Province given the sheer commitment of dollars and sweat equity that they
contribute every year in order to sustain what is left of our outdoor heritage. Hence was the concept we
had worked on for the Fish and Game Commission which seems to have gone the way of the great white
whale. Maybe it's time once again, to consider somehow uniting the forces and send a clear message to
the MNR and anti groups that the people who hunt, fish and trap in our Province deserve respect and have
the right to be heard? After all, we are footing the majority of the bills.

Keep up the good fight!
Respectfully,
Brian Dykstra