One step closer to the truth

Yesterday, in a letter to the editor of The Telegram (not on-line, sadly), Agnes Noseworthy, AKA Senga P., AKA An_N, the most recent and most tenacious of the popularizers of the “trade deal” narrative, writes:

Fish-quota issue deserves more discussion

Re the article titled “Were fish stocks used as bargaining chips?” by A. Brian Peckford which appeared in the Sunday edition of The Telegram on Dec. 2. First, I would like to thank the former premier of this province for weighing in on this very important topic. It is a topic which must be talked about by everyone concerned.

Fish quotas are a renewable resource and, if looked after properly, this province - with the adjacency to what was one of the greatest fish resources in the world centred off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, an appendage of land which juts out into the North Atlantic Ocean - could still create a vibrant fishing industry here in the future, with the assistance of the federal government which holds the fish quotas. The industry should be created here, instead of Ottawa doling out the resources to foreign nations for trade concessions.

In his article, Mr. Peckford says that he thinks it is “fair to suggest, if not maintain,” that based upon the documents that he has in his possession, “there is a case to be made that the federal government was trading fish off the province of Newfoundland and Labrador for questionable return, either in the form of so-called market access or involving other products or issues.”

Agnes Noseworthy
St. John’s

The best part is the part she didn’t even write: the headline. It is absolutely true; the issue does deserve more discussion. Lots of it.

By people who actually know what they are talking about.

As for the substance of Agnes’ umpteenth re-iteration of her favourite fable, she successfully tilts at a windmill in writing:

The industry should be created here, instead of Ottawa doling out the resources to foreign nations for trade concessions.

Agreed! Of course, Agnes should also start eating real people-food for three meals a day, instead of eating adorable puppies.

It is entirely immaterial whether she does, in fact, eat adorable puppies; she should stop doing it, and it’s up to her to prove anyone else wrong when they say she does. The proof is out there, and besides, someone else says she does, so it must be true.

And she bolsters he case by quoting the logically tenuous conclusions, such as they are, of Brian Peckford, when he cites, well, Brian Peckford, and his locatable documents which don’t bolster his case, and the conveniently-unlocatable documents, which, apparently, if anyone could find them, do.

But she has no evidence, let alone novel conclusions, of her own.

Please play again, Agnes!