Empress of Ireland Artifacts being sold

On the radio on the way into work this morning,I heard about a Quebec diver is going to the UN to appeal a right to sell 100+ artifacts he's (stripped/pilaged/had proper authority???)collected from the Empress of Ireland and apparently has a buyer - a museum in Florida - all worth more than a million bucks. I believe the story says he's going to the UN to appeal a decision that Canada is somehow preventing him from selling these artifacts........
Does anyone have the REAL story, or at least more information?

SS

The Empress of Ireland, is a piece of Canadian maritime history.
It has been declared a heritage sight.
The sale of Canadian hertiage items is illegal, under Canadian law.
She is not in international waters, and any artifacts recovered should be placed in a museum in Canada.
I fail to see what the UN's jurisdiction is here.


My 2 cents worth.

MikeD
:blfish:

Isn't this the guy (don't remember his name) who set up a museum of the pieces he recovered from the "Empress"? Seems he wanted the province to buy the museum, and when they wouldn't, threatened to sell the stuff on the open market.

He cannot sell something that doesn't belong to him.....Canadian law....But he is from Quebec and therefore feels he is above Canadian law....except of course when it is to his advantage.....:boom: :boom:

Yeah, they gave the guys name - it was Pierre something.........
There wasn't much of a story and they didn't say what the items were for sale - thats why I was curious if anyone knew the story.
Now my question is - how did he obtain these items? Since it has been declared a heritage site, and our gov't knows he has items "recovered" from this site, should he not be charged/fined/or made to speak english as a first language??

SS

You know damm well that the french in Canada are above the law. Just ask the crook running the country....I rather have a sex addict running our country any day.........Where else can you try to break up a country, without being charged with treason or being shot...............:boom: :boom:

This is not news. It was on 60 mins and W5 a while back. Parks Canada offered him $10,000 but then he got gready. They should just take it under the proceeds of crime laws. They just declared it a heritage site last year after it became public knowledge that a numbered american corporation was taking the wooden flooring off of the wreck. Its just like the Avro Arrow....Canadian heritage doomed to be forgotten. Its amazing how everyone knows about the Titanic but not about the Empress.

The Quebec residents as whole do not feel they are above the law.
I know several Quebec residents, and other than wishing to preserve their right to speak French (a Right they won by the way at The Battle of the Plains of Abraham) most are law abiding Canadians.

The argument that will be made (I presume) is that the artifacts were recovered long before the Empress of Ireland was declared a heritage sight, and therefore he has the right to ownership.

The flaw in the argument, is that the wreck lies within our coastal waters and therfore falls under the Canada Steamship Act.

In Canadian law "finders keepers" is not the rule, and for this reason most private collections are kept secret.
All materials (floatsome and jetsome) recovered within Canadian waters must be reported to the Reciever of Wrecks, and notice subsequently published in 3 consecutive issues and the Canada Steamship Gassett, to allow the original owners (Canadian Pacific or the insurance company) to make claim, before salvage rights may be applied for.

Under Canadian Law, historical artifacts are the property of the Crown (in the Province in which they lie).


MikeD
:blfish:

You are right...in a moment of frustration I made a broad, sweeping statement about all my fellow Quebecors (Yes I am a Quebec native).....still p****** me off to hear about anyone holding the artifacts hostage...............:boom: :boom:

It seems to me that if that indeed is the law in Canada, shouldn't he have been arrested when he was found to have these items? Or at least have them confiscated?




People who dont dive, dont know what it feels like to dive. To explore a territory that we physically should not be able to explore.