The Right to Fish: Inside The Discrimination Against The Mi’kmaq People
By: Ashley Corbett
In recent months, Nova Scotian commercial fisheries are discriminating the Mi’kmaq fisher-people for exercising their treaty right to fish. Photo Courtesy: Christina Brock
I call Mi’kma’ki, the East Coast of Turtle Island, home, but now live in Tkaronto (the Treaty lands and territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit, and the traditional territories of the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples). I’d usually describe my home and its people as friendly, hospitable and welcoming. The region is also known throughout Canada and abroad to be charming and quaint, with its quiet fishing towns and charming tourist attractions. But it’s an open secret to many that this isn’t the full truth.
Evidently, the cute and courteous identity of the area isn’t shown to everyone; the past few weeks have illuminated the deep-seeded racism that still exists in Nova Scotia. There’s a crisis right now, spreading across the southwestern part of the province, where the Indigenious Mi’kmaq peoples are being targeted and terrorized for exercising their treaty rights.
There have been mob attacks, raids and multiple accounts of arson against the Mi’kmaq lobster fishers of the area. Tires have been slashed. Traps have been cut. Boats have been destroyed.
It’s a hardship that has been decades in the making — one that’s come to a horrendous head this month. The roots of this feud trace back over 250 years ago, when the Peace and Friendship Treaty of 1752 promised the Mi’kmaq people the right to hunt and fish on their own land and establish trade.
This conflict is not new, and these treaty rights have long been ignored and disrespected. In 1999, for example, The Supreme Court of Canada issued the Marshall Decision, which upheld Mi'kmaq and Wolastoqiyik (also known as Maliseet) people’s treaty right to not only sustain themselves through hunting and fishing on their land, but also their right to earn a “moderate livelihood” this way (including during “off-season”). It also stated that in consultation with the Indigenous community, regulations may be put in place for the purpose of conservation.
Shortly after this court ruling took place in 1999, when Indigenous folks fished their waters during off-season, brawls erupted across wharfs in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Quebec.
To these non-Indigenous fishers, apparently the answer is relentless violence, destruction, racism, and terrorism.
At multiple locations across the province, fires have been set to Indigenious fishers’ lobster pounds. In southwestern Nova Scotia, there have been multiple accounts of Indigenious pounds and fishing boats being swarmed and vandalized by large groups of commercial fishers and their supporters. While these people say they want to protect the lobster population, Mi’kmaq lobster has been ransacked from storage and spilled out onto the ground, wasting a resource that needs to be kept cool, and in turn, destroying livelihoods. Also, here’s a peek into the amount of traps the Indigenious community is currently using.
At these events, the RCMP were either not present, or their presence did not stop the terrorism.
Source: APTN News
At an attack in Middle West Pubnico, on October 13, Mi'kmaq fishers were forced to take cover inside a lobster pound as a mob smashed the building’s windows, and a vehicle was damaged.
Ku’ku’kwes News reported that the RCMP told Jason Marr, a Mi’kmaw fisherman, that “the non-Indigenous fisherman would let them leave the pound if they hand over the lobster.”
Marr told CBC’s The Current that “the police forcibly removed me and said that I had to leave and let them take my lobster. They booted the door and grabbed me by the arms and told me to get out.”
He said this after describing how he watched non-Indigenious fishermen vandalize his car, one urinating on his driver’s seat. According to Marr, the RCMP stood by.
About a week later, charges were laid for arson in connection with a vehicle fire on that same night in New Edinburgh, seperate from this incident.
Source: Ku’Ku’kwes News
Sipekne'katik First Nation Chief Mike Sack has called on both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the RCMP to send troops to contain the violence. And yet, an RCMP Public Information Officer Andrew Joyce has said that the RCMP “don’t see it as a police issue.”
Allies in Nova Scotia have responded with support; over the past week, there’s been a rally in Halifax, and some restaurants have stopped selling lobsters in solidarity with the Mi’kmaq fishers.
This tension is ongoing. The violence is relentless. This is racism in so-called Canada; treaty rights precede Canadian law.
If you feel compelled to do something, here are some ways you can make an impact:
*Information sourced from this community Google Doc by Charlotte Connolly.
Follow and support Ku’Ku’kwes News and Maureen Googoo’s independent Indigenious reporting.
Watch Is The Crown At War With Us? for free. A documentary by Alanis Obomsawin on how the Canadian government reacts to the Mi'kmaq fishermen of Burnt Church, New Brunswick after the Marshall Decision in 1999.
Email and call your elected officials. You can use this handy copy template.
Donate via e-transfer to:
Frontlines: 1752frontline@gmail.com
Sipekne’katik First Nation: monicah@sipknekatik.ca
Read more about accounts to follow, websites to visit and more in the document above.