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Indigenous Rights at Issue in Canadian Lobster Ruckus

Jay Heisler

   HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA - Royal Canadian Mounted Police are helping to
   maintain an uneasy peace between Indigenous and non-Indigenous
   fisherman in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia after a dispute over
   centuries-old treaty rights spilled over into violence and vandalism.

   The trouble began after Mi'kmaq communities from the Sipekne'katik
   First Nation began fishing for lobster in the Bay of Fundy during a
   period that is out of season for other lobstermen.

   The Mi'kmaq argue the fishing is permitted by treaties with European
   colonizers from the 1700s and by a 1999 decision of the Canadian
   Supreme Court. However the action angered the region's non-Indigenous
   fishermen, who fear the Mi'kmaq are seeking to establish an off-season
   commercial fishery that will endanger lobster stocks they all rely on
   for a livelihood.

   Two people have been arrested after incidents in which the Mi'kmaq
   charged that non-Indigenous fishermen had cut their lobster traps and
   fired flares at them when they tried to retrieve the traps.

   Police also report investigating shots fired and threats, and Mi'kmaq
   communities have been sharing on social media threatening or racist
   social media posts from nearby non-Indigenous communities. Activists
   have reported that some supply stores have stopped selling to
   Indigenous fishermen.

   "When you see that in our waters, our question is what is Canada going
   to do about that?" asks Susan Levi-Peters. A former chief of the
   Elsipogtog First Nation, Levi-Peters ran for office in provincial
   politics in the neighboring province of New Brunswick.

   "You see these huge vessels going after small little boats. I'm just
   hoping there's going to be a peaceful resolution before there's any
   casualties, anything like that, because it's going to get dangerous,"
   Levi-Peters said.

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