Copyright © 2000 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

NEW BRUNSWICK - "We go out to cut wood, they tell us we can t. We go out to fish, they tell us we can t. We go home, they call us welfare bums." -member of Esgenoopetitj First Nation

In October 1999, Mikmaq people in Esgeno petitj (Burnt Church, New Brunswick) were attacked and their fishing equipment destroyed when they attempted to exercise their aboriginal right to fish. The Supreme Court of Canada had just affirmed that right, but the Canadian government, police and non-native fishers did not accept the Court decision.

As a follow-up, CPT sent Janet Shoemaker and William Payne to New Brunswick in January 2000 and learned of the grave fears among native and non-native people that violence will break out again when lobster fishing begins in mid-April. Many people have asked CPT to be present then to reduce the risk of violence.

Payne and Shoemaker learned that the risk of violence would also be reduced if aboriginal fishers are compensated for the destruction of their fishing equipment last fall and if training is offered to aboriginal people seeking to re-enter the fishery from which they have been wrongly excluded for many years.

Please write the following people to demand immediate compensation for losses, and assistance with training for new fishers in time for the spring fishing season in April. Please emphasize the Canadian government's responsibility to deal with aboriginal peoples on the nation-to-nation basis enshrined in the treaties as new understandings are worked out for the conservation of fish stocks.

Rt. Hon. Jean Chretien
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Tel.: 613-992-4211
Fax: 613-941-6900
Email: pm@pm.gc.ca
Email: dhalih@parl.gc.ca

Hon. Herb Dhaliwal
Minister of Fisheries and Oceans
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Telephone: 613-995-7052
FAX: 613-995-2962

Mr. Jim MacKenzie
Chief Federal Representative
200 Kent St; Stn. 14E209
Ottawa, ON K1A 0E6
Telephone: 613-990-0163
FAX: 613-993-3435
Email: mackenziej@dfo-mpo-gc.ca

Your Member of Parliament
DFO House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6

U.S. citizens, please write the Canadian Ambassador to the U.S.:

Ambassador Raymond A.J. Chretien
Embassy of Canada
501 Pennsylvania Ave. NW

Washington, DC 20001
Telephone: 202-682-1740
FAX: 202-682-7726
Email: washdc-outpack@dfait-maeci.gc.ca

Background:
Mi kmaq people in Esgeno petitj (Burnt Church, New Brunswick) had great hopes last September when the Supreme Court of Canada acknowledged that aboriginal people have a right to fish and sell their catch. Native people were systematically shut out of the fishery twenty-six years ago through imposed government regulation. For members of First Nations communities on the east coast of Canada, the ruling, known as the Marshall Decision, points to the nation-to-nation nature of relations between Canada and the member nations of the Wabanaki Confederacy (including the Mi kmaq and the Maliseet Nations) and reaffirms their original treaty rights. The prospect of earning a living, without leaving their home communities or being harassed by Canadian government authorities, encouraged Mi kmaq people to invest in lobster fishing equipment and boats, often putting themselves into debt.

Local non-native fishers reacted strongly against the Marshall Decision, claiming that fishing by aboriginal people in the fall would reduce the catch available to non-natives licenced to fish in the spring. On October 3, 1999, commercial fishers from several surrounding non-native communities joined together and destroyed the native-owned lobster traps, resulting in the loss of nearly $250,000 of fishing equipment and ultimately a loss of income of a much larger magnitude. Government officials, including the RCMP, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Coast Guard, stood by and watched as the destruction proceeded. Several weeks later, after some Mi kmaq community members put out traps a second time, they discovered DFO officials pulling up and confiscating their traps, under the pretext of "saving" them from non-native fishers.

In spite of extensive media documentation, only a few non-native fishers have been charged (with minor offences), and then only after a public outcry. To date, the Mi kmaq people have yet to receive compensation for their losses, despite governmental suggestions that this should happen. As the spring season draws near, and many people are still suffering under the losses incurred last fall, concerns are mounting that compensation needs to be addressed immediately so that native fishers can be ready to fish in the spring.

CPT calls on the Canadian government and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to compensate Mi kmaq people immediately for the cost of equipment destroyed and loss of income incurred by the cutting, destruction and removal of their traps in the fall of 1999. Additionally, since the Mi kmaq and Maliseet people in New Brunswick have been shut out of the fishing industry for the past twenty-five years, there is also a need for funding to train people to regain the skills they were unable to learn from previous generations of fishers in their communities.