Copyright © 2000 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

Dear Friends,

For those of you who may have gotten a call to pray hard on Monday night, I want to inform you about what happened here in Esgenoopetitj. The prayers were not for us CPTers, but for the community. It is impossible to give much information over a cell phone because the RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] and DFO [Department of Fisheries and Oceans] and many other people have scanners and can pick up everything we say.

For several days the non-native fishermen in the surrounding area had threatened to come and remove the native fishers' traps if the DFO didn't. On Sunday afternoon, the band council met with the RCMP who said they would try to stop the non-native population from going out and destroying their property, but couldn't promise success. At that time, there was general information that a raid would happen within 48 hours.

At about 10:30 Monday night, a band member came back from the Neguac wharf saying that there were white fishermen all over the wharf; the RCMP was trying to keep them calm, and the [officers of the] DFO were getting ready to go out on boats. (The main threat was actually from the other side of the bay at the Escuminac wharf.)

The news was out all over the community. People congregated at the bridge, where they dock their boats, to jump into them and go out to confront the DFO if they came. One community leader came down and asked that NO one go out in the dark because it would just be suicide. They only have small boats and can't do anything to stop the DFO or white fishermen's much larger boats in the dark.

It was at that point that Lena Siegers called a friend in Ontario to start praying and calling other people. We were really afraid some hot-headed young men would go out there and lose their lives. All but one person honored the request to not go out--and his attempt didn't last very long when he realized he was alone.

The DFO boats came into the bay silently, and [were] very hard to see in the dark at 2:30 a.m. For awhile, some people went to an overlook and lit flares out into the sea, but eventually, people went home and went to bed. By 5:00, when my "shift" was over, there were just a few people out there.

As daylight lit the scene of DFO boats lifting EFN traps, the native fishermen began to appear on the water with their small dories. I was sleeping, so I missed all the action. Two boats were sunk by the DFO by literally driving over the top of them. No one was killed; there were only a few minor injuries and five wet men. Two of them were picked up by RCMP and arrested. There is some excellent video footage floating around that shows the intentional sinking of the boats.

The DFO eventually gave up. There are still about 200 traps out there. The Assembly of First Nations is [reportedly] promising to bring in a truckload of new traps to help them continue the struggle--nonviolently.

There are some really disturbing aspects of all this. For one thing, the DFO had agreed to let them fish within a certain perimeter, but caved in to the threat of vigilante violence from the white fishermen. Rather than letting the white guys break the law and dealing with it, the DFO acted llegally instead.. The other thing is that they began their trap lifting at 2:30 a.m. There were between 500 and 600 traps out there. When I left at 5:00, I could only see two DFO boats (as compared to the thirteen I counted at 3:00). Then when the sun came up, they were all there again. It seems that they had plenty of time to pick up all the traps before the sun rose. But they didn't.

We believe that they really wanted a confrontation in the dark--because they knew that no one could see it. But they didn't get it. So they waited until it was light. They seem to really want violence, for the native people to lose control, bring out the guns and kill or wound a "peace" officer so they can lay the blame on the Indians. The DFO has been getting some bad press up here because there are too many video cameras out there showing how they harrass and attempt to hurt native fishermen. They are losing this battle, and they know it.

Please keep the prayers coming our way: that the native fishermen will continue to refuse to use violence in this struggle, that the DFO will recognize the treaties, and that the non-native fishers will recognize the lies the government feeds them about the lobster fishery and gain some peace of mind in this situation. And for the team that we can find creative ways to support this struggle and speak the truth in ways that the non-native community can hear it.

Thanks to all for your prayers and support.

Janet

[**CPTnet Editors Note: This letter was written by Janet Shoemaker, currently working with the team in New Brunswick, to friends and supporters. Because of its vivid description of recent events, the CPTnet editor has decided to publish it as a release. Brackets reflect editorial additions.]