Copyright © 2000 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

ESGENOÔPETITJ - On the morning of September 12, 2000, the day that a mediation process was due to commence between the Canadian federal government and the esgenoopetitj First Nation, Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) officers, with the assistance of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), arrested sixteen people in the waters near this community. Three people, including a human rights observer, were thrown into the choppy waters when their boat was rammed and sunk by a DFO vessel. Those arrested include Esgenoôpetitj Chief Wilbur Dedam, Aboriginal Rights Coalition (ARC) human rights observer Tracy Sinclair of North Bay, ON, five Mi'kmaq Rangers (Fisheries Officers) and nine Mi'kmaq fishers.

The incident began when a fleet of DFO and RCMP vessels seized Chief Dedam's fishing boat. RCMP officers tear gassed the esgenoôpetitj Rangers who responded to Dedam's distress call. Arrested fisheries officer Roland Joe said, "When the smoke cleared the federal officers were pointing machine guns at us." An RCMP vessel rammed and sunk a second Ranger boat driven by fisheries officer Brian Caplin, throwing three Mi'kmaq fisheries officers and ARC observer Tracy Sinclair into the choppy ocean waters.

Donald Barnaby, a Listiguj Ranger thrown from the boat, was injured in the raid and is being monitored at the Tracadie Hospital. Barnaby sustained back injuries on August 16, 2000, when a DFO boat intentionally rammed his boat. As police officers led Esgenoôpetitj Ranger Curtis Bartibogue into the Tracadie police station in handcuffs, he told CPTer Pierre Shantz that he and the others had been pepper sprayed while still in the water.

CPTer William Payne of Toronto spoke with jailed ARC observer Tracy Sinclair, "They are treating me completely differently than the Mi'kmaq teenager I am with," she reported. "He has been in handcuffs for several hours but they took mine off while I was still on the water." She added, "They have taken my video camera and tape and are refusing to let me have them."

CPTer Pierre Shantz, waiting outside the Tracadie RCMP detachment for an update on the status of those in custody said, "It is clear that the RCMP have lost every semblance of neutrality and are being used as a tool of the DFO and the federal government. I think that it is time for the United Nations and Amnesty International to send observers here."

Maintaining a presence at the esgenoôpetitj community's wharf, CPTer Jamey Bouwmeester of Elgin, Illinois said, "Agreeing to mediation one moment, sinking boats and pepper spraying those thrown overboard the next moment, the DFO is either totally incompetent or coldly malicious."

CPT has come by invitation of the people of esgenoôpetitj to accompany the First Nations people as they struggle for respect and for the recognition of their inherent rights to fish. Members of the CPT team presently include Jamey Bouwmeester (Elgin, Illinois), Joel Klassen (Kitchener, ON), William Payne (Toronto, ON), Pierre Shantz (Kitchener, ON), Janet Shoemaker (Goshen, Indiana) and Lena Siegers (Brussels, ON). The Aboriginal Rights Coalition is sponsored by the mainline churches in Canada.