Copyright © 2000 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

I was eating lobster the other day at an all-you-can-eat buffet. As I looked at my meal, I wondered if this was a Mi'kmaq lobster or a Canadian lobster?

I thought of the Mi'kmaq fishermen out on the water trying to catch lobsters while being run over by Department of Fisheries motor boats. I have always heard that the life of a fisherman is a hard and dangerous one. Just look at the movie "The Perfect Storm" and you can understand the risks.

If you are a Mi'kmaq, however, you have not just Mother Nature to contend with, but a rabid Federal government bent on your destruction. The perfect storm that the Mi'kmaq's are facing includes non-Native fishermen, the RCMP, the Department of Fisheries, the Department of Indian Affairs, the Justice Department, the Conservative Alliance, right wing journalists, racist attitudes, oppressive legislation, ongoing colonialism, self-preserving politicians, and even the Supreme Court can't be relied on to support the Mi'kmaq. The right for the Mi'kmaq to fish does not derive from the Marshall Decision of the Supreme Court of Canada or from the treaty signed in the 1700s. The Mi'kmaq have had that right since time immemorial. The treaty and the court decision only confirmed its existence. The Supreme Court decision actually restricted that right by allowing the Federal Government to regulate Mi'kmaq fishing for conservation of stocks.

The Federal government has immediately used that restriction to confront the fishing practices by Mi'kmaqs and thus provoked the latest confrontation.

But if conservation is the issue, why is the Department of Fisheries not seizing all the illegal traps that non-Natives use every year? Non-Native can set three million traps legally in Atlantic Canada. But they also set as many as one million illegal traps at the same time. Where was the DOF's enforcement all there years? Is the DOF's enforcement "race based?"

The fundamental issue here is not fishing but the right of the Mi'kmaq people to determine for themselves their own destiny: the right to self-determination. The Supreme Court did not specify that right but by recognizing the treaty signed by the Mi'kmaq, it implied that the Mi'kmaq were a nation when it signed the treaty. Well, the Mi'kmaq are still a nation today.

The community of Burnt Church is not the Mi'kmaq Nation but only a part of it. Still, the rest of the Mi'kmaq should look, and are looking very closely at how the Burnt Church Mi'kmaq are dealing with this issue. The Mi'kmaq have a right to self-determination as a people and they have the opportunity to exercise that right. The issue of fishing rights gives the Mi'kmaq the opportunity to unite and act like a true people again. The people of Burnt Church should not be alone in this struggle. The rest of the Mi'kmaq should be joining them.

Around the debate over the right to self-determination of Indigenous Peoples at the United Nations, one diplomat said privately, "I can see why you are so passionate about your self-determination because you have the moral argument on your side." In response, I said, "Does that mean that your government has the immoral argument?" The diplomat said, "Yes." Governments know that we are right. They know that we have the moral right to self-determination. All we have to do is keep the moral high ground and assert our right to self-determination.

A united Mi'kmaq Nation would be the perfect answer to the perfect storm.

Kenneth Deer is editor of the Eastern Door, the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory newspaper.

The Eastern Door Kahnawake, QC J0L 1B0 "The Eastern Door is a community based newspaper serving the Mohawk of Kahnawake regardless of birth, sex, age, language, politics or religion. The paper strives to be a factual, balanced, authoritative source of information with access to all segments of the community."
URL: http://www.easterndoor.com/default.htm
E-mail: easterndoor@axess.com