Copyright © 2001 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

AMHERST, NS - In an Editorial in the National Post newspaper entitled "Lobsters, Lies and videotape" on August 1, 2001, the newspaper criticizes a film called "Who will sing for us now" produced by Ms. Nancie Lee from Massachusetts. And the editorial is for all purposes very one-sided in its criticism, which depicts why Aboriginal People in Canada rarely receive fair and objective reporting in the National News.

The first sentence, "The truth was left on the cutting room floor in Nancie Lee's video.", is far from the truth of the matter. The person who wrote this editorial was not present during any of the attacks in St. Mary's Bay and should not state that the truth is left anywhere.

Many video and still photography cameras were there, including the Atlantic Policy Congress' video camera taking footage of the attacks on Mi'kmaq fishermen exercising their Treaty rights. There are portions of the video that show how heavily armed and ready the DFO officers and the RCMP were ready for the attack.

It should also be pointed out that all the Media were in Burnt Church during these attacks, so no National Post reporter or editor can tell anyone what really happened there.

What was not included was footage of Elders and women being arrested and harassed by the RCMP and DFO on the shores in St. Mary's Bay. This is the truth of the matter in St. Mary's Bay and it's not comparable to what happened in the waters at Burnt Church.

"Viewers are never informed that the native protesters at Burnt Church had launched a violent attack against DFO Officers.". At no time in Burnt Church had any attacks been made against DFO Officers where it was not in retaliation.

The attacks witnessed in Burnt Church and St. Mary's Bay against Mi'kmaq fishermen exercising their rights were planned and executed by both DFO enforcement officers and by the RCMP riot team and were heavily armed with assault rifles and riot gear. This is proven in video footage taken and a written report by the Christian Peace Keepers in Burnt Church.

"I can guarantee you that if it was the other way around, we would be charged. Ask about the outcome of the case of the boat ramming in Burnt Church last year," said APC Co-Chair Chief Lawrence Paul.

Another fact that has not been told in the St. Mary's Bay incidents is that the Indian Brook people were put at the location they're at today by the Federal Government. They did not have a choice and it's known traditionally that the people of Indian Brook practiced a fall food fishery in St. Mary's Bay.

"It's truly a case of making the "Indians" look bad in the editorial," said APC Co-Chair Chief Second Peter Barlow. "National newspapers should have the courtesy of researching issues more before they put forward their racist views."

"The federal government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in media strategies including purchasing full page ads in the National daily's, yet Aboriginal communities can only depend on the objectivity of reporters to report the truth," continued Chief Barlow.

"This editorial is purely a case of the newspaper actually seeing the real truth in Ms. Lee's video, but they just don't want to believe that the Government does treat our people this way. This would be different if Conrad Black was a Mi'kmaq," concluded Chief Paul.

Contact: JJ Bear, APCFNC Communications Officer, work phone: 902-667-4007, cell-phone: 506-379-0244 or by e-mail: jj.bear@apcfnc.ca. Visit the APCFNC web site.

Lobsters, lies and videotape
National Post Online Editorial
Published National Post 8/1/2001"
Copyright © 2001 National Post

The truth was left on the cutting room floor in Nancie Lee's video Who Will Sing for Us Now? Ms. Lee, an aboriginal filmmaker from Massachusetts, is promoting the cause of some Indian Brook First Nation Band members who face criminal charges after a July, 2000, confrontation with Department of Fisheries and Oceans officers at St. Mary's Bay, N.S. Ms. Lee combines historical footage, music, slow motion effects and carefully edited snippets of violence to paint Canadian Fisheries officials as brutal thugs. The video is being distributed over the Internet in an apparent bid to besmirch Canada's international reputation.

Viewers of Ms. Lee's video see Fisheries officers striking aboriginals with batons and fists. For added effect, scenes from the 1999 confrontation at Burnt Church, New Brunswick, are included, with special emphasis given to one scene in which three natives are tossed into the water after their boat is rammed by a Fisheries vessel. Naturally, viewers are never informed that the native protesters at Burnt Church had launched a violent attack against DFO officers, throwing rocks the size of softballs from their boats, injuring one officer so badly that he had to be taken to Montreal for reconstructive facial surgery thanks to a crushed cheekbone, a broken nose and a cracked jaw. (Who, he might have asked at the time through bloodied lips, would sing for him?) The images from St. Mary's Bay are just as deceptive. Footage of natives swinging sticks and clubs at DFO personnel and choking a DFO officer are all deleted. The result is a propaganda film in the best tradition of George Orwell's Ministry of Truth.

Twenty-one natives now face a host of criminal code charges arising from last year's St. Mary's Bay showdown. But the accused do not hail from St.Mary's Bay or nearby bands. Rather, they come from Indian Brook, which is about 300 kilometres away, near Halifax. This is important, because the Indian groups that actually live in the bay area, such as the Acadia, Bear River and Horton bands, all respect the 100-year tradition of closing the lobster fishery during the summer, the time of year when lobsters enter the bay's shallow waters to breed. Unemployment in the region is high, much higher than in the Halifax area. No one who actually lives in the bay area has any interest in jeopardizing the lobster fishery. Ms. Lee seeks to depict members of the Indian Brook First Nation Band as noble victims. In fact, they are carpetbagging opportunists out to scoop up breeding lobsters for a quick buck.

Ms. Lee also takes pains to frame the actions of the Indian Brook First Nation Band members as if they were gestures of civil disobedience aimed at showing up unjust and repressive federal policies. But the Supreme Court of Canada made clear in 1999 that the government has the right to "regulate the exercise of a [native] treaty [fishing] right where justified on conservation or other grounds," and the DFO officers attacked in July, 1999 were merely trying to protect a vulnerable lobster fishery on behalf of local fishermen, native and non-native alike. Those officers did their job -- and the 21 natives who attacked them should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. As for the propaganda contained in Who Will Sing For Us Now?, Canadian government officials should do everything in their power to debunk it.