Nova Scotia First Nation pulls commercial lobster boats from the water
The chief of the First Nation behind a disputed moderate livelihood lobster fishery in Nova Scotia says recent vandalism and the loss of potential sales have cost the band more than $1.5 million - and he wants those responsible to be held accountable.
Mike Sack, chief of the Sipekne’katik First Nation, also alleged the band had been blacklisted by lobster buyers.
“The (non-Indigenous) commercial fishery has systematically boxed us out of the market,” Sack said in a statement. “It will take time to rebuild our relationships in the supply chain of people and companies we did business with who are now rightly afraid of retaliation.”
Sack told reporters the band filed an application for a court injunction aimed at preventing people from harassing Indigenous fishers at the wharf in Saulnierville, N.S., where the livelihood fleet is based.
“We want the injunction to make sure people are safe in and around the wharf,” Sack told a news conference in Digby, N.S.
Later Wednesday, Nova Scotia Supreme
Court Justice James Chipman granted the interim injunction, which among other things prohibits anyone from “threatening, coercing, harassing or intimidating” band members or people doing business with them.
It prohibits any interference with Sipekne’katik fishing activities, including interfering with their gear at sea or on land. The order, which is in force until Dec. 15, also says the Saulnierville wharf, another in Weymouth and a lobster pound in New Edinburgh used by the band cannot be blockaded.
The First Nation attracted national attention on Sept. 17 when it launched a “moderate livelihood” fishing fleet in St. Marys Bay in southwestern Nova Scotia, almost two months before the federally regulated fishing season was set to open.
Sack has said the Mi’kmaq band’s members are exercising their constitutionally protected treaty right to fish where and when they want, as affirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada in a 1999 decision.
Citing treaties signed in the 1760s, the court said the Mi’kmaq, Maliseet and Passamaquoddy bands in Eastern Canada can hunt, fish and gather to earn a “moderate livelihood.”
However, non-Indigenous protesters have asked federal authorities to stop the Indigenous harvest because the Supreme Court ruling also said Ottawa could continue to regulate the fishery - so long as it can justify such a move.
The dispute has escalated into confrontations marked by violence, arrests and allegations of assault and arson. Two buildings storing lobsters caught by Indigenous harvesters were vandalized last week, and one of them was burned to the ground on Saturday.
Amid rising tensions, the First Nation says it can’t sell lobster caught by those taking part in its moderate livelihood fishery or the band’s commercial communal operation to the east in the Bay of Fundy.