‘I was willing to take a bullet’
Shots fired at Mi’kmaw fisherman, one person arrested
PICTOU LANDING — Sylvia Bernard offered to go.
“I said ‘No, it might be dangerous',” recalled her partner, Gary Denny.
It was Sunday afternoon, and a fishing boat was among the traps they set under a moderate livelihood licence issued by the Pictou Landing First Nation.
So Denny launched the family's 16-foot aluminum boat with a side-by-side and steamed toward the Cape Islander alone.
“He starts coming toward me full speed and I kind of froze, thinking he's going to get me either way — either he will ram me or his wake will capsize me,” said Denny.
According to Denny, the Cape Islander came within 10 metres and then made a sharp port turn toward the northeast.
As he rode out the swell from the larger boat, he heard the first gunshot.
Bernard, watching from the yard bedecked with the toys of their three children, heard it, too.
“Gary just sat there in the boat for what felt like 10 minutes — it wasn't — it would only have been seconds, and I was yelling at him, I thought he'd been shot,” said Bernard on Monday.
Three shots were fired and Denny said he saw one of them skimming along the water some 15 metres from his craft as the bigger vessel steamed away.
“I was thinking to myself, I might die, I might be injured, but for my people to fish in peace, I was willing to take a bullet,” Denny said Monday.
Sunday's incident is the latest escalation in this fall's moderate livelihood struggle.
The Sipekne'katik, Potlotek, Membertou and Pictou Landing First Nations have issued their own tags for lobster traps to be fished by their members.
The move comes 21 years after the Supreme Court of Canada instructed the fisheries minister to create and consult on a regulatory framework that allowed Mi'kmaq and Maliseet members to earn a moderate livelihood off the resource.
While DFO spent some $540 million buying up commercial licences and
than it was before.”
For one thing, Mackinnon was afraid she would get COVID-19 if she left the house especially during the first couple of months during the pandemic. She has preexisting pulmonary issues that could increase the severity of the disease if she were to get it.
Months of not interacting with people also exacerbated her social anxiety.
“Now when I do interact with people, (the anxiety) is worse than it was beforehand.”
‘I’VE TRULY LOST WHO I AM’
For Haillie Hersey, the isolation continues to be a setback in her recovery from addiction.
“Part of my recovery plan was to open up my support and friend circle,” she said. “This is also a really hard thing for me to do on a good day, so now that the (family bubble) is in place, I feel extra alone.”
Hersey, who also lives with anxiety and depression, said all her coping mechanisms went down the drain during the pandemic. One of the things that make her happy is volunteering, but she hasn't been able to find places that are taking new volunteers.
“My coping skill is staying busy and that was taken away from me,” she said. “I feel like I've truly lost who I am during this time.”
Hersey and Mackinnon are not alone. Dr. Simon Sherry, clinical psychologist and professor at Dalhousie University, said there's a lot of evidence suggesting that “COVID-19 is very corrosive to mental health.”
Limiting social activities and staying at home unless necessary are essential to curb the spread of COVID19. But they unintentionally contribute to social isolation and behavioural avoidance, two conditions people with mental health issues already struggle with.
Sherry defined social isolation as having few tangible social and emotional supports available to a person, such as having no one or few people to talk to.
Behavioural avoidance is “a tendency to shrink away from the world to live within a small space.”
Sherry said the hibernation-like state where some people have stopped going outside during the pandemic can lead people to further shrink away from the world and not seek support.
“You can see this if you were already anxious and fearful about heading into the world, staying at home during the pandemic, knowing that there are dangers or risks that are invisible out there, has only strengthened and reinforced your avoidance.”
Sherry said people should try to go out and participate in the world as much as possible within public health guidelines.
He added that all the extra time alone means more time to think about our problems, which makes them grow bigger in our heads. Hersey experienced that first-hand.
“I tend to spiral out of control with my thinking. ... It did lead to a relapse,” she said.
Mackinnon knows too well what it's like to lose her coping mechanisms, too.
She's lived with some of her mental health issues since childhood and was able to manage them. She said although she struggled, she still had several jobs and maintained friendships.
“Before where I could work through it, it was manageable,” she said. “Now it's almost completely debilitating.”
Mackinnon now asks her mom to come with her to take out the garbage or check her mail.
“The thought of leaving the house initially is so stressful that I need literal support to leave the house,” said Mackinnon.
“Thankfully, she lives in the same apartment building with me.”
PANDEMIC CURSES SOME, BLESSES SOME
People's personality traits play a role in how they're affected by the pandemic.
“It's my consistent observation that this pandemic is especially difficult for extroverts,” said Sherry.
“People have different social saturation points. Some people can be quite content with one or two social interactions per day, but by disposition, extroverts prefer and seek out opportunities to affiliate.”
Samuel Mundy, who's lived with anxiety and depression all his life, said more people communicating and shopping online during the pandemic has been beneficial to his mental health.
It's more normal now for Mundy to tell friends that he wants to chat online instead of going to visit.
He also doesn't have to spend hours thinking over whether he said the right thing to the cashier at the grocery store.
“A lot of (my anxiety and depression) comes from social interaction of the dayto-day,” said Mundy, who is finishing his education degree. “The lockdown in general took me out of a lot of these environments that usually would be harmful for me.”
Mundy and his partner are also happy to be saving on gas and food.
He's also finally found the time to work on his hobbies, which include making music, and cosplay.
“I was able to do so much in such a short amount of ... months. It was really satisfying.”
SUPPORT IS INADEQUATE
While both Hersey and Mackinnon attend bi-weekly appointments with their therapists, they both said support is different post COVID19.
Speaking to a therapist over the phone is less personal and, for Hersey, it can be difficult to concentrate.
“There were times I needed to go to a hospital due to intrusive thoughts, but forced myself to sit with it instead,” said Hersey.
Sherry said COVID-19 has exposed the cracks in the mental health system and there's a need for an action plan with appropriate funding to address the issues.
“We simply need to make mental health services more accessible,” he said.