Charges dropped against fisherman whose boat was burned

Case couldn’t be made, Crown decides

A Mi’kmaq fisherman whose boat was stolen and burned in October had three fisheries regulation charges against him dismissed last month.

Alex McDonald, a member of the Sipekne’katik band, had been charged with fishing for lobster out of season, catching shellfish in breach of regulations and a lobster tag violation.

McDonald, 56, was to appear in Digby provincial court on Feb. 23 but the federal Crown asked to have the charges dismissed.

“Upon review of the evidence, it was determined that it didn’t meet the decision to prosecute test,” said Sarah Newton of the federal prosecution office in Halifax.

Part of the test, as outlined in the prosecution service handbook, is that the federal Crown, before proceeding, must consider if there is “a reasonable prospect of conviction based on evidence that is likely to be available at trial.”

McDonald’s troubles intensified last fall when he went to the Comeauville wharf on Oct. 9 to check on his boat, the Buck and Doe, but it was gone and lines used to secure it to the wharf had been burned. He said he was called later in the day by DFO who said his boat was spotted burning in St. Mary’s Bay. It sank before it could be towed to shore.

McDonald told the Tri-County Vanguard he felt he was targeted be- Alex McDonald at the wharf in Comeauville, Digby County, on Oct. 10, 2017, near where his boat is normally tied to the wharf. When he went to check on his boat the day before he said it was missing. DFO later observed the boat on fire and said it sank at sea. cause he is an aboriginal fisherman. But he also said in his years of fishing alongside non-native fishermen, he had never had any trouble or been given any grief.

At the time he told the Tri-County Vanguard, “I don’t believe it’s any of the non-native fishermen I fish with, I really don’t. A lot of them called and gave me their condolences and told me, ‘Sorry Alex that this happened, it’s not right.’”

At the time of the incident, and in the months before, there had been tensions and demonstrations over concerns fishermen had about commercial fishing happening under the guise of the aboriginal food fishery. McDonald said at the time, “I wasn’t doing much food fishery. Maybe once a month me and the wife and the kids come down. We set a couple of traps, take the lobster home. There’s some old people, we give them lobsters.”

McDonald’s was the second boat burned in a week as tensions sur- rounding the Indigenous fishery in southwestern Nova Scotia boiled over. A non-Indigenous fisherman’s dry-docked boat was burned in Weymouth North the week before.

RCMP said both fires appeared to have been deliberately set.