Mi'kmaw fishers say DFO officers left them to walk for hours at night after seizing boots, phones

Two Mi'kmaw elver fisher‐ men say they were forced to walk in sock feet for hours along a rural Nova Scotia highway in the mid‐ dle of the night last week after they were detained by federal fisheries officers who took their boots and phones before releasing them.

Blaise Sylliboy and Kevin Hartling, who assert they have a treaty right to fish for the lucrative baby eels de‐ spite this year's season being cancelled, were joined Tues‐ day morning by dozens of protesters outside the De‐ partment of Fisheries and

Oceans building in Dart‐ mouth, N.S.

"When we were walking, there's times I'm like, 'Man, if we stop, we're going to die,' because our feet were just soaked," said Hartling.

Protesters also gathered and drummed at a housing announcement in Dartmouth by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who said "these re‐ ports are very troubling" and there needed to be a "full in‐ vestigation."

Last month, federal Fish‐ eries Minister Diane Lebouthillier cancelled the spring fishery for elvers, cit‐ ing the risk of violence and widespread unauthorized harvesting that have plagued it in recent years. Since early March, DFO has arrested at least 39 people for unautho‐ rized elver fishing and seized vehicles, dozens of nets, and weapons.

One protester outside the DFO building spoke of "starlight tours," a term that emerged in Saskatchewan to describe law enforcement picking up Indigenous people in the winter and abandoning them in remote areas.

Chief Bob Gloade of Mill‐ brook First Nation called the incident involving Sylliboy and Hartling "appalling" and "inhumane," and said DFO should fire the fisheries offi‐ cers who were involved.

On Wednesday, DFO said it had launched an investiga‐ tion into the allegations, and the fisheries minister inten‐ ded to meet with Mi'kmaw chiefs.

Sylliboy said he, Hartling and several other people were fishing for elvers at night along a river in Shel‐ burne County in southwest

Nova Scotia when a vehicle raced up. He said he didn't know who it was, and began to run through the woods be‐ fore realizing they were DFO officers.

Sylliboy, who is from Eska‐ soni First Nation in Cape Bre‐ ton, said DFO later found him and he was detained. Hartling said he surrendered as soon as he learned they were DFO officers. Sylliboy said they were told their hipwader boots and phones had to be seized for investigative purposes.

Sylliboy said he was put in a vehicle, but said he was in such pain from the handcuffs he agreed to be dropped off at a gas station at about 1 a.m. He said he tried to call his mother but couldn't get a hold of her. Without his phone, he said he couldn't remember other numbers to call.

"I told [the officer], like, 'Man, this is outrageous. You're leaving me with no shoes,'" Sylliboy said. "He said, 'You know the conse‐ quences. But I said, 'I know the consequences, but this is, like, outrageous on human rights.' And he was like, 'Yeah, sounds like your guys' problem.'"

WATCH | Trudeau re‐ sponds to questions about fisheries officers' actions

Sylliboy said he and Hartling, who is from Mem‐ bertou First Nation in Cape Breton, were told by the gas station clerk they couldn't stay there, so they began to walk in sock feet toward the community of Liverpool where they hoped to find a hotel room. They said they wrapped their feet in duct tape and plastic bags from the gas station.

They didn't want to knock on doors in the middle of the night, so kept walking. At one point, Sylliboy said Hartling spotted a donation bin and pulled out used clothes to put on his feet, which were becoming raw.

He said an EHS ambu‐ lance driver stopped at one point and allowed them to use his phone so Sylliboy could call his mother, but re‐ fused to pick them up. Sylli‐ boy said they finally flagged down a truck whose driver agreed to take them to the town of Shelburne.

Protester Jake Maloney said the incident shows "how deep racism is. They couldn't get help anywhere, from any public servant, from any business, from anybody."

DFO saying little

DFO confirmed it arrested and released two people for infractions under the Fish‐ eries Act related to the elver fishery on March 26, but said it would not provide more details due to the investiga‐ tion.

"It is standard practice for fishery officers to seize fish‐ ing gear related to the com‐ mission of alleged infrac‐ tions, including hip waders, fyke nets and dip nets," a spokesperson said in an email.

CBC News has also reached out to EHS for com‐ ment.

"It's important that the laws against illegal fishing be enforced," Trudeau said. "But there are processes and pro‐ tocols in place, and the way enforcement officers need to behave, that we need to make sure was properly fol‐ lowed."

Pickup truck seized

RCMP said its officers had no contact with the two men that night, but did locate a vehicle associated with them after being asked by DFO to search for it. Police seized the pickup truck because it was being driven by a man with a suspended licence.

RCMP said officers later released it to another man, who was the owner and who had called police around 4:15 a.m. worried that Sylliboy and Hartling were lost.

WATCH | How eel fishing is changing for the Mi'kmaq trying to preserve it:

Unauthorized fishing for elvers along Nova Scotia rivers has exploded in recent years as the price has sky‐ rocketed, with the tiny eels selling for thousands of dol‐ lars a kilogram and being shipped live to Asia, where they are grown for food.

The decision to cancel the season has been heavily criti‐ cized by commercial fisher‐ men, as well as by the As‐ sembly of Nova Scotia Mi'k‐ maw Chiefs, which put for‐ ward its own proposal to DFO to manage the fishery.

Some Mi'kmaq have as‐ serted they have a treaty right to fish for elvers, al‐ though the assembly of chiefs warned last month it did not have the resources to "support court cases" of those charged this year as DFO can justify the closure of a fishery by using "legitimate public safety and conserva‐ tion concerns."

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