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CTV News
a day ago
- Politics
- CTV News
Mi'kmaq band drops legal case on N.S. lobster fishery
Fishing boats from the Sipekne'katik First Nation prepare for the start of its self-regulated treaty lobster fishery in Saulnierville, N.S. on Monday, Aug. 16, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan HALIFAX — A Mi'kmaq band has dropped a legal case alleging Ottawa was violating its treaty rights in the lobster fishery, after hopes were raised of a historic deal. Last December, the lawyer for Sipekne'katik First Nation told Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice John Keith that discussions with Ottawa to settle the matter were 'moving to a conclusion.' Keith gave the parties until June 16 to finish the mediation, but said at that point the case would carry on before the courts. However, a letter to the courts sent June 6 by Sipekne'katik's lawyer Nathan Sutherland dropped the case without any further explanation. Neither side has provided an update on the status of negotiations for a new agreement. Chief Michelle Glasgow, the leader of the Indigenous community about 70 kilometres north of Halifax, didn't reply to a request for comment. Band members had argued their 'moderate livelihood' lobster harvest outside of the regular season is permitted by a 1999 Supreme Court of Canada decision, while non-Indigenous commercial fishers have contended it threatens stocks and fails to recognize how the courts have maintained Ottawa's right to regulate. The original lawsuit was launched by the band in 2021, seeking a declaration that current federal regulations infringe on its treaty right to fish. The Unified Fisheries Conservation Alliance, a group that represents commercial fishers, said in a news release Monday that the discontinuing of the case is a 'major victory' for its members. 'It is an acknowledgement by Chief (Michelle) Glasgow and Sipekne'katik First Nation that the rights to the illegal out-of-season lobster fishing ... are not a treaty protected right, it is poaching, plain and simple', said Colin Sproul, president of the group. Meanwhile, the group said they will be pursuing separate legal action, filed in August 2024, asking the provincial Supreme Court to determine the rules and limits to be applied to Sipekne'katik First Nation's fishery under the Marshall decision. The Supreme Court of Canada's 1999 Marshall decision said the Mi'kmaq, Maliseet and Passamaquoddy bands in Eastern Canada could hunt, fish and gather to earn a 'moderate livelihood,' though the court followed up with a clarification saying the treaty right was subject to federal regulation to ensure conservation. In September 2020, the Sipekne'katik First Nation issued five lobster licences to its members, saying they could trap and sell their catch outside the federally regulated season. In the months that followed there were confrontations on the water, rowdy protests and riots at two lobster pounds, one of which was razed by arson. According to a letter the band's lawyers sent to the court last December, seven federal officials -- including the regional director of the Fisheries Department -- attended weekly mediation talks in the legal case, with 10 representatives of the First Nation participating. 'The progress made to date and moving forward from our 25 years of impasse is immeasurable,' wrote Ronald Pink, the lawyer at the time, in the 2024 letter to the judge. The talks were also described by lawyers last December as being extensive, with former senator Dan Christmas and retired federal mediator Barney Dobbin guiding discussions. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 9, 2025.
CBC
a day ago
- Politics
- CBC
Commercial fishing group to call on courts to define moderate livlihood
Social Sharing An organization that represents commercial fishermen says it's steaming ahead with a lawsuit aiming to define the terms of a moderate livelihood fishery now that a Nova Scotia-based First Nation has dropped its own lawsuit against the federal government. "It is critically important for all participants in the fishery to understand what the moderate livelihood right is and what its scope is and just as important to understand what it isn't," Colin Sproul, president of the United Fisheries Conservation Alliance, said in an interview. "We really need that clarity for everyone." Sproul was responding after his organization learned late Friday that lawyers for Sipekne'katik First Nation filed a notice of discontinuance in a lawsuit the band launched against the Attorney General of Canada in 2021. The Chronicle Herald first reported the development. Sipekne'katik wanted the courts to rule that the federal Fisheries Act infringed on its right to fish for a moderate livelihood. That would include the group's ability to fish for lobster outside the commercial season and catch and hold lobster without a licence. Sensing roadblocks? Sipekne'katik Chief Michelle Glasgow, who had been scheduled to appear in court on Monday as part of discovery for that lawsuit, did not respond to requests for comment. A summer fishery the First Nation started in St. Mary's Bay five years ago has been a flashpoint, with representatives from Sproul's organization and some other commercial groups expressing concern that a full-scale commercial operation has been happening outside of the regulated commercial season and that Fisheries and Oceans Canada has not done enough to prevent it. First Nations fishers have countered that fisheries officers have unlawfully seized traps and interfered with their treaty right to fish. Concerns aside, some First Nations fishers have exercised their food, social and ceremonial rights in the area. Fish caught as part of the FSC fishery, which is not regulated by any kind of season, cannot be sold or traded and is a constitutionally recognized practice. Michel Samson, a lawyer for the United Fisheries Conservation Alliance, said his interpretation of the notice of discontinuance is that officials with Sipekne'katik determined "there was no way that the courts were going to recognize what was being claimed." Moderate livelihood never defined With that lawsuit coming to an end, the alliance is now free to pursue its own. The group had intervener status in the matter between Sipekne'katik and the federal government, which had been previously delayed while the two parties worked toward a resolution outside the court process. "The United Fisheries Conservation Alliance has gone from being in the back of the bus to now behind the driver's wheel in having the courts make a determination on what are the limits around a moderate livelihood fishery for First Nation communities in Nova Scotia," Samson said in an interview. Calls for a definition of what constitutes a moderate livelihood date back to a 1999 Supreme Court of Canada ruling known as the Marshall decision, which said that First Nations have a treaty right to earn a moderate livelihood. And while a subsequent clarification, known as Marshall II, said the government can regulate a resource in certain circumstances, it has been up to Ottawa, in consultation with First Nations, to establish what constitutes a moderate livelihood. That has not happened.
