Latest news with #Sipekne'katik
CTV News
4 hours 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
7 hours 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.
CBC
21-05-2025
- General
- CBC
Mi'kmaw fishers exercise treaty rights in self-governed fishery
A group of Mi'kmaw elver fishers from Sipekne'katik First Nation in Nova Scotia are fishing under their community's fisheries plans.
CBC
21-05-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Sipekne'katik First Nation fishers say treaty elver fishery is 'a peaceful thing'
While the 2025 commercial elver season is underway in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, Mi'kmaw fishers from Sipekne'katik First Nation in Nova Scotia are exercising their treaty rights through a protest fishery. In 2025, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) re-allocated 50 per cent of the harvesting quota for baby eels, or elvers, from commercial harvesters to First Nations in the two provinces but some First Nations communities are not participating under that regulatory framework. Sipekne'katik, Millbrook First Nation and Membertou First Nation are three Mi'kmaw communities in Nova Scotia operating under their own management plans instead of accepting DFO's plan. The protest fishery is a form of resistance, where Mi'kmaw fishers are harvesting under their own management plans rather than those imposed by the federal government, in an effort to affirm treaty rights. The elver fishery on the East Coast is booming due to its low-barrier entry and surging market prices in recent years. The "truckhouse clause" in the Peace and Friendship treaties of 1760 and 1761 affirmed the right of Mi'kmaq, Wolastoqiyik, and Peskotomuhkati to trade goods — including fish, furs and wildlife — at designated truckhouses. In 1999 the Supreme Court affirmed this right, and interpreted it in modern-day terms to say beneficiaries of these treaties have the right to sell these goods to earn a "moderate livelihood." Tabitha Morrison, a Mi'kmaw treaty fisher from Sipekne'katik First Nation, says when fishers from her community attempt to make a moderate livelihood fishing elvers, they are being harassed by DFO. "Threatening, intimidation, arriving in unmarked vehicles, not having business cards, not saying their badge number," said Morrison. "It's another form of institutionalizing our people and it is triggering as a nation." She said when DFO confiscates equipment it isn't being returned, which can make it difficult for fishers who see the fishery as a path to financial independence. "There are socio-economic gaps on reserve, so these are people on social assistance trying to do better and then they're being held back," she said. Harvesting in groups for safety There's been tensions between First Nations and non-Indigenous fishers over the perceived impact of a treaty rights-based fishery on commercial fishing, with notable conflicts arising in Esgenoopetitj in New Brunswick in 2000 and more recently in Sipekne'katik in 2020 over lobster. Amy Maloney, a Mi'kmaw treaty fisher who harvests alongside Morrison, said she sees stories in the media and hears other fishermen talk about her community and feels it is being painted as violent and disorderly. "It's a peaceful thing, it's not violent," said Maloney of the treaty fishery. "We want to do things without violence. We want to teach our kids that you don't have to be violent to exercise your rights. You can do this peacefully." She said the community is taking extra steps to stay safe this year by harvesting in groups and remaining vigilant. "We have to protect each other cause we don't have guns out there and stuff to protect us... and we shouldn't have that because fishing is a peaceful thing," she said. Morrison said fishers from her community head out beyond her community to harvest elvers because the Mi'kmaq traditionally moved based on the seasonal availability of food source. "We're gonna travel to fish, we're gonna travel to hunt," Morrison said. "That's what we have done for years." Morrison said her community's fishing plan is not unlimited, and their data is being tracked and managed by their community's fisheries management. They said they don't feel divided from other Mi'kmaw communities based on their choices to fish or not fish elvers, or to fish them under DFO's quotas. "The people that are here to treaty fish, let them treaty fish," Morrison added. Morrison said her community will continue to fight for their rights protected under the Constitution. "We're not all wrong and we're not all right. We're doing the best of what we know and I don't think the answer is pointing the finger and blaming," said Morrison. Fishery officers patrolling DFO regulates the commercial elver fishery with a maximum allowable catch of 9,960 kilograms. New regulations in March require anyone in possession of elvers — not only fishing them but storing, transporting, or exporting them, to be licensed. In a statement, DFO said "Fishery officers are patrolling rivers, inspecting holding facilities and export points, and working with our law enforcement partners, to enforce the Fisheries Act." "Fishery officers have a range of compliance measures that they can use depending on the particular situation. Any compliance measures taken will be based on numerous factors, including the severity of the offence, and the context in which it was committed." DFO added that if anyone believes "their interaction with a fishery officer was improper or if they believe that a fishery officer behaved in a less than professional manner, this should be reported to their local Conservation and Protection detachment."
The Guardian
07-05-2025
- The Guardian
Canadian police scale back search for two children missing in woods for six days
Nearly a week after two young children went missing in rural Nova Scotia, Canadian police say they are beginning to scale back search efforts given the 'low' odds the children are still alive – and that they are not ruling out the possibility of foul play. Since Friday, more than 160 searchers with drones and canine units have scoured the thickly forested region of Pictou county in search of Lily Sullivan, six, and Jack Sullivan, four. The siblings were reported missing on 2 May, when police received a frantic phone call from the family. Their mother, Malehya Brooks-Murray, and stepfather, Daniel Martell, have told local media they were sleeping with their 16-month-old baby on Friday morning as the older children played in the house. But when they awoke later in the morning, the two children were gone. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) proceeded under the belief the children, members of the Mi'kmaq First Nation community of Sipekne'katik, wandered off from their home and probably entered a heavily forested area. Speaking to the media on Tuesday, Staff Sgt Curtis MacKinnon said that dozens of searchers were being ordered to stand down and confirmed that the RCMP's major crime unit had been involved in the investigation since 3 May. MacKinnon said all missing persons files 'are treated as suspicious until our investigation leads us to determine otherwise'. He said teams were left with fewer areas to search after after combing through kilometres of unforgiving terrain. 'We're not packing up and we're not giving up.' The disappearance of the children has shaken both the province and the country. And despite a boot print that pushed search teams in one direction, police said there is very little evidence suggesting the children are in the forest. 'I want to assure you that our missing persons investigation continues,' MacKinnon said. 'Many of us have children of our own and want nothing more than to reunite Lily and Jack with their loved ones.' Sgt Robert McCamon said that hopes have dimmed, given the poor weather and length of time the children have been missing. 'The likelihood they're alive right now is very low,' he said. The Globe and Mail reported that Martell was interviewed by police for four hours, as they requested he walk them through both the day of the children's disappearance and the days leading up to the incident. He also told police the children had not been in school in the days prior to their disappearance. 'My story has been consistent. When you tell the truth it's always consistent,' he told the Globe. He told CTV Atlantic that he had been conducting his own search since the children went missing. 'Hardly any evidence at all since the first day. It's mind-boggling that nothing else was found,' he said.
