A Mi'kmaw lawyer from the community at the centre of a violent backlash over its self-governed lobster fishery says she's 'very hopeful' about a new Senate report that calls for the full implementation of Indigenous fishing rights.
Fishing boats from the Sipekne'katik First Nation prepare for the start of its self-regulated treaty lobster fishery in Saulnierville, N.S., Aug. 16, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew VaughanA Mi'kmaw lawyer from the community at the centre of a violent backlash over its self-governed lobster fishery says she's "very hopeful" about a new Senate report that calls for the full implementation of Indigenous fishing rights.
The issue boils down to the federal government's interpretation of the Supreme Court of Canada's 1999 Marshall Decision, which said the treaties of 1760-61 ensure the Mi'kmaq, Wolastoqiyik and Peskotomuhkati have a right to fish for what it called a moderate livelihood. Dan Christmas is on the Senate fisheries committee, and was the first Mi'kmaw appointed to the upper chamber. The permanent solution is to codify the Marshall Decision in Canadian law, he said.
Representatives of the commercial fishing industry say they're frustrated they weren't invited to speak to the Senate as it drafted the report on Indigenous rights. "That's based on a warped sense of reality that Atlantic Canada's fishing communities are responsible for the horrors of colonialism.""You have to look at the historical context where we did this to survive for thousands of years, then we were systematically excluded," he said. "It became unlawful for us to take care of ourselves, and that's wrong."
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