The forceful eviction of homeless people in Halifax isn’t the only occurrence of violent policing in Nova Scotia at this time, but if it wasn’t for the journalism of Angel Moore of APTN we would never know it. Yesterday Moore reported how Mi’kmaw lobster harvesters were arrested and had their boat seized by fisheries officers on unceded and stolen territory of the Mi’kmaq Nation.
On Oct. 13 last year RCMP officers stood by as 200 people interfered with Mi’kmaw fisherfolk. That mob was 200 individuals that did not appear out of thin fog. They ate their supper, put on their coats and boots and no one stopped them at the door. Fathers didn’t stop their foolish sons. Mothers turned the other way and sisters nodded to get approval. Church leaders knew. Teachers knew. Neighbors turned on neighbors whose histories are still as tangled as the fishing twine of the sinking lobster traps.
Journalist Ken Summers on Fisheries minister Bernadette Jordan, the politician most favoured by Goldboro LNG lobbyists. “Wide open door for the climate killing corporate beggar, one weird email for constituents.”
In mid-October, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) seized around 200 lobster traps from Mi’kmaq fishers in Unama’ki (Cape Breton, Nova Scotia). “It’s a struggle for them. They’re not making a lot of money, but it’s not about the money,” Bernadette Marshall told Robin Tress “It’s about the treaty right, and we’ve waited long enough.”
“The enemy of a healthy fishery is not the Mi’kmaq, but corporate profiteers like Mayer-Murphy and Risley who are bent on depleting this resource and resisting Mi’kmaq treaty rights. The Mi’kmaq fishery deserves our full support, while the corporate fishery should be shut down,” writes Chris Frazer.
Press release: East Coast anti-net pen activists from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland & Labrador, faced with the fragile status of their own wild Atlantic salmon, and with the memory of the cod collapse fresh in their minds, have joined forces with West Coast anti-net pen advocates to encourage the Minister to make the right decision.
“This is our children’s future; this is why we do this. This is why we have been here for 21 years. If we don’t stand up and protect our treaty rights now, who is going to do it down the road?” Journalist Amber Bernard reports from the Saulnierville wharf.
What’s playing out in the waters off Digby is complex, but the bottom line is that both non-Indigenous fishermen and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans are trying to stop Mi’kmaq from exercising their treaty rights.
Robin Tress on what Freedom of Information requests have revealed about the hidden backroom manoeuvres of the federal government to pave the way for the Alton Gas project.
Sonja Wood reminds the newly appointed Fisheries minister Bernadette Jordan that the Avon River fish passage planned for the Windsor Causeway will, if approved, significantly restrict safe and easy migration for Wild Atlantic Salmon, American Eel and many other species.