⁍ Tensions between local commercial fishermen and fishermen from the Mi’kmaq First Nation in the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia.
⁍ Clashes over the weekend and earlier last week involved hundreds of people outside lobster pounds that handle indigenous-caught lobster.
⁍ The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 1999 that the Mi’kmaq First Nation had the right to hunt and fish for a ‘moderate livelihood’ in their traditional territory.
– In 1999, Canada’s Supreme Court ruled that indigenous fishermen had the right to hunt and fish for a “moderate livelihood” in their traditional territory. But the ruling left many grey areas—including the practical definition of “moderate livelihood”—leading Mi’kmaq fishermen to begin catching lobster outside the federally-mandated fishing season and raising the ire of local commercial lobster fishers. Tensions between local commercial fishermen and fishermen from the Mi’kmaq First Nation in the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia have been escalating in recent days in a conflict over indigenous fishing rights, reports Reuters. Clashes over the weekend and earlier last week involved hundreds of people outside lobster pounds that handle indigenous-caught lobster. “The acts of violence we have seen in the past days and weeks are disgusting, unacceptable, racist in nature,” said Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller. On Sunday, Chief Michael Sack of the Sipekne’atik First Nation said the military needed to be brought in to keep the peace. Federal Public Safety Minister Bill Blair pushed back on the suggestion on Monday, as he called for an end to the violence. ‘This isn’t a military operation, it is a peacekeeping operation,’ he said.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-indigenous-lobster/canada-condemns-attacks-in-indigenous-fishing-dispute-idUSKBN2742JP