Tag Archives: Canadian Supreme Court
Fisheries report brings hope to Indigenous communities, sparks anger in industry
“I was pleasantly surprised, to be honest,” said Rosalie Francis, a member of the Sipekne’katik First Nation in Nova Scotia. But elsewhere in the province, the surprise has been significantly less pleasant. There are concerns the report titled “Peace on the Water” is instead stoking anger in communities where lobster is a livelihood. 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. It’s “throwing fuel on a fire” in an area where tensions have remained high since 2020, said Colin Sproul, president of the Unified Fisheries Conservation Alliance, which has about 1,900 members. >click to read< 12:09
New Report Shows Canadian Government Has Failed Indigenous Fishers
The Standing Senate Committee on Fisheries and Oceans had harsh words for the Canadian federal government. At a meeting this week in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the committee presented its new report, which looked at the implementation of Indigenous rights-based fisheries. Its findings suggest that, despite more than two decades since key precedents were set, the fisheries have not been fully implemented. This has led, the committee stated, to confusion, tension and violence. In Canada’s Atlantic provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador), as well as parts of Quebec, 35 First Nations have a treaty right to fish for a moderate livelihood. >click to read< 14:50
As lobster population booms off Canada, tensions rise between Indigenous and commercial fishermen
Under the close watch of federal officers on surrounding patrol vessels, Robert Sack navigated his old boat toward his clandestine traps in the cold waters that his people have fished for centuries, expecting to be arrested at any moment.,, Each trap had a special tag belonging to their band of the Indigenous Mi’kmaw people, who insist that a 269-year-old treaty grants them the right to fish when and how they want. But the government has rejected their assertion, and officers have seized their traps, confiscated their boats, and even arrested some of their fishermen. >click to read< 07>14
Expect more clashes like the Nova Scotia lobster dispute as Canadians’ rights collide
The ongoing dispute between a Mi’kmaq community and non-Indigenous lobster fishers in Nova Scotia seems like a throwback to a darker and more racist time. We were supposed to have come a long way since that time. So it might seem like this fishery dispute is a throwback, a sign of how far we still have to go in order to truly end racism towards Indigenous peoples and protect their rights in Canada. But unfortunately this dispute isn’t a throwback; it’s probably a look-ahead. This is because the Canadian approach to equality and Indigenous rights, an approach that is baked into our difficult-to-change Constitution and which has been taken up with gusto by the Supreme Court, is based on two opposing views of rights. >click to read< 09:45
