Tag Archives: Tobique First Nation
New Brunswick: Dispute over baby eels worth $4,900 a kilogram heads back court
Canada’s most valuable fishery per kilogram will be back before the courts in Saint John next week in a case that pits a longtime commercial licence holder against Indigenous fishers who want a piece of the elver action. On one side, the original plaintiff in the case accuses Indigenous groups of poaching the baby eels in waterways where she has exclusive rights to fish. On the other side, Indigenous groups want to exercise the right to engage in a moderate livelihood commercial fishery in their traditional territory. The court case began in April, when Holland applied for the injunction to stop Indigenous groups from fishing areas where she claims “exclusive” rights to fish, and from threatening and intimidating her workers. >click to read< 16:33
Snow crab fishing rights: First Nations leaders say they’ll drop court action if government agrees to mediated settlement
The chiefs of Madawaska and Tobique First Nations say they have been seeking to exercise their treaty right to fish snow crab for 25 years, and point to volatile protests over lobster fishing as an example of the consequences of letting such disputes go unresolved. “Our Aboriginal right to engage in the fishery is not being recognized, the consequence of that is playing out before us in Nova Scotia,” Tobique Chief Ross Perley said in a news release Tuesday. >click to read< 12:04
Tobique First Nation fishery mired in court battles, band council split
The future of the Tobique First Nation’s commercial fishery is up in the air after the latest courtroom battle between the band and the companies running its commercial fishery. Last week, a Court of Queen’s Bench judge quashed a last-minute attempt by Yarmouth Sea Products to continue fishing the band’s licence as a subcontractor to a U.S. firm. “We’re not very pleased, obviously,” said Gerard Doucet, the company’s general manager. The Yarmouth company was hired by Rhode Island-based Maritime Specialty Foods Inc. to fish for scallops and lobster on Tobique’s commercial licence. Read the article here 11:02
