The minister of fisheries and oceans is being accused of losing control over the department's enforcement officers..
“In recent days, authorized Mi’kmaw community harvesters, from both Potlotek and Eskasoni Mi’kmaw communities, have had over 200 legal traps seized by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans conservation and protection officers,” reads a statement released Wednesday by the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs.
“The seizure of these traps by local officers are without the authorization or authority of their department or the minister. This is unacceptable and unlawful.”
For her part, the minister has been unwilling to admit her own officers seized the traps set the same day that she ran an op-ed across Atlantic Canada saying her government would support the development of a moderate livelihood fishery. A DFO spokesperson did confirm an enforcement operation took place last week.
While the officers currently employed by the department can’t speak for themselves, recently retired ones are.
“Those officers are well within their powers to conduct enforcement against an illegal fishery,” said Gary Hutchins, former DFO detachment supervisor in Digby, who retired within the past three weeks.
“They weren’t going rogue, they were just doing their job.
He still worked for DFO when Sipekne’katik First Nation set its traps on Sept. 17 and said officers in southwestern Nova Scotia were told by the minister’s office to stand down .
He echoed the opinion of the retired southern Nova Scotia area chief Alan Clarke that the minister's office's handling of the spiralling violence that has seen a lobster pound handling Mi'kmaw lobster burned, another vandalized, a van burned, a Mi'kmaw fishing boat boat set afire and Sipekne'katik Chief Mike Sack assaulted.
But Hutchison is going a step further and accusing Jordan of being in violation of the Fisheries Act.
“Under the Act, the minister is sworn to uphold, she is aiding and abetting an illegal, unregulated lobster fishery,” said Hutchison.
“She has been in violation of the Act every day since Sept. 17 when this fishery started.”
Jordan’s office did not respond to the allegations by deadline.
However, the Mi’kmaq claim their moderate livelihood fishery is regulated and that they have a Supreme Court of Canada acknowledged right to it. Potlotek submitted a management plan to DFO months ago. A copy was also provided to The Chronicle Herald.
Its measures are based upon those of the commercial fishery that occurs in the area in the spring, except the licences handed out by the band are only for 70 traps each – about one-fifth of what a commercial licence holder is allowed to use.
The Richmond County Inshore Fishermen’s Association had agreed not to interfere with the fishery after receiving assurances from Potlotek First Nation chief Wilbert Marshall.
Hutchison argued that right granted by the Marshall decision was a communal one and that was satisfied by the buying up of 1,258 commercial licences (or 10.5 per cent of existing commercial licences) across the Maritimes at a cost of about $540 million and their provision to First Nations.
Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi'kmaw Chiefs fisheries lead Terrance Paul said Wednesday that those licences were provided "without prejudice" to the right of individual Mi'kmaw to earn a moderate livelihood off the resource as an interim measure.
All this occurs as the House of Commons standing committee on fisheries and oceans began to hear submissions from concerned parties Wednesday regarding a moderate livelihood fishery.
The same committee did the same thing 20 years ago and produced a report with 28 recommendations meant to create the access into the fishery acknowledged by the Supreme Court of Canada in its 1999 Marshall decision and subsequent clarification two months later.
That committee's findings led to the buying up and provision of the commercial licences, which it considered as providing access.
“First and foremost, the Court claims it did not hold that the Mi'kmaq treaty right could not be regulated nor that the Mi'kmaq were guaranteed an open season in the fisheries,” reads The Marshall Decision and Beyond: Implications for Management of the Atlantic Fisheries.
“… Moreover, the limited treaty right could be accommodated by amending the Aboriginal Communal Fishing Licences Regulations. The Court confirmed that the treaty right is a communal right to be exercised by the authority of the local community and that it is limited to the area traditionally used by the local community.”
Sipekne’katik Chief Mike Sack was scheduled to speak to the committee on Wednesday afternoon.
He has ordered the three LFA 35 commercial licences fished by his membership to halt their activity due to “intimidation and market embargoes” by non-aboriginal industry players.
The band has 12 other commercial lobster licences, most of which are leased to commercial fishermen.
