Caroline Marshall Hobbs, mother of late Donald Marshall, Jr. speaks at news conference to mark 10th anniversary of Marshall decision. Photo by RadioGoogoo.ca
Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq leaders want the federal government to live up to its legal obligations and implement a 1999 landmark court case that guaranteed aboriginal people’s rights in Atlantic Canada to earn a moderate livelihood from the commercial fishery.
The Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq Chiefs, made up of the 13 bands in the province, says the federal government refuses to respond to its requests to talk about implementing a treaty-based commercial fishery for Mi’kmaq people in the province.
“We have been patiently waiting for the federal government’s response to the Marshall decision,” Membertou Band Chief Terry Paul said during a news conference in Halifax on Thursday. “We have sent letters, met with senior government officials and engaged in negotiations through the Made-in-Nova Scotia process,” he said.
“But after ten long years, we still have no response from the federal government,” Chief Paul said. “No response means non-commitment. No response means non-recognition. No response means a clear lack of respect of our treaty right to the fishery.”
AFN National Chief Shawn Atleo speaks at a news conference on the 10th anniversary of the Marshall decision. Photo by RadioGoogoo.ca.
Nova Scotia chiefs held their news conference at the World Trade and Convention Centre in Halifax on Thursday to mark the 10th anniversary of the Supreme Court of Canada ruling that acquitted Donald Marshall, Jr. of illegally catching and selling eels out of season and without a license in 1993.
The decision ruled that Marshall had a treaty right to fish for a living under the Peace and Friendship Treaties of 1760-61 signed between the Mi’kmaq and the British crown.
Mi’kmaq leaders were joined by the late Donald Marshall, Jr.’s mother, Caroline Marshall Hobbs, his widow, Colleen D’Orsay and their 2-year-old son. Marshall passed away on Aug. 6 of complications from a double lung transplant in 2003.
When the Marshall decision was handed down on Sept. 17, 1999, Mi’kmaq fishermen and women from Esgenoopetitj, N.B. and Indian Brook First Nation, N.S. immediately took to the ocean waters to exercise their right to a treaty-based commercial fishery by setting lobster traps.
The move sparked numerous and often violent confrontations between Mi’kmaq fishermen, non-aboriginal fishermen and conservation officers with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans over conflicting interpretations of the treaty right. At the time, lobster fishing season had ended and DFO considered the Mi’kmaq fishermen to be in violation of current fishery regulations.
As a result of those clashes, the federal government approached individual bands to sign interim commercial fishing agreements as a way to restore calm on the waters. Between 2000-2005, the federal government signed multi-million dollar agreements with the majority of the 35 Mi’kmaq and Maliseet bands in Atlantic Canada.
The agreements included commercial fishing licenses for various species, boats and gear. Bands also received money to train and hire people to fish as well as build facilities to store equipment. In return, aboriginal leaders promised to abide by current fishing regulations in the interim while negotiations to implement the Marshall decision got underway.
“These agreements did not and were not intended to recognize our treaty right to the fishery,” Acadia Band Chief Deborah Robinson said on Thursday.
In 2002, Mi’kmaq leaders in Nova Scotia signed an umbrella agreement with both the provincial and federal governments to begin what they called a Made-in-Nova Scotia process. Talks from that process eventually led to a framework agreement being signed by all parties in 2007 to begin negotiations for the implementation of treaty rights affirmed under the Marshall decision.
However, Mi’kmaq leaders say the federal government has yet to respond to any of their inquiries at the negotiating table to implement a treaty-based commercial fishery as promised under the Marshall decision.
“What I can say is that at the negotiating table, there never has been a statement or a recognition or a commitment by the federal government to implement the livelihood fishery,” Bruce Wildsmith, one of the lead negotiators for the Assembly Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq Chiefs, said.
A letter dated June 24, 2009 was sent to federal Fisheries Minister Gail Shea asking her to commit to implementing a livelihood fishery for Mi’kmaq bands in the province, Wildsmith said. So far, Mi’kmaq leaders are still waiting to hear a response from Shea.
“We asked for a commitment and it is a sign of great insult that the Mi’kmaq have received no response from the minister’s office,” Wildsmith said.
Shawn Atleo, National Chief for the Assembly of First Nations, said his organization is committed to assisting Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq leaders in pressuring the federal government to implement the Marshall decision.
“If Canada truly stands for human rights – as it’s been suggested so around the world – then right here at home, it should take care of the important business for standing up for its own. Recognition of the rights of the Mi’kmaq people,” Atleo said.
“It should stand up for the recognition of the struggle that a man by the name of Donald Marshall, Jr. went through because he stands in so many ways as representing the kinds of experiences we’ve gone through within our respective territories,” he said.
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