There was anger when the Department of Fisheries and Oceans flexed it’s muscle recently in Burnt Church. I think everyone has seen the pictures of the two Native-owned boats being sunk by the much bigger DFO boat. It looked like the running over of one boat was deliberate. “People could have been killed,” said one man. Ovide Mecredi said it was a display of “unreasonable force.”
The DFO in rebuttal says it has a responsibility to uphold the law, no matter what.
Nice words to kill by. Nice words to justify. Nice words to soothe a conscience by if something goes wrong. After all they were just upholding the law by endangering lives. Andre Marc Lanteigne, DFO spokesperson said “Law enforcement is never pretty, That’s what it boils down to.”
Guess it all depends on what side of the fence you’re sitting on. I know the Native fishermen who threw rocks were arrested. Guess Canadian justice triumphs once again.
The lobster war has heated up yet again. It’s all about rights; Ottawa’s right to regulate or the native right of access; to the fishery for a moderate livelihood. Which one is the stronger right? Ottawa is merely playing media opinion and using might to push it’s own position.
Public pressure seen a new precedent from Canada’s highest court. They actually came out with a 32 page document and said “The court did not hold that the Mi’kmaq treaty right cannot be regulated or that the Mi’kmaq are guaranteed an open season in the fisheries.” In regards to conservation practices the explanation said the responsibility is “squarely on the minister responsible and not on the aboriginal or non-aboriginal users of the resource.”
Meanwhile Native supporters from across the country are joining in. About 30 Tyendinaga Mohawks blocked off a major commuter bridge to support New Brunswick natives in their battle with Ottawa over lobster quotas. “This is in support of the Miramichi, Burnt Church, all because these people want to feed their families,” said Harold Brant, one of the native protesters at the blockade. At 6 a.m. a driver rammed the barricade with his vehicle, nearly striking three protesters and a provincial police officer. No charges were laid. Is any body surprised?
First Nations leaders let out a war cry for direct action during a protest in Kamloops, B.C. There was a call for future blockades. The protesters carried placards denouncing the incident near Burnt Church, and they chanted “Dhaliwal’s got to go,” calling on Herb Dhaliwal, the federal fisheries minister, to resign. “We cannot stand idly by and allow this brutality to be perpetrated against our people,” said Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs.
It was apparent that people were willing to become active and confrontational. Burnt Church has the makings of another OKA, but one that could spread across the country. The governments seen to have learnt nothing from what happened back then.
In the words of Pierre Kruger, a councilor from the Penticton band in B.C.. “We’re at the point where we don’t care what we do. We will start to inconvenience you Canadians. You have to realize it’s your government that has inconvenienced our people, our aboriginal rights, our title … Do you expect us to turn the other cheek?”
Indeed the days when you could expect Natives to always turn the other cheek seem to be over but the governments don’t seem to realize that yet and therein lies the problem.
