Local rally held to bring awareness to support Mi’Kmaw self-regulated lobster fishery

By Dan Mendoza

STURGEON FALLS— Sipekne’katik First Nation citizen Alex Maloney might be nearly 2,000 kilometres from his home in Nova Scotia, but that didn’t stop him from holding a Mi’kmaw self-regulated lobster fishery support rally on the morning of Sept. 21 in Sturgeon Falls.

“A self-regulated lobster fishery is so important because the Mi’kmaw have been waiting over 21 years to earn a moderate livelihood,” says Maloney. “It hasn’t been taken care of by the Department of Oceans and Fisheries, nor the Nova Scotia government, so they decided to do their own.”

Last week, Sipekne’katik First Nation launched its rights-based fishery. Non-Indigenous commercial lobster fishers in the area have been violent towards the Mi’kmaw. Maloney had some supporters at his rally and people who just want more information on what is going on in Nova Scotia.

“There is only a threat to the industry when it is lucrative and another group comes in and that is when it is a threat. When it comes to fishing, there was only five licenses that were issued to Mi’kmaq fishermen and they are only setting 50 traps. So with those numbers, I have no idea how that can be a threat to the industry.”

Maloney says there is the Peace and Friendship Treaty of 1752 that recognizes the Mi’kmaw’s right to hunt and fish and to sell at their disposal. The Marshall decision in 1999 was based on those early treaties. Maloney thinks that the people of Nova Scotia have forgotten their promise.

“The Crown and the Nova Scotia government are ignoring the Treaty of 1752,” says Maloney. “And the treaties of 1760 and 1762. Those are all prior to confederation. Some of the things that are happening down on the East Coast – I wish that the government of Nova Scotia and the government of Canada would step in and honour the law and the treaties. If Canada would only honour the treaties, I think maybe a lot of these problems would go away.”

Maloney says that his direct family has been involved in fishing.

“A lot of things have been happening to them. Their buoys are being cut on their traps, the stores are not selling them gas or bait or any services. When the Mi’kmaq do go out on the waters, the non-native fisherman are destroying native traps and lines on buoys and there was an incident last week when the Mi’kmaq’s went out, the non-native fishermen were shooting flares at them and interfering with their right to fish.”

“In the past, there has been many disputes with non-native fishermen – not only in fishing but also in hunting and harvesting as well. The Mi’kmaw have constantly been fighting to express and exercise their treaty rights.”