#Sipeknekatik

[oneoffoddities]

@alexa.metallic “In response to the inquiries I’ve been getting about where to donate for #AllEyesOnMikmaki, here’s an updated list. You know I love me a good infographic. Wela’lin.” #alleyesonmikmaki #mikmaq #novascotia #donations #supportindigenouspeople #unamaki #sipeknekatik #saulnierville #supporttreatyrights #treatyrights #undrip #indigenoussovereignty (at Okanagan Landing) https://www.instagram.com/p/CGvpdtJp-U-/?igshid=zd63m7vc64w1

[tepkunset]

Mi’kmaw lobster harvesters in Nova Scotia have launched legal action against Canada’s attorney general, RCMP, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), and 29 non-Indigenous fishers including the Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen’s Association (BFIFA).

The claim was filed in Halifax on March 26 by 43 Mi’kmaw harvesters who are all members of Sipekne’katik First Nation.

Nathan Sutherland, a lawyer for the plaintiffs says, “a large number of commercial fishers disagreed with what the Band was doing and took the law into their own hands.

“In our view the RCMP and DFO contributed to that harm by allowing it to carry on when they had the ability and an obligation to stop it. This was all foreseeable to the RCMP and DFO.”

The claim says the “violent response��� from non-Indigenous fishers during the opening of their moderate livelihood fishery on Sept. 17, 2020 prompted the action.

“Fisher Defendants operated their vessels in a reckless and dangerous manner / intentionally driving close to certain of the Plaintiffs’ vessels or creating large wakes to swamp the Plaintiffs’ vessels, threatening the safety of one or more of the Plaintiffs,” says the claim.

“The Fisher Defendants used their vessels to chase one or more of the Plaintiffs on the ocean/ in some instances firing flares at the Plaintiffs vessels, threatening their safety; The Fisher Defendants used their vessels to swarm and surround one or more of the Plaintiffs on the ocean/ hemming them in and obstructing their movement on the water;

“The Fisher Defendants intentionally damaged/destroyed, or stole the Plaintiffs’ traps and/or fishing gear.”

The claim alleges that the BFIFA encouraged the action against the Mi’kmaw harvesters.

“Many of the Fisher Defendants are members of the Association. On or about September 20, 2020, Sproul (acting spokesperson for the association) and the Association actively encouraged the Association’s members to interfere with the Plaintiffs’ traps and remove them from the water,” says the claim.

The beginning of the moderate livelihood fishery off the Saulnierville wharf in Nova Scotia was a scene of chaos.

Boats are on video racing across the water shooting flares.

“The Plaintiffs state further that the Fisher Defendants, along with the Association, engaged in conspiracy, and in particular: The Fisher Defendants and Association acted in concert by operating their vessels on the water in a coordinated and dangerous manner, all with the intent and purpose of threatening the health and safety of the Plaintiffs,” says the claim.

“The Fisher Defendants and Association planned and carried out a coordinated effort to damage/destroy/and/or steal fishing traps and gear of one or more of the Plaintiffs, with the intent of causing the Plaintiffs loss, or being reckless as to whether such loss resulted.

“The Fisher Defendants acted unlawfully/in the ways described above, and directed their unlawful conduct towards the Plaintiffs knowing that injury or damage to the Plaintiffs was likely to result.”

Chief Mike Sack says more people should have been charged by police.

“People need to be accountable for their actions, and the RCMP, DFO accounted for their inaction,” says Sack.

Also named in the suit is the RCMP who did little to thwart the actions of the non-Indigenous fishers against the Mi’kmaw harvesters.

“The unlawful and dangerous acts of the Fisher Defendants could have been/ and should have been, prevented or curtailed by the RCMP. The RCMP failed to act appropriately in the circumstances to deter or prevent the unlawful acts of the Fisher Defendants, and thereby caused or contributed to the Plaintiffs’ losses,” the claim says.

“In the circumstances, the RCMP also owed a private duty to the Plaintiffs/ flowing from its statutory and common law duties/ to respond to and/or prevent anticipated and actual dangerous and harmful conduct on the part of the Fisher Defendants.”

[KEEP READING]

I get that for legal reasons they have to use words like “allegedly”, but like... there’s nothing “alleged” about it. It all happened. It was caught on camera. And there is documented evidence that the RCMP knew it was going to happen and chose to do nothing.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

The Sipekne’katik First Nation has filed a court action against the Attorney General of Nova Scotia to challenge a provincial regulation on purchasing fish products, saying it’s unconstitutional.

This regulation orders that any fish products sold in Nova Scotia must be caught and registered under a commercial licence with the Department of Fisheries.

“The regulation places a legal limitation on the Mi’kmaq people and the community members of Sipekne’katik to fish and trade in support of a moderate livelihood,” Sipekne’katik said in a release on Wednesday.

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada @nspoli

[tzifron]

“One of the first things you’re taught when you’re training to be a historian in Canada is that Canadians have a memory problem. It can be a little jarring to some. This reality didn’t come as much of a shock to my system, though, because as a Mi’kmaw woman training to be a historian, I had learned that lesson in childhood and brought it to school with me. In a way, all Mi’kmaq are trained to be historians from birth. This isn’t only because we have to uphold our responsibilities to the land, our ancestors, and future generations. It’s also because we live in a world determined to erase and write new narratives over our existence, designed to invent claims of settler ownership where there are none and to oppress those who stand in the way of that ownership.

[...]

Here’s a short history lesson: Mi’kmaw territory is unceded, and has remained so since Europeans ended up on our shores centuries ago. When we talk of treaties, we’re referring to a series of Peace and Friendship Treaties established between 1725 and 1779 that Mi’kmaq, along with our allies in the Wabanaki Confederacy, signed to signal a relationship with representatives of the British Crown—those who had settled in Mi’kma’ki—and the Crown itself. These treaties were not signed to hand land over to settlers, but to welcome them into a partnership with us, a partnership that extended our responsibility of caring for the earth and our kin to settlers, a partnership that was supposed to ensure that our right to exist as Mi’kmaq—to live Mi’kmaw lives on Mi’kmaw territory—was protected.[6] These treaties were promptly forgotten (though, many more esteemed historians than I—including L’nu’k elders—would argue they were deliberately ignored), and we’ve spent the generations that followed reminding settlers of the promises they made.

If we want to get technical, the treaties informing the Sipekne’katik decision to open the moderate livelihood fishery are the Treaties of 1752 and 1760-61. The Treaty of 1760-61 is the treaty that was affirmed in the famed Supreme Court of Canada R v. Marshall decision in 1999. Despite a persistent Mi’kmaw reminder of the fact that we are—by Canadian law—allowed to participate in a moderate livelihood fishery such as the one Sipekne’katik has launched in our own unceded territory—we have been ignored. The attacks continue. Canada’s memory problem strikes again.”

[redpowermedia]

Sipekne'katik backs out of commercial lobster season citing fears over safety

Sipekne’katik backs out of commercial lobster season citing fears over safety

The Sipekne’katik First Nation launched a moderate livelihood fishery from the Saulnierville wharf, seen here on Oct. 22. (Eric Woolliscroft/CBC)

‘Our people aren’t comfortable taking that big risk and especially risking their life for that,’ says chief

The Sipekne’katik band will not fish its commercial lobster licences this season in southwest Nova Scotia, citing intimidation and…

[stevemaclellan]

“With respect to the seriousness of the potential adverse effect to Sipekne’katik’s rights from the Alton Gas project, the project not only impacts Sipekne’katik’s fishing rights and the ability to earn a moderate livelihood through the exercise of established treaty rights, it also threatens Sipekne’katik’s domestic economy, cultural and social life as the community uses and depends on the Shubenacadie and Stewiacke river and the surrounding lands as a source of food, for spiritual practices, and for medicinal, ceremonial, conservation and cultural knowledge purposes,” the letter states.

[parrot-matt]

@matlantivex: @Seahawk17 One stop shopping. A car lot too. We have a good ongoing working relationship with @Sipeknekatik ...… https://t.co/bcRdC7INuM

@Seahawk17 One stop shopping. A car lot too. We have a good ongoing working relationship with @Sipeknekatik ...… https://t.co/bcRdC7INuM

[tepkunset]

“The effect of these regulatory prohibitions is that members of Sipekne’katik who participate in Sipekne’katik’s livelihood fishery have no meaningful ability to sell the fish they catch,” the lawsuit states.

“These prohibitions do not accommodate the treaty right of Sipekne’katik and its members to fish and sell that fish to support a moderate livelihood.”

...

Shortly after launching its own moderate livelihood fishery, Sipekne’katik chief and council entered into talks with DFO on the implementation of its moderate livelihood fishery but those talks broke down in Dec. 2020. The First Nation was also in talks with Nova Scotia government over the fish buyer regulations.

Sipekne’katik Chief Mike Sack said he and the band council decided to file the lawsuit when talks with the province went nowhere. According to Sack, representatives with the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture told the First Nation they wanted the issue of moderate livelihood dealt with at the federal level first before it addressed the issue at the provincial level.

“The province took a stance that they’re not going to proceed with anything until it was sorted out federally,” Sack explained.

In a briefing with reporters on Feb. 3, Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil maintained the province’s current position “that the buyer’s license is related to the fishery that is described in the federal Fisheries Act.”

“We believe that’s where it is but Sipekne’katik wants to change that in courts, we’ll respond,” Premier McNeil said.

In the lawsuit, Sipekne’katik is seeking a declaration that the provincial regulations “are of no force or effect in relation to buying fish from Sipekne’katik members who fish as part of the Sipekne’katik moderate livelihood lobster fishery.”

Sack said the court challenge to the provincial regulations is about giving his band members the opportunity to escape unemployment and poverty by exercising their constitutionally protected treaty right.

“We’re looking to building capacity within our community and creating employment because of poverty and such,” Sack said.

“If we’re buying and selling our own lobster, it cuts out that middle man. It creates jobs for our people and we have a right to do so but (the provincial regulations) kind of throws a hurdle in the way to interfere with that,” he added.

[READ MORE]

The violence has deescalated, and the mainstream media has moved on. But the fight for Mi’kmaq fishing rights continues. The government and DFO are just trying to be sneaky about it.

I would also like to take the opportunity to say if you are capable of supporting this independent Indigenous news source, please do! Ku’ku’kwes News has for a long time been a reliable source of Native news in Atlantic Canada.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

There’s growing opposition to a construction project that is underway to widen the Windsor causeway as part of the twinning of Highway 101 between Three Mile Plains and Falmouth.

Opponents say the construction is harming the fish population in the Avon River and disrupting their migration towards the Bay of Fundy.

Now, the Sipekne’katik First Nation community is coming forward and calling for the project to halt until an Aboriginal rights review and a consultation with the Mi’Kmaq people is complete.

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada @nspoli

[atlanticcanada]

Chief Mike Sack arrested by conservation officers

Sipeknekatik First Nation has launched its treat fishery, but the day didn’t go as planned. The first nation’s chief, Mike Sack was arrested just as the fishery started. Jesse Thomas has more. from : Halifax https://ift.tt/3CSX9k9