KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – Politicians and the leadership of non-Indigenous fishermen are allowing tensions between Indigenous and non-Indigenous fishers in Digby County to rise to dangerous levels.

This is what happens when land acknowledgements are just things you say at the start of meetings, and when the term ‘unceded’ is devoid of real meaning.

What’s playing out in the waters off Digby is complex, but the bottom line is that both non-Indigenous fishermen and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans are trying to stop Mi’kmaq from exercising their treaty rights.

That right was recognized by the Supreme Court when it confirmed in its September 1999 Donald Marshall Jr. decision that established that Indigenous fishers have the right to fish out of season to earn a moderate livelihood.

Like it or not, that’s the law now.

The media continues to report on Mi’kmaq fisheries as illegal, unwilling to recognize that the Mi’kmaq Nation is equal to Canada in its sovereignty, and just as justified to consider DFO’s efforts to interrupt their fisheries illegal.

Source: After 21 years of government inaction Mi’kmaq assert their right to fish – Nova Scotia Advocate

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In the discussion forum you can read Mi’kmaw Chiefs Declare a State of Emergency